"This is your land, this is my land........"

Daoud stands on his property known as the Tent of Nations,  which is close to Bethlehem.  His property is surrounded by Israeli settlements and he is having a long-standing battle with the Israeli courts who are trying to take his land from him. He has called his home The Tent of Nations because he invites internationals from around the world to work in creative non-violence with him to resist the occupation and  the systematic confiscation of Palestinian land.

I have already said how shocked I have been by the deteriorating situation here, but can only repeat those feelings again as each day brings new examples of what can only be described as ethnic cleansing by stealth.

We have spent the last few days in either the occupied Palestinian territory or the Israeli 'disputed' territory depending on your perspective. However, whether it is occupied or disputed, what is not in doubt is that there are people called Palestinians (Arabs if you are Israeli) living here and that not only have they lived here for generations, they often have the title deeds of their land going back to Ottoman times.

A cave used by the Tent of Nations.
As permission to build is not allowed
above ground. They have to build and
use space below

In Ottoman times there was an attempt to get the Palestinians to register their land so that they could be taxed. Many refused to do so and others only registered a small part of it. That was a mistake, but then hind-sight is a wonderful thing. The Ottomans had a land law that said that if land was not used for 3 years it would become state land. Israel has taken this law over in a much more extreme way. While Israelis can have parks and recreation areas, unless a Palestinian can show that he is actually farming his land, even if the land is unsuitable for farming and is only suitable for grazing, Israel can confiscate that land after 3 years. Sometimes settlers prevent Palestinian farmers from harvesting their land or the separation barrier or an Israel only road is built through it so that it is difficult to reach, but if that land is not cultivated it is confiscated.

We saw many rather inhospitable places for farming where the local people feel obliged to sow something just to show that they are farming their land. Often Palestinians are offered no compensation for land taken from them, but occasionally they are offered quite large sums of money to entice them to leave. There are even cases of the IDF confiscating cars or tractors and offering to return them only if the Palestinians agree to move away. That is black-mail. However if Palestinians don't fight to maintain their land rights, there will be nothing left for them.

View from the village of Jinba in the new Israeli IDF
 firing zone. The villagers can prove ownership back to
the Ottoman period and the Israel High court supports
 them. The IDF and Israeli settlers ignore this ruling
and are still attempting to violently drive the villagers
from their village.

There  are also many cases where Palestinians who can prove beyond even the doubt of Israeli courts that they own land are continually under threat of at least demolition if not actual eviction from their land. Palestinians living in area C (around 60%) of the West Bank, which is the largest area and is totally controlled by Israel (this is Israeli 'disputed' land, not Israel) are constantly fighting to retain their property. They are rarely allowed permits to build anything on it, whether to expand existing homes or to provide water cisterns to collect rainwater, or animal sheds or even to plant or to sow their land. They are frequently surrounded by Israeli settlements already built on parts of their land and these settlements want to expand and to take even more land.

Where the Israeli High Court does give them legal protection, because there are occasions when it does recognise their right to exist on their land, the IDF and Settlers try to make their lives so miserable that they are forces to go 'voluntarily'. The Palestinian villages are often refused water and electricity, permits to make any alterations to their land or way of living and are continually under direct violent attack from settlers or of arrest for spurious reasons or for trying to defend their land, their homes, their children and their animals from Settlers who try to farm their land or take it by force. The State of Israel may recognise their rights, but fails to act to protect those rights and often Palestinians have to spend thousands of dollars in Israeli courts trying to prove and re-prove those rights. Some cases have been going on for many years as Israel tries to find loopholes that will give it permission to take the Palestinian land 'legally'. So how come these people are having to fight to keep and maintain their land at all? Why does the world stand by and allow that land to by systematically taken?

A house in Hebron that was first
taken by Israeli settlers. The owners
were able to prove that the property
was theirs, but the IDF have moved in
and will not allow the owners to return

Even in Area A, meant to be entirely controlled by the Palestine, planning permission has to go via Israel. If the IDF thinks that they need a property for 'security' reasons they just take it. If Israeli settlers don't want a Palestinian living too close to an illegal settlement and they have failed to evict the occupants themselves, the IDF will then take the property and turn it into a military base thereby preventing the owners from returning. Where Palestinians still live close to settlement buildings Israel can prevent the Palestinians from altering or even maintaining their homes.

The man stands outside his home in
Hebron and shows us the planning
permission he has, which is useless
if the settlers with the help of the IDF
prevent him from his building work.

There is a case in Hebron where Israeli settlers were evicted from a Palestinian house, which was then taken over by the IDF. The Israelis in a settlement close by complained about another Palestinian who was working on his home close by, saying that he was creating a 'nest for terrorists' and despite his having full planning permission for the work he was doing from the PA, he was ordered to stop the work by the IDF. Unfortunately that meant he could not put his roof on. The result has been not only that he cannot move into the new upper floor of his home, but everything inside of the upper floor has been damaged by winter rains. Yet this man lives in Area A within Hebron and with planning permission. This is very common.

Palestinians are suffering terribly financially because of the occupation. Their livelihoods have been destroyed in many cases. They have huge court costs paid to Israel if they try to fight the various orders or for release fees after arrests whether charged with a crime or not. Their cars cost more to run because the Israeli road blocks, and closures mean the the Palestinian vehicles have to travel along poor or unmade-up roads, often over long distances, to get to a town or a field that would otherwise have taken minutes.

I had coffee with a Human Rights Officer for the UN today. He gave me some good news. At least it is better news. He told me that the excuse Israel gives for not giving planning permission to Palestinians in the West Bank is that the areas where they live do not have Zoning Plans or Masterplans in place. For this reason some international organisations as well as Rabbis for Human Rights are expensively creating and placing Masterplans with the Israeli courts. The presentation of such a plan to the Israel authorities gives the area the plan covers 5 years grace during which it is relatively safe from demolition orders. When the plan is refused as everyone knows it will be, then another plan can be devised giving the local people further time. This can only be done with outside help due to the costs, but it is being done. It will not prevent Israel building more and more settlements in area C  thereby creating what can only be described as cantons or designated areas for Palestinians to live, each cut of from the other, but it will mean that if Israel annexes Area C then those living within it will have to be given citizenship. As I have explained, this is not the same as being an Israeli National as rights are limited, but with the Palestinian birth rate as it is, that will still represent a demographic threat to Israel as a Jewish State.