Type of Violation: land confiscation.
Location: Tel Rumeida Neighborhood in the heart of the city of Hebron.
Date: April 15th, 2010.
Affected: The owner of the land, Mr. Mahmoud Al Saheb, and the land tenant who lives there with his family, Mr. Wa’el Al Sharabati.
Details:
Israeli occupation forces issued a military order number T1010 in mid April, 2010 calling for the confiscation of a piece of land owned by Mr. Mahmoud Al Saheb in the Tel Rumeida Neighborhood in the H2 area of the divided city of Hebron. The total area of the land is 1.5 dunums and it has an old house (area = 300 m2) in which Mr. Wa’el Al Sharabati lives along with his family. The military order was submitted to Mr. Al Sharabati in his capacity as the tenant of the house and the land.
Mr. Al Sharabati has indicated that an Israeli soldier working in the so-called “Civil Administration” showed up at the house along with the owner of the house and delivered the Order to both. The Order called for the confiscation of 13 m2 of the land while in actuality it prevents Mr. Al Sharabati from entering andor utilizing all of the 1.5 dunums. The Order stipulated that the confiscated lands will be used “to place lights”, but the nearby residents are convinced that the confiscation of the land would be for the expansion of the nearby colony of Beit Yashai.
Order 1: The Military Order in Tel Rumeida – See Annex.
Photo 1: The colony of Beit Yashai overlooking the confiscated land.
It is worthy to note that the colony of Beit Yashai was established in the early 1980’s in the form of 4 mobile caravans. Currently, there are three colonial families living there guarded by tens of soldiers, military posts and watch cameras.
The 1.5 dunum piece of land is planted with olive, grapes and almond trees. Mr. Al Sharabati is prevented from taking care of these trees as he’s been a victim of colonists’ harassment every time he ploughs the land or when he tries to take care of the trees. Visitors of Mr. Al Sharabati can clearly see the deteriorated state of the land due to Israeli restrictions.
xPhoto 2+3: Signs of attacks against trees located near Al Sharabati house – Tel Rumeida.
Al Sharabati House:
To reach Al Sharabati House, one has to go through the checkpoint located at the entrance of the closed Al Shuhada Street. After going through the checking process, one has to climb up Tel Rumeida through rigid roads and alleys. Upon the arrival at the house, one witnesses a real tragedy; the house consists of a duplex over an area of 300 m2 and is surrounded by barbed wires that overlooks the colony of Beit Yashai. Right on top of the house, there is a military point that has been present since 1998. Along with the family of Mr. Al Sharabati (n=8), the family of Mr. Hani Al Azza (n=5) also lives there.
Photo 4: Mr. Wa’el Al Sharabati en route to his house
Photo 5+6: The Israeli military point on top of Al Sharabati house.
In terms of the attacks by occupation soldiers and Israeli colonists against the residents of Al Sharabati house, Mr. Al Sharabati indicated that such attacks take place on daily basis. He expressed that soldiers would usually throw garbage on the Palestinians while often preventing Al Sharabati and his family members from leaving their house. For example, Al Shrabati emphasized, his family was placed under virtual house arrest for 183 days during the year 2001 !!!.
Unknown Fate:
In the aftermath of issuing the military order and in light of the tightened siege on Al Sharabati family, questions started to arise about the fate of his family and the possibilities of being able to continue to live there. Mr. Al Sharabati has called upon humanitarian and rights organizations to stand by him to prevent occupation authorities from forcing out yet another Palestinian family from its land.
To know more about Israeli occupation violations against the residents of Tel Rumeida, please click on the following link.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
The Land Research Center
LRC
