Background
Jannata municipality is an assembly of Palestinian villages/ communities, located south of Bethlehem city, in the southern part of the West Bank. It is bordered with Hindaza and Bethlehem at the north, Al Ma'sara to the south, Beit Tamir and Za'tara from the east, and Wadi Rahhal to the west.
Jannata municipality constitutes of six small communities: Al 'Asakira, Rakhma, Abu-Njam, Harmallah, AL-Fradees, Betfaluh. In 1996, the Palestinian National Authority allied these communities in one municipality called Jannata for facilitating the provision of services and planning for these communities. The total area of Jannata is 8000 dunums and the built up area constitutes 1760 dunums, distributed among the six communities. The total number of citizens of jannata assembly is more than 4550 people, (PCBS 2006)
The Oslo II Agreement, signed in 1995 classified the West Bank territory into three different control areas; A, B and C and Jannata villages/ communities were accordingly classified. Rakhma village lands is classified as Area “A”, which falls completely under full Palestinian control; Al-Asakira (partially), Betfaluh, Abu-Njam and Fradees are classified as area B, where the Palestinian Authority has full control over the civil administration and Israel continues to have overriding responsibility for security; as for Harmallah and parts of Al Asakira, the lands there are classified as area C, where Israel retains full control. See map 1
The Infringement
On August 28, 2006, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) notified Jannata municipality through military orders holding numbers: (06/63/T) & (06/64/T) of the Army’s decision to confiscate 3 dunums and 900 meters from Harmallah village lands owned by Subeih and Al Zeer families, and 1.4 Dunums from Al Asakira village lands owned by Al Kamel family under the pretext of security necessities. According to the military orders, the purpose from the confiscations is installing a security fence on both sides of Za3tara bypass road under the pretext of “Road Protection'.
The consequences of the Israeli military orders in Jannata will limit the Palestinian communities' expansion and more than that isolate the residents of these communities from reaching their agricultural and grazing lands. Furthermore, social, educational and health services will be affected as roads amongst the communities will be cut of or rerouted at best scenarios to triple the distination needed to get from one place to the other once the security fence along side bypass road is installed.
To Conclude:
The Israeli Plan in Jannata contradicts with the basic right granted to all persons to move about freely and without restrictions. Under international law; Israel is breaching Jannata’s residents right to freedom of movement and this explicitly expressed in 'Article 12' of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and 'Article 13' of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads:
Article 12:
Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights/ entry into force 23 March 1976, in accordance with Article 49
Article 13:
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Also under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of, December 10, 1948, Article 17 reads: 'No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.' Which means it bans Israel from destroying or confiscating the property of the Palestinians at any case.
The Hague Regulationsexpressly forbids an occupying power 'to destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction or seizure is imperatively demanded by the necessities of war' (Article 23).
Obviously and on the ground Israel is manipulating the 'security' pretext to facilitate the realization of the Israeli State objective, which is to capture as much possible lands from the West Bank territory and Gaza Strip.
Prepared by
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
ARIJ
