Memorandum submitted by the Religious
Society of Friends in Britain (Quakers) on behalf of the Ecumenical
Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI)
INTRODUCTION
The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine
and Israel (EAPPI) is an international programme, which provides
protection by presence to Palestinian civilians living in the
West Bank and monitors human rights abuses. It is co-ordinated
internationally by the World Council of Churches and it has been
operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) since
September 2002. During this period 329 field workers from 14 different
countries have served on this programme and 47 of them have come
from the UK. QPSW, the corporate witness department of the Religious
Society of Friends in Britain (Quakers) manages the EAPPI in the
UK on behalf of members of Churches Together in Britain &
Ireland.
Early Day Motion 596 welcomes the EAPPI in arranging
for human rights observers to work in the OPTs. The EDM encourages
the UK Government to work with inter-governmental organisations
to establish a human rights observation force there and to press
for an end to the occupation. Over 150 MPs, representing all major
political parties had signed this EDM by July 2006.
This submission addresses points 6 and 7 in
the Committee's Terms of Reference. We use evidence gathered by
British and other EAPPI human rights observers during the last
three years to assist the Committee to assess the impact of the
separation barrier, checkpoints and the settlements on the Palestinian
population. While the submission is rooted in the evidence of
the UK EAPPI human rights' observers, we understand that this
would be illustrative of experience of the EAPPI programme internationally
and of that of other programmes of observers more widely. [91]
CONCLUSIONS
The Government in their response to the 2003-04
IDC Report, agreed with the Committee's concerns that "Palestinians
often suffer harassment at the hands of both the IDF and local
settler communities, making checkpoints flashpoints for antagonism."
The testimonies given in our submission demonstrate that the harassment
continues and that simply improving procedures at the checkpoints
is not enough.
We consider that there has been no improvement
in the situation in the occupied territories since the completion
of the 2003-04 report. The separation barrier and the checkpoints
continue to have a devastating impact on the Palestinians' freedom
of movement and on their economy.
It is apparent to EAPPI that the development
of a viable economy will only be possible with an end to these
restrictions.
It is also apparent that land confiscation continues
both to enable the construction of the barrier and the building
of new Israeli settlements.
We recommend:
1. the establishment of a Human Rights Observation
Force in the OPTs by inter-governmental organisations;
2. the relaxation of the system of closure
as a first step to Israeli withdrawal from the OPTs; and
3. that the British Government bring greater
pressure to bear on the Israeli Government, firstly to cease all
land confiscation and settlement building in order to fulfil the
Roadmap obligations and subsequently to dismantle the settlements
and the barrier where it has been built on Palestinian land.
A. THE SEPARATION
BARRIER
1.1 The barrier has had a tragic economic
and human cost on Palestinians in the areas where the EAPPI has
been operating.
1.2 The EAPPI has maintained a presence
in Jayyous since October 2002. Jayyous is located in the northern
West Bank and is approximately 10 kilometres east of the Palestinian
town of Qalqiliya. Since the completion of the barrier and the
installation of two gates in July 2003, EAPPI human rights observers
have been monitoring the operation of the Jayyous gates and have
been accompanying farmers to their lands through these gates.
1.3 The barrier now separates the village
of Jayyous from about 70% of their agricultural land. The 900
hectares of land trapped behind the barrier produce almost 90%
of the agricultural income earned by the village. According to
Jayyous mayor Fayez Salim the land that has been separated from
the village contains 15,000 olive trees, nearly 50,000 citrus
trees, and 120 greenhouses. Six of the seven wells that supply
water to the agricultural land lie behind the barrier. The mayor
suggests that the majority of families in the village are directly
affected by the construction of the barrier with an associated
loss of income.
1.4 The only access available to residents
is by one or other of two barrier gates. These are controlled
by Israeli armed guards and only opened at times determined by
the Israeli authorities. The only residents able to pass through
the gates are those who can prove that they own a parcel of land
and, in addition, have been given a security clearance by Israel.
Neither are easy to obtain and as a result many young people do
not have access to their families' land.
1.5 Reports by the EAPPI human rights observers
have repeatedly stressed the difficulties for farmers, first in
obtaining permits to access their land and then in gaining access
on a daily basis due to the unpredictability of the gate opening
times. They describe farmers having to wait to access their land
early in the morning or in the mid day sun or the gates simply
not being opened at all. In 2005 the local municipality had a
list of 156 Jayyous residents who have been unable to obtain permission
from the Israeli authorities to pass through the gates in the
fence. Some 10 or more families had no access to the land that
they own between the fence and the Green Line because no one had
a permit to pass the gates. This situation has deteriorated since
the election of the Hamas government and the refusal of Israeli
officials to communicate with the Palestinian Authority.
1.6 In 2004, EAPPI human rights observers
spoke to Mohammad Saleh, 40, who has been a farmer since he was
20 years old. He owns 85 dunums of land, 75 on the other side
of the fence and 10 that he can currently access freely. (1 acre
= 4 dunums.) The main market for his agricultural products had
been in Qalqiliya, Nablus and Beita. Since the beginning of the
second Intifada his life has become more difficult in several
ways. Due to restrictions of movement within the West Bank, he
sometimes cannot get his vegetables as planned to market. "If
I go directly to Nablus, the cost for transporting a truck with
my products is 200 shekels (NIS). But with the detours the truck
sometimes has to take because of the roadblocks and checkpoints,
the cost can reach up to 500 NIS," he explains. Before the
barrier was built, Saleh could stay out in the field until 10:30
at night and then sleep in his shed to get up early the next morning
and continue working. Nowadays, he often has to stop working at
2:30 in the afternoon in order to get to the gate on time for
the scheduled opening. The farmers are prohibited from staying
in their fields overnight in the so-called "seam zone."
"I hate to go to the gate and don't go to my fields as much
anymore."
1.7 The problems faced by the farmers in
Jayyous are repeated across the Tulkarem locality. EAPPI human
rights observer Sharen Green described her observations one morning
in July 2006:
"We turn up at 6.30am when the soldiers
are supposed to open the gate. There is no sign of them and eventually
Jostein [a fellow observer] calls the International Committee
of the Red Cross field worker. She phones the Israeli authorities
and finally the soldiers turn up 40 minutes late.The next time
we go there are three times as many farmers waiting and the soldiers
are on time. But there is a disembodied voice coming from a white
4x4. Everyone has to produce not just his ID card and his permit
to use the gate he must also bring proof that he owns the land—a
detail they were warned about only the day before."
1.8 EAPPI human rights observer Ann Wright
visited the village of Qaffin, 30 minutes north of Tulkarem, in
spring 2006. The village had 1,000 hectares of agricultural land
before 2002 when the barrier was built on the land meaning 600
hectares fell to the west of the barrier or was trapped in the
buffer zone. 6,500 olive trees were uprooted and 400 of the remaining
hectares are built on, leaving only 200 hectares for growing food.
"`Nine thousand people cannot live on that,'
says Qaffin mayor Taisir Harasheh as he shows us round. Three
of the four village olive oil presses are closed and they now
buy olive oil instead of it being their main source of income.
In an area that was the bread basket of the West Bank, villagers
are becoming dependent on World Food Programme handouts. After
four years, the mayor tells us, he now has no budget for schools,
clinics, or street and sewage maintenance. He quotes the UNDP
as saying the barrier is the sole cause of Qaffin's man-made disaster.
Their agricultural gate is particularly bad. Because of the to-ing
and fro-ing about the route of the barrier, they have been left
with only one gate 8 km from the village and it is controlled
by the army not the civilian District Commanding Officer (DCO).
This means `closed for security reasons' is more common."
1.9 In early 2006 EAPPI human rights observer
Margaret Gunnarsson reported on the experiences of Abu Feras,
a farmer from the village of Falamaya near Jayyous:
"At the age of 60 he retired from his work
as a teacher to help his oldest son Feras. It was the year when
the building of the wall was finished and the farmers were cut
out from their farmlands. Abu and Umm Feras alone were given permission
to pass the gate. Abu Feras then decided to move the greenhouse
to this side of the wall, which meant great costs for transportation
and soil. The new land was mostly just stone. Still, it's hard
to survive as a farmer because the prices of tomatoes are so low.
When the price rose a couple of weeks ago the Israelis started
to import 260 tons of tomatoes daily from Jordan. The consequence
was that the profit for Palestinian farmers was none. They get
five NIS for 15 kilos tomatoes! From this 5 NIS the transportation
will take two NIS and the seller 0.5 NIS. That leaves only 2.5
NIS for Abu Feras, which does not even cover the cost of water
that the tomatoes take."
1.10 The situation has deteriorated since
the election of Hamas as Sharen Green reported from Tulkarem:
"At the moment there is a huge problem.
Because Hamas was elected, the Israeli DCO will not deal directly
with his opposite number in the Palestinian Authority (PA). So
as the permits lapse, the farmers must queue up at the DCO themselves
to apply for renewals. Many who have had permits since the wall
went up are being refused on security grounds. | I accompanied
a farmer to the DCO last month and he was assigned a number in
the 40s—there were over 80 waiting. When we had finished
our business only one person had been granted a permit and that
was a pregnant woman who was given a pass for one day on humanitarian
grounds."
B. CLOSURE AND
CHECKPOINTS
1.11 We affirm the findings of the Government
in their response to the 2003-04 IDC Report that "|Palestinians
often suffer harassment at the hands of both the IDF and local
settler communities, making checkpoints flashpoints for antagonism."
We consider that this harassment is of an intensity and degree
that amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinians
in the OPTs. In several areas the control exercised by the Israeli
army at checkpoints makes it difficult for citizens of the OPTs
to go about their ordinary economic and social activity.
1.12 EAPPI human rights observer David Mowat
based in Bethlehem was travelling between the villages of Al-Nu'man
and Al-Khas in April 2006. At an unfinished section of the security
barrier, he observed a large group of men most of whom had been
working on a construction site in Har Homa, a classic hill top
settlement built on Abu Ghneim detained, by the side of the barrier.
He and his companions observed a border police man force eight
of the labourers who had already been detained for two hours to
sit in a drainage pipe recently installed under the road. It was
only after David's intervention that a senior officer allowed
the men to come to the surface. Soon after the intervention, most
of the 50 or so men had their IDs returned and were allowed to
go home.
1.13 EAPPI human rights observer Iain Connon
described an incident of humiliation at a checkpoint in the West
Bank when he was on an ordinary journey in October 2004:
"After a wait of about an hour at a busy
checkpoint a Palestinian man was accused of some undefined error
in checkpoint protocol. He was given a minute to go back to the
end of the queue and add another hour to his wait. He found it
impossible to move back because of the crowd. He was put into
the checkpoint detention area with no explanation or reason."
1.14 EAPPI human rights observer Joshua
Lilande witnessed the procedures used by the Israeli army at Huwarra
checkpoint, which regulates entry into Nablus, in September 2006:
"Unlike other checkpoints I have experienced
in the West Bank, the checking of people here is manual and it
involves the removal of some clothes by the men. On this day,
it was a female soldier carrying out the exercise. Despite the
heavy presence of soldiers, only three were doing the screening.
Two queues were in use, one for women and two for men of different
ages—one below 35 years and one above. They were all crowded
into a three to four metre high corrugated iron shelter. With
a temperature of around 40 degrees, the shelter must have been
unbearable. The queue of women and children, including babies,
had no shelter at all, meaning they had to queue under the sun
with no way to cover their heads."
1.15 Ann Wright described long delays while
observing a checkpoint five miles to the south of Tulkarem in
spring 2006:
"At 5 o'clock the guard changes. A jeep
roars up and two Israeli soldiers, a man and a woman, pile out.
Greetings are exchanged with their colleagues. The greetings last
a good twenty minutes. Meanwhile the lines lengthen. Finally the
new soldiers take up their position, not one on each side like
before, but both together behind a concrete bunker. Drivers are
made to get out, for searching. Each car now takes 15 minutes.
An articulated lorry is turned back; it takes 10 minutes to turn
round on the narrow road. More dust. The crowd of pedestrians
grows. They also are checked more thoroughly. The girl soldier
spends five minutes examining a buggy, gun pointed at the baby's
head. | By the time we leave, the average time for a car to pass
through has gone up to two hours."
1.16 In Sawahreh, a suburb of East Jerusalem,
EAPPI human rights observer Anna Seifert described how long it
takes a Palestinian teacher of German to travel in order to deliver
three hours of teaching:
"I notice a Palestinian man in the `waiting
area,' an open fenced-in space made of a low concrete wall. He
is standing and reading a text book as if wishing to continue
his normal life despite the imposed restrictions. I go and ask
him how long he has been kept waiting. The answer is `40 minutes
| perhaps they are punishing me because I asked how long it would
take. They want you to be timid and subservient | for security
reasons you have no right to life.' Qusay left his home in Bethlehem
at 7 a.m. to go to work in Ramallah. He teaches German at the
Goethe Institute. On a `bad' day with long waits at the checkpoints,
it takes six hours both ways for three hours of paid work which
is still important in an area with high unemployment. | I go to
speak with the Border Police. `What do you want here?' one of
them asks. `To see and learn,' is my reply. `O.K.,' he says. I
ask if he can help Qusay who passes this checkpoint every day
and does not want to be late for work. Five minutes later and
Qusay is off to wait at another checkpoint before reaching Ramallah,
but at least he is one step closer."
1.17 EAPPI human rights observer Hannah
Rought-Brooks described the scene at Qalandiya checkpoint one
morning in November 2004:
"I went out with two of the women from MachsomWatch
to monitor a few of the checkpoints that surround the Jerusalem
area. Qalandiya is one of the biggest and is in between the Jerusalem
municipality and Ramallah. On Sunday morning, there was an unusually
large crowd of peole pressing to get through at 8am when we arrived
there.We discovered that this crowd included 300 school children
who were trying to get through from Ramallah to go on a school
trip to Haifa in the north. They had been there since 7am and
by 8.30 only around half of the group had got through. Some of
the boys gave up and were just walking back to Ramallah while
the teachers were desperately trying to get the rest of them through
to the buses on the other side. This was extremely difficult in
the huge melee of people who have to go in single file through
two separate turnstiles where they have every pocket of their
bag checked and then through to the end where they finally have
their IDs checked."
C. THE IMPACT
OF THE
SETTLEMENTS AND
SETTLER VIOLENCE
Hebron
1.18 We are concerned that reports of settler
violence have gone uninvestigated by the Israeli authorities.
Where the EAPPI has raised its concerns we have had no response.
1.19 In Hebron the EAPPI accompanies Palestinian
pupils of the Cordoba School from home to their school and back
on a daily basis in order to protect them from the attacks or
harassment of Israeli settlers from the nearby Beit Hadassah and
Tel Rumeida settlements. The impact of settler violence here has
been destructive on the life of Palestinians living near these
settlement. In 1980 the Cordoba School had 300 pupils, but by
2005 that number had dropped to 87.
1.20 EAPPI human rights observer Jeanne
Coker writing in the autumn of 2004 described an incident that
occurred on a day when she accompanied the children home:
"As we left school at the end of the morning,
the stone throwing started—by teenage female settlers this
time. We tried to protect the students and asked the Israeli soldiers
to deal with the settlers but this was not very effective."
1.21 At the end of August 2005 EAPPI human
rights observer Tess Woodcraft reported being attacked by an Israeli
woman settler in her 50s and young boy settlers at the steps of
the Cordoba School. The attack occurred in the presence of an
Israeli soldier.
1.22 At the same spot in early April 2006
EAPPI human rights observer Silvana Hogg was attacked and injured
on the head by a teenage settler with a big stone. Her wound had
to be sewed with seven stitches. Hogg also suffered from a head
trauma after the attack. The Israeli soldiers who were nearby
provided first aid to Hogg.
1.23 Later that month, EAPPI human rights
observers Karin Laier and Tore Heen Ottesen were attacked by a
group of young settlers while coming down the school's steps.
The settlers screamed insults and threats of killing the EAPPI
field workers while stoning them. Laier and Ottesen sustained
bruises in the process.
1.24 In June 2006 EAPPI human rights observer
Duduzile Masango was also attacked in the vicinity of the Cordoba
School by Israeli settlers throwing stones. A woman settler tried
to wrap a towel around Duduzile's face. Israeli soldiers were
around but did not interfere.
1.25 Human rights observers working in the
Hebron area for other programmes such as the Christian Peacemaker
Teams and Operation Dove have also been attacked and injured,
sometimes seriously, by settlers.
1.26 The EAPPI filed complaints with the
Israeli authorities after each incident but no response has been
received and no legal action has been taken.
Yanoun
1.27 The impact of Israeli settlement in
Yanoun has been overwhelming. Yanoun is a Palestinian village
with about 100 inhabitants, 15km south east of the city of Nablus.
It is close to the outposts of the Jewish settlement of Itamar.
Violence and harassment by extremist settlers have had a devastating
impact on the accessibility of agricultural land. [92]The
effect of this depletion of land has been compounded by restrictions
on travel and of the availability of work within Israel. Together
these factors have led to deterioration of the local economy and
to poverty and destitution. The villagers left Yanoun in October
2002 after an escalation of violence to return only because of
the protective presence of international and Israeli peace activists.
Since June 2003, the EAPPI has maintained a presence in Yanoun.
1.28 The Israeli army forbids Palestinians from
working their lands in areas it describes as "conflict vicinities".
It normally allows villages three to four days to harvest their
olives in these areas under army protection. They cannot access
this land at any other time. Yanoun is a village that has thousands
of olive trees designated as being within a conflict vicinity.
1.29 The village mayor, Rashid Murrar, tells
of land that belongs to his family that he has not been able to
access for almost four years now. This is land that contains around
1,200 olive trees. He cannot access the land throughout the year
in order to cultivate the land and as a result there are only
a few olives on many of the trees. Another example is Khader Abu
Hanieh who was allowed only four days of protection and was told
that next year he would have only one day. Israeli and international
peace activists come to help maximise the harvesting but Khader's
annual olive intake has dropped from 2,000 to 200 kilos.
1.30 In October 2004, two EAPPI human rights
observers witnessed an attack on one of the Yanoun villagers while
picking olives with his family, despite the presence of Israeli
soldiers. Erik Mohlin gave this report of the events of the day:
"Two Israeli settlers emerge from the trees
together with some Israeli soldiers. Totally unprovoked, one of
the settlers starts beating one of the Palestinian farmers and
he even fires some rounds with his automatic gun close to the
feet of the farmer. At the same time, the other settler fires
a few rounds in the air to keep people away. The screaming and
crying of children and the elderly follows a second after the
deafening shots from the settlers' guns. The settlers force the
farmer down to the ground and tie his hands behind his back. The
soldiers do nothing to protect the farmer, seemingly only interested
in keeping the crowd at bay. The soldiers declare that this olive
grove is off limits to the Palestinian farmers, even though they
are the rightful owners. The farmer is finally released at about
5:30 p.m. when some members of the Israeli peace organization
Ta'ayyush arrive and intervene on his behalf."
1.31 The experience of EAPPI human rights
observers is that, with one exception, the perpetrators of these
types of attacks are not brought to justice. In the one case where
a perpetrator was tried, he was acquitted because of lack of evidence.
1.32 In September 2005, EAPPI human rights
observer Judith Green, reported from Yanoun:
"Last month soldiers of the IDF and armed
settlers drove into fields to tell Yanoun shepherds that they
could no longer use the lower slopes of the surrounding hills
`or the villagers will be hurt'. This intimidation limits grazing
and buying in fodder is very expensive. People are afraid to prune
or plough under the fruit trees on which so much of their livelihood
rests—fig, almond and especially olives. If the trees are
not properly tended and the ground is not ploughed the crop is
progressively reduced. This year, a farmer was forbidden by the
settlers to pick any of his almond crop."
CONCLUSION
Our experience in observing the impact of the
separation barrier and of the occupation more widely convinces
us that present policies are having a devastating effect on the
every day life of Palestinians in the OPTs. The widespread violence
experienced at the hands of settlers and degrading treatment of
Palestinians at checkpoints amount to significant infringements
of human rights. It is of particular concern that such infringements
appear to take place within a culture of impunity.
October 2006
91 E.G. Christian peace maker teams, International
women's peace service, International solidarity movement, Temporary
international presence in Hebron, Operation Dove. Back
92
For example, Thomas Mandal, Living with Settlers, Norwegian
Church Aid, 2006, pp. 19-27 and Aviv Lavie, "The Sheriff",
Ha'aretz newspaper, 10/4/2003. Back
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