The EU proudly presents: An ‘ancient village’ is born - by Naomi Kahn

A joint project of the P.A. and the European Union is taking over a strategic area in the center of Gush Etzion, “restoring” an historic village that never existed.

Naomi Kahn..
JNS.org..
27 May '19..

The Palestinian Authority, aided by the European Union, is taking control of a strategic area in the heart of the Etzion Bloc, between Highway 60 and Neveh Daniel.

Over the past two years, the P.A. has created, out of thin air, a “historic” village—that just so happens to be located on a strategic point adjacent to the Jerusalem-Hebron highway. The name given to this new “ancient” village: Shoshkhalah.



Yishai Hemo, Judea and Samaria field coordinator for Israeli NGO Regavim, describes the methodology: “Over the course of the past two years, activists from the Arab town of Al Khader, backed by P.A. and European Union funding, occupied the ruins of two ancient shomerot (watchman’s huts)—primitive stone structures used by passing shepherds or farmers as shelter from the elements—that dot the landscape in the Jerusalem and Sataf areas. They renovated these abandoned structures and turned them into homes—and from that point, in very short order, totally new structures have been added in the surrounding area.”

The signs posted on the refurbished buildings, proudly bearing the European Union emblem, explain that the site is an ancient village—Shoshkhalah—despite the fact that aerial photos paint a completely different picture: In the past two years, more than 15 homes have been built in this “village,” each connected to solar power infrastructure and water tanks paid for by the Europeans.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Important First Steps in Resolving the Question of Galilee Green or Metallic Green - Regavim

Following Regavim's petition against an illegal, highly-polluting scrapyard in the Israeli Arab town of Rameh, the Israel Police carried out enforcement measures last week, an important first step in protecting Israel's delicate and highly vulnerable ecosystem.

Regavim..
17 March '19..

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"The illegal scrapyard at Rameh has been in operation for years, causing massive environmental damage, polluting our groundwater and soil, and blighting the landscape of the Galilee. Our repeated protests, inquiries, and letters to the local authoritןes and the Ministry of Environmental Protection got us nowhere, and we eventually had no choice but to take the matter to court," says Hezi Eyal, Regavim's Field Coordinator for the Northern Region.


TELEVISED NEWS COVERAGE (Hebrew with English subtitles) OF THE PROBLEM OF PIRATE SCRAPYARDS: http://bit.ly/2JsRIAW

Are we missing the point with Bedouin settlement?

...As long as there is no determined law enforcement and a small number of Beduin can take what they want, no plan will work. When there are no sticks, all the carrots in the world only aggravate the problem, broadcast weakness and further postpone a solution.

Ari Briggs..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
09 December '13..

Recently a “day of rage” in Israel was initiated to protest the Begin Plan, the government’s proposal to accommodate Beduin settlement in the Negev.

To understand why the position of the government and the position of some Beduin seem so irreconcilable, all we have to do is stand in the shoes of these Beduin.

To do that effectively, some background information is needed: There are approximately 220,000 Beduin in the Negev, making up 2.8 percent of Israel’s citizens. About 140,000 of the Beduin live in the seven towns and cities that were expanded and funded by massive government grants in the 1970s and 1980s including Rahat, Laqia, Segev Shalom, Arara, Kissufim and others. Although only 7,600 Beduin are registered as living in the newly-approved 11 Abu Basma towns, which include towns like Al Sayyid and Bir Hadaj, our research indicates that approximately 40,000 Beduin live there.

This leaves approximately 40,000 Beduin living in illegal villages, hamlets and outposts, on state-owned land. These Beduin (20% of the Beduin population) occupy approximately 600,000 dunams (150,000 acres) in an area between Beersheva, Arad and Dimona in the Northern Negev.

For the sake of comparison: There are 205,000 residents in the city of Beersheva living on only 34,600 dunams (8,650 acres) of land. Instead of taking these law-breakers to court and then enforcing the resulting court orders to remove them from these illegally occupied locations, the government has proposed the Begin Plan to finally arrange Beduin settlement in the Negev specifically geared to finding a more than equitable solution for these 40,000 people.

The law is made up of two sections. The first intends to resolve Beduin land claims and the second aims to resolve the illegal Beduin settlement.

Of the 2,700 Beduin land claims registered in the 1970s, 300 families have claims to over 300,000 dunams (75,000 acres). Those 300 families comprise approximately 15,000 people today (6% of the Beduin population), most of whom are among the 40,000 Beduin living in the illegal villages, hamlets and outposts.

The Begin Plan offers to settle 100% of these land claims with a combination of land and monetary compensation. The ratio of land to monetary compensation depends on various factors, such as whether that particular Beduin is currently domiciled on the land he claims, and whether the claimed land is in the western or eastern part of the Northern Negev.

On average, 50%-60% of the claim would be paid out as land and the rest as cash (read billions of shekels). In a country where 93% of land is owned by the state and not by Israeli citizens (among which are Israeli Beduin), such an offer to register these lands in the names of the families is unprecedented and extremely generous.

It also immediately establishes very rare private property rights for a newly privileged sub-class of less than 1% of Israeli citizens, whose acreage would be similar to the total of all other private land holdings in Israel.

(Video) Zionism and the protection of Israel's lands and national properties

Regavim.org.il
14 October '13..

Regavim is an organization whose raison d’etre is to ensure responsible, legal & accountable use of Israel’s national lands and the return of the rule of law to all areas and aspects of the land and its preservation. The land issue is so important, complex and widespread that we believe that only the state holds the key to a realistic implementation of a system that ensures proper management of this most precious resource. Based on this assumption, Regavim's activities are directed at influencing all the State of Israel's government systems in order to bring them, and effectively the whole country, to act based on the fundamental principles of Zionism and protect Israel's lands and national properties.

Ari Briggs of Regavim is interviewed by Josh Reinstein on Israel Now News "Ask the Source" segment.



Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c7de4zBRHE

Learn more at http://regavim.org.il/en/

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out! 
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How terrible! Now that the land registry is not secret anymore Jews will be able to buy land legally

Ari Briggs..
Regavim.org.il..
09 July '13..






The article below is from the newspaper Ha'aretz 9th July 2013 – I have added comments where necessary to explain or clear up a possible misunderstanding of the text :-)

The West Bank Land Registry has been marked classified for more than four decades; the dramatic June 26 decision is likely to ease settlement expansion.

By Chaim Levinson | Jul.09, 2013 | 4:20 PM

Forty-six years after the West Bank Land Registry was marked classified and closed off to the public, the Jerusalem District Court has ordered the state to give settlers information on the identities of Palestinians who own land near settlements. The dramatic June 26 decision will likely ease settlement expansion. [Under Jordanian Law it was also classified]

Inside the Green Line, one can learn the identity of owners of housing units or land for a NIS 10 fee. But in the West Bank, outside the Green Line, this information has been secret and classified. Only a person with a “link to the land” could make a request from the Civil Administration in Beit El, and obtain the needed information from the Land Registry. Those without such a “link” had to get the information from people in the Palestinian villages or sources in the Civil Administration. ["Link to the land" is a racially prejudicial term which led to racially prejudicial laws and was/is a euphemism for Arab]

The Civil Administration had a policy of keeping the Land Registry classified for several reasons. First, it allowed them to learn whether a Palestinian had sold his land to an Israeli, which is a capital offense in the Palestinian Authority. [Why would the CA want to know if an Arab sold land to a Jew? Because such an action is a capital offence in the Palestinian Authority??] Also, there is a widespread phenomenon of forged land transactions in the West Bank. Taking advantage of the partial listings and the fact that many Palestinians are in Jordan or the United States, the offenders forge the owners’ signatures. [Exactly why it should not be secret or classified so as to stop forgeries etc.]

Bedouins, Tower and Stockade settlements, Version 2.0

Their goal for the Bedouin is no less than the establishment of facts on the ground, as Pnini Badash – the mayor of Omer states, “to create an autonomous region” that will eventually be contiguous with the oft-promised Palestinian state to be created only a few kilometers to the north...

Ari Briggs..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
06 September '12..

In the middle of the Arab uprising of 1936, the Jewish settlement of Kfar Hittim in the Galilee was established, on 2,000 dunams (200 hectares) of land which the Jewish National Fund had purchased in 1905.

David Ben-Gurion, who was then the head of the Jewish Yishuv, gave his tacit approval, as long as it could be completed in one day, and the plan was carried out.

The purpose of the settlement, and others like it, was to establish facts on the ground, to ensure that Jewish-owned land would be included in the future State of Israel.

Those were tough days. Arab gangs were intent on killing as many Jews as possible and wreaking havoc in order to convince the British to limit Jewish immigration. Kfar Hittim was the first of many Tower & Stockade settlements, so called because those were the first two building constructed on the land, in order to protect the brave pioneers who would dwell there. It was successfully defended on its first evening against Arab gangs.

Seventy-six years later, and with a sovereign government in place in Israel, one would think that there are various ministries whose job it is today to ensure that new towns are properly planned and established, and that it is the job of the IDF to defend them.

Well, not exactly. Today, in the Negev, one doesn’t have to travel very far off the beaten track to find new Bedouin settlements.

But these settlements follow their own rules. Unlike the case of Kfar Hittim, no Bedouin National Fund purchased the land. The residents just took it. Whether it is privately owned Jewish land, as in the case of Al Zarnoog, or Bir El Daj, built on JNF lands or state lands, doesn’t matter to them.

The Bedouin understand that their communities must also have means of defense, but their “Tower & Stockade” is not physical. It’s virtual, but very effective.

Their protective “Stockade” consists of NGOs such as the Negev Coexistence Forum (NCF), Adalah, ACRI and the like. Their virtual Towers are the New Israel Fund (NIF), the EU and the UN, all of which are extremely well-funded and focused on protecting the “rights” of the Beduin to the lands on which they have built illegally.

The illegal “building intifada” being waged by the Palestinian Authority

In this case, suddenly it seems it’s OK if Israel’s Supreme Court rulings are ignored.

Ari Briggs..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
27 August '12..

The illegal “building intifada” being waged by the Palestinian Authority on state lands in Area C of Judea and Samaria, (the West Bank), has become the latest battleground for the radical Left in conjunction with foreign-funded Israeli so called human rights NGO’s such as B’tselem and Bimkom.

This unlawful land theft is being carried out with the full support of the EU, foreign aid organizations and the UN.

Under the Oslo Accords, Israel was allocated full administrative and security control over Area C. Allocation of final sovereignty in Area C was to be determined in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap of 2002.

Instead, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad has sought to unilaterally extend the PA’s control over undeveloped state lands within Area C in an attempt to pre-empt the outcome of any such negotiations, or in the more likely scenario, do away with the need for them completely.

Fayyad made his intentions very clear in an interview in the Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat on September 1, 2009: “Many think that zone ‘C’ areas have become disputed territories rather than occupied territories in the public consciousness. We assert that these are Palestinian National Authority territories where the state will be established.”

To achieve this objective, the construction of thousands of illegal Arab structures has gathered pace all over Area C as the PA pursues this policy of encouraging illegal land grabs, illegal outposts and building on state lands.

Charcoal Kilns, the High Court, Risk to Life vs. Human Rights NGOs

Ari Briggs..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
15 July '12..

Illegal and unregulated production of charcoal, in some cases on government land, is causing severe health consequences for our children. It is illegal due to the fact that the businesses are not registered and take place on land zoned for agriculture. Most disturbing is that the government and the Supreme Court don’t seem to care.

Most of us, when grilling the meat on our BBQs, have no idea what it takes to make the charcoal fuel used to achieve that perfect steak. We would be surprised to find out that our insatiable appetite to BBQ is feeding an NIS 50 million a year underground charcoal industry that is totally illegal, unregulated and terribly damaging to the environment.

The massive amounts of air pollution released into the environment during the production of the charcoal has ruined the lives of many families whose only wish was to live in the pastoral northern Sharon region.

We do know that air quality is a high priority of the Environmental Protection Ministry. One only has to recall the hullabaloo caused by the smell of chlorine in the Dan region recently. Months ago, the smell of chlorine in the streets of Tel Aviv drew dozens of vehicles specially equipped to test the air quality out on to the streets.

The sight of the white-suited scientists doing their tests was proof of the seriousness with which the issue is dealt.

But this level of care is not being applied equally.

Israel ignoring 400 Palestinian house demolition appeals

Chaim Levinson
Haaretz
07 December 09

(Anybody actually surprised?)

The State Prosecutor's Office never responded to some 400 High Court petitions filed by Palestinians seeking to save their West Bank homes from demolition orders - which means the homes cannot be demolished - according to an advocacy-group report released today.

The homes were classified by the state as being illegally built. The state prosecutor justified its failure to act by stating that either way, the homes were unlikely to be demolished.

The report, released by the Regavim organization, which says its goal is to preserve "national lands," reveals an underreported trend in the West Bank: Palestinians petitioning the High Court to save their homes from demolitions ordered by the Civil Administration.

In most cases, once a petition is filed, the state issues an interim order preventing demolition. The state is then expected to respond to the petition, after which a date is set for a court hearing.

But in 400 such cases - involving 700 homes - the government never responded. This means the interim orders against the demolitions are left in place.

One such petition was filed in 1997 by a resident of the West Bank town of Anata, near Jerusalem. Judge Theodor Or filed a temporary order preventing the demolition, and for several years the case remained frozen, because the state never responded. The interim order is still in effect, and the homeowner therefore has immunity against demolition, granted by the High Court.

Regavim contacted the Attorney General's Office on the matter.

Deputy Attorney General Malkiel Blass stated in response, "There is a gap between the scope of the orders and the demolitions. In these circumstances, priorities must be drafted. After examining the matter, I didn't find any failings in the attorneys' actions."

"It is unacceptable to instruct an attorney to ask the court to hold a hearing on a petition over demolishing a home, when even if the petition is accepted, the structure will likely not be demolished," he wrote.
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'Oxfam aids illegal Palestinian deeds'

Tovah Lazoroff/Yaakov Lappin
JPost
1 November 09

Oxfam International is involved in illegal Palestinian construction and agriculture activity in the West Bank, the Regavim advocacy group says.

The NGO charged on Thursday that Palestinians had illegally siphoned water in the area of Kiryat Arba with the assistance of Oxfam.

The civil administration on Thursday demolished an illegal water-siphoning operation just outside the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron, which it claimed was linked to an international organization, but it did not name Oxfam.

It said that Palestinians had illegally linked pipes into the main authorized Palestinian water supply.

Ovad Arad of Regavim, however, said that Oxfam was involved in the project and had posted signs touting its work in the area.

He added that Oxfam also helped Palestinian farmers construct an illegal terraced field in the area, which he said the civil administration also destroyed on Thursday.

Arad alleged that contrary to the civil administration's claims, the Palestinians were stealing Israeli water with the help of Oxfam.

A source in the Kiryat Arba municipality said that the activity occurred within the settlement's boundaries and that the water siphons were connected to larger pipes that serviced both Israelis and Palestinians.

Oxfam International spokesman Michael Bailey in Jerusalem said in response, "We understood that an agricultural well and a field had been damaged and that some irrigation equipment had been removed.

"We are concerned about the impact of that on the Palestinian farmers," Bailey said.

He knew nothing, he said, of any illegal siphoning or of any other illegal activity connected to his organization.

The Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria said its actions were part of a policy of enforcement against pirate water supplies, and that Palestinian civilians were the primary victims of the illegal wells.

"The pirate wells are connected to water pipes and reduce the flow of the legal water supply to Palestinians," the civil administration said.

"International elements have been involved in this activity. We have warned the organization in question that they were partaking in an illegal construction project, but they refused to take heed of our warning," the civil administration added.

It refused to name the organization in question, and would neither confirm nor deny Regavim's allegation that it was Oxfam.

Regavim, created four years ago, operates on both sides of the Green Line, to monitor illegal construction and to preserve state land.

Arad said that its focus has been on illegal Palestinian and Israeli Arab activity, given that left-wing groups have solely focused on illegal Jewish construction.

In a letter that the organization's attorney Amir Fischer wrote to the civil administration, the IDF and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Arad said that Oxfam had intensified its activity in the West Bank and was helping Palestinians build illegally and carry out agricultural activity on state land.
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