"I feel as if I were living in South Africa" (Arab-Israeli report)

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Saady Abu-Hatoum, Arab Association for Human Rights, 14 February 2008


Ramzi Shahadeh
(snip)

The incident detailed in this report offers a powerful illustration of Israel's attitude toward the Arab citizens in terms of the usurping of land and the uprooting of olive trees.

On 14 June 2007, bulldozers from the Ministry of the Interior and the Israel Lands Administration uprooted dozens of olive trees belonging to the residents of the Arab village of al-Mashhad in the Galilee, claiming that the land had been confiscated in favor of the Jewish city of Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth). Several members of the Shahadeh family (one of the landowning families in the village) were arrested when they attempted to enter their land after the police had surrounded the area. The uprooted trees were left in the orchard, and the next day the landowners and some of the residents of al-Mashhad replanted the uprooted trees, along with new saplings. Since this incident the residents have established a protest tent on the site, with a permanent presence at all times. Khalid Kraim, a member of the Popular Committee Against the Confiscation of the Lands of al-Mashhad, comes from a family that owns one of the plots of land earmarked for confiscation. Kraim explains, "We established the protest tent to prove to all of those who are planning to usurp our land that the owners will not let this happen again. With the help of our relatives and some of the residents of the village we defended our land, taking turns guarding around the clock. We want to prevent any attempt by the authorities to come here again and damage the area."

On 15 January 2008, approximately six months after the first incident, the residents left the protest tent, assuming that time had passed and the issue had been forgotten. The very same day, in a carefully planned operation, a large police force arrived, accompanied by bulldozers, and uprooted over 400 olive trees.

The land in question covers an area of approximately 16 acres. According to the Nazareth Illit Municipality, it was confiscated in 1976, but the confiscation was never executed. In 1996, Israeli Interior Minister Chaim Ramon decided to nullify part of the confiscation order. Two years ago a hearing on the issue took place in the high court. The original landowners argued that the confiscation order had become obsolete after remaining unexecuted for such a long period. The court decided that the land would not be returned to its owners, but should be left as a green area, as stated in the confiscation orders and the outline plan for the district. The court added that the owners should be permitted to work the land and to enter the area during the olive harvest.

The Nazareth Illit Municipality is basing its position on steps taken in 1976 when the campaign began to confiscate tens of thousands of acres of Arab-owned land in the Galilee. Since then, thousands of acres of land in the Galilee have been confiscated from the residents of the Arab communities of Ein Ma'ahal, al-Mashhad, Kafr Kanna, Raineh, and Nazareth. The land has been confiscated on the basis of the decision of the Israeli finance minister, applying emergency legislation that empowers the minister to confiscate land for the general good. Commenting on the attitude of the state toward the Arab citizens, Khalid Kraim notes: "We are totally convinced that Israel was established on the lands of our people, which was expelled from its land. This is an accomplished fact. Why should I, as a citizen, have to feel as if I am only a citizen on a short-term basis? No Arab living in the state of Israel can know what to expect in the future."

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http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9306.shtml