Back to PLO Bulletin 1-15 July 1979

Zionism in Practice

CHILDREN AMONG NEW POLITICAL PRISONERS

In Lydda on June 12, a Zionist Military Court gave heavy sentences to six Palestinians charged with affiliation with the PLO and participation in several operations against Zionist targets. The court sentenced Mohammad Sha'aban to 15 years, Abdullah Saleh to 18 years, Violatte Sa'ati to 12 years, Shideh Jamid to 8 years, Ahmad Safi and Muhammad Shayyab to 10 years each.

Arrests of Palestinians in occupied land increase since Camp David accords

In Ramallah on June 15, an Israeli Military Court sentenced several 14 year old Palestinian youths from Kalandia Camp to prison on charges of affiliation with the PLO. Nasser Ayyad, Abdel Hakam Shehadeh, As'ad Shehadeh and Hassan Moutir were sentenced to four years and 9 months each; Majal Abu Lutifeh, Jamal Nasser and Adel Ya'quob to three years imprisonment each; Nabil Abu Deis to two years' imprisonment, Mahmoud Moutir to seven months, and Jamal Ammar to six months. The Court did not take the age of these youths into consideration.

Also in Nablus, the Israeli Military Court sentenced Hatem Khawaja, fifteen years old, to three years in jail, while in Lydda, the Israeli Military Court sentenced Suad Mustafa Ghoneim from al-Freidis to six months imprisonment on charges of affiliation with Fateh. It also sentenced Nurreddine Al-Ja'abari to twelve years in jail on the same charges.

HEADS OF LOCAL COUNCILS IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE DENOUNCE ISRAELI PRACTICES

On June 20, the secretaries of Regional Committees made up of Arab heads of local councils, and of the Regional Committee for the Defence of the Land, strongly denounced the settlement policy currently being practiced by the Israeli authorities against Palestinians and their land.

The denunciation came in a communique following a joint meeting of the two regional committees in the town of Shafa Amr in Galilee on June 16. The communique said the Israeli authorities were determined to confiscate 715 dunums of Palestinian-owned land in the following villages: al-Jedayde, Kawkab Abu al-Hayja', Yarka and Deir al-Asal, for the establishment of new settlements, and it called on the Israeli authorities to put an end to the policy of land seizures which threatens what is left of Palestinian-owned land, according to the 1976 Koenig report, a policy study by the top Israeli official in the Galilee, which advocates the seizure of all Arab land.

The participants in the meeting also expressed their solidarity with the town of Ma'liya where a popular meeting was held on June 30, in protest against the policy of land seizures. Arab and Jewish delegations also joined the meeting.

1000 STUDENTS ARRESTED IN 6 MONTHS

In an interview with Israeli TV on June 13, Benyamin Eliazar, the Israeli Military Governor of the occupied West Bank, admitted that the Israeli forces had arrested more than 1000 students in the West Bank over the past six months. He also confirmed his determination to keep Bir Zeit University closed until next year.

The representatives of religious, educational and social institutions in the West Bank urged public opinion to strive for the reopening of all educational institutions closed by order of the Military Governor of the occupied territories. Also, the Mayors of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour issued a protest communique denouncing Israeli orders to make Bethlehem secondary school students repeat their classes, as well as other repressive measures taken against West Bank educational institutions.

SETTLEMENT CONTINUES

"They will find a way to go ahead. All the time the Israelis are taking our land", Al-Shaka'a told Reuters news agency. He was referring to the Israeli High Court order which, on June 21, temporarily blocked work on the Elon Moreh settlement. On June 18, the Gush Emunim brought bulldozers to level confiscated agricultural land eleven miles north of Nablus near Quarni Shamron B which was established by the Zionist authorities on June 17 on 300 dunums of agricultural land confiscated from its Palestinian owners. The two settlements were approved by the Israeli Government, sources at the Israeli Agriculture Ministry declared. Each outpost is planned to be an "urban settlement" which will be built to accommodate 10,000 new settlers and thus encircle Nablus.

In related news, "Ma'ariv" reported that actual work will start in the coming few days in "Maali Adonim" settlement in Khan aI-Ahmar, East of Jerusalem. Also the so-called "Cooperative Villages Movement" has decided to establish a special cooperative village in the occupied Golan.

Israeli soldiers in Arab Jerusalem

Recently, the Israeli authorities confiscated 50 dunums of land in the Ni'lin village near Ramallah in the West Bank to be "used for the establishment of a belt of settlements around Ramallah city", as the coordinator of the Israeli Military Government in the occupied territories put it. Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities have announced the establishment of a Regional Council for Zionist settlements in the Jerusalem and Bethlehem areas, named "Etzion" including 7 settlements and, in the future, the city of "Afrat" that will be established in the Bethlehem area. Also, on June 21, the Israeli newspaper "Al-Hamishmar" reported that the Head of the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency announced the decision to establish 16 new settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.