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March - April 2003

South West Bank Region ? The town of Idna, west of Hebron, has been gradually losing its agricultural ground lying close to the 1949 cease fire ?Green Line.? The latest incident occurred last Thursday, 6 March 2003, when Israeli civilians sprayed 30 dunum (30,000 sq m) of agricultural land with toxic chemicals, rendering the land unusable. The land was sowed with wheat and belonged to the Awadat, Abu Zalta and Itmeiza families. The Israelis who undertook this action came equipped with chemical dispensers in cans on their backs, and one small tractor. It is guessed that they come from the nearby Israeli town of Amatsya, on the Israeli side of the Green Line but close to Idna. Idna?s economy is dependent on agriculture and its lands lie close to the Green Line, if not in Israel. Most of its land is now beyond reach, and the town is literally losing ground.

Issa Awad, the secretary of Idna Municipality, told the AIC that Idna loses some of its land every year. It has witnessed attacks on shepherds and obstructions to farmers sowing their grain in the winter, or harvesting in the summer. Awad predicts that this year?s crop will be poor. He adds that Idna Municipality spends much of its budget on compensating farmers who have lost their sources of income. It is obvious, says Awad, that their aim is to force us to leave this area, because life will be impossible.

Abdel Hadi Hantash, of the Hebron office of the Land Defence Committee, reports that Idna is not an isolated case. Yatta, south of Hebron, has had a similar experience, this time with Border Police (Magav) engineers spraying agricultural land with chemicals in the past two weeks. The village of Aramadin, also situated close to the Green Line, has lost some of its land. Hantash explains that the Land Defence Committee has been informing the Civil Administration and the District Coordinating Office of these cases for years, but never received any response.

Beit Mirsim and AlBurj fall victim of the drive eastward

Another case in the South West Bank Region where the Green Line is being moved eastward is that of the villages of Beit Mirsim and AlBurj. Here, demolition orders were sent out on 13 January 2003 by the Israeli Ministry of Interior, meaning not only that house demolition is a tool used for the purpose of ethnically cleansing areas close to the Green Line, but also that Beit Mirsim and AlBurj, though located in territories occupied by Israel in 1967, are already considered as part of Israel proper, falling under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior. This is a new development, the Civil Administration having dealt with all aspects of life in these villages until recently. The Green Line seemingly crossed a red line.

Issa Talahmi of AlBurj (73 years old) recalls being among those who drew the Green Line himself in 1949, when he was a Jordanian officer. ?The Line is very clear in these parts, there is no contention. The new demolition orders will demolish houses built under the Civil Administration, on our side of the border. It means the border is going to be moved 200 m eastward.? 150 dunum (150,000 sq m) will be confiscated and 14 families will be rendered homeless. All of them have documents, issued by the Civil Administration itself, proving their ownership to the land that is now to be razed. Mahmoud Hanatsha, one of the affected owners, told the AIC that if the demolition happens, he would have no place to live, with the 14 members of his family. Some human rights groups have taken on the case of Beit Mirsim (1000) and AlBurj (2500), such as AlHaq in Ramallah and Hamoked in Israel. There have been no developments on the legal front.