Violation: serving stop work order.

Location : Baten Al-Ma’asi – Al-Khader / Bethlehem governorate.

Date: 07/02/2019.

Perpetrators: The Israeli occupation civil administration and army.

Victims: Farmer Ahmad Salah.

Description:

The Israeli occupation forces raided Baten Al-Ma’asi area, and served a stop work order to a residence belongs to Ahmad Yaqub, on the pretext of building without licenses.

The military order sets 25 February 2019, as the subcommittee session in Beit El military court to decide the fate of the structure.

Iyad Issa from Al-Khader municipality told LRC reporter:

“Baten Al-Ma’asi area is a hot spot for settlers’ violations; they seized a big part of it in order to build HaTamar settlement.”

Ahmad built a small residence , to use by his family during working seasons, and as an escape to a location with a beautiful view and fresh air.

Farmer Ahmad Salah told LRC reporter:

“I own an 11 dunums plot cultivated with olives , grapes and Almonds, such crops require daily care, which is why I visit my land daily. One day, while I was there,  I found a military order targeting the residence and an agricultural cistern 70 m³”

The family prepared a legal file to defend their properties in the Israeli court, which is the only hope to save the family’s destination when they need peace.

The following table shows information about the targeted structures:

 The military order

The targeted house

In reality, the issue is not all about unlicensed construction than it is on the occupation’s intention to take over more lands in the area of their control (Area C according to Oslo Accords). The Israeli occupation considers such lands as a colonial reserve, which will be hard to negotiate on in any future agreements with Palestinians.

Al Khader:[1]

Located 4 kilometer west of Bethlehem, Al Khader village is surrounded by Beit Jala and Battir (north), Husan and Nahhalin (west), Ad Doha, Wadi Rahall, and Beit Jala (east), Wadi An Nais (south).

Al Khader has a population of 9774 according to statistics conducted in 2007. It has a total area of 8279 dunums, 184 of which are built-up area.

The Israeli occupation confiscated 29 dunums of Al Khader lands for Efrat and Daniel colonies. Efrat was built in 1979 and devoured 5.8 dunums of Al Khader. It is inhabited by 7037 colonists. Daniel was built in 1982 and confiscated 23 dunums. 1073 colonists live in the colony.

Bypasses number 60 and 375 devoured more than 487 dunums. Not to mention the Apartheid Wall that destroyed 280 dunums and isolated 5638 dunums of the village. The Wall in Al Khadr is 2805 meters long.

According to Oslo Accords, 10% of Al Khadr is under Area A (PA has full civil and security control) while 6% is under Area B (PA is in charge of civil matters with Israel responsible for security). However, most of the village lands (84%) is under Area C (Israel maintains full security and administrative control). Here are the area in dunums:

• Area A (808) dunums.

• Area B (475) dunums.

• Area C (6996) dunums.

The contents of this document is the sole responsibility of LRC and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union

[1] GIS-LRC