Act Now - Protect the Palestinians, Tent of Nations, Clare Short

January 2023 Newsletter * ICAHD’s iconic film on demolitions * Threat to Khan al-Ahmar returns * Act now - contact your MP * February webinar about the Tent of Nations * Clare Short recommends ICAHD’s study tours * Dates for your diary

ICAHD's iconic film https://youtu.be/pE3qdC65Qgc

Although the number of demolitions has drastically increased since this film was made, now totalling more than 55,000 within the Occupied Territory alone, the reason for the demolitions, the tragedy and the resulting trauma on family members are still the same. This 14-minute film is a “must see” as it brings viewers to the site of a demolition and shows ICAHD resistance to Israel’s cruel policy of removing the indigenous Palestinian population from their homes. Hear Palestinians speak about their attempts to get building permits which are rarely ever awarded to them, a housing policy Amnesty International and other human rights organisations define as apartheid. The demolitions themselves are a violation of the fourth Geneva Convention.

Photo: ICAHD - Khan al-Ahmar, located off of Highway 1 between Jerusalem and Jericho

Khan al-Ahmar, the Palestinian Bedouin village, home to at least 180 people is under threat of imminent demolition. On Sunday, 22nd January, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir listed the village amongst those to be demolished in a document he submitted to the Cabinet. In September 2018, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered its demolition, but it is believed that international outcry pressurized the Israeli government to delay the demolition. The Israeli Supreme Court has given the government until 1st February to explain why it has not been demolished to date and to submit a plan. With Ben-Gvir in his new governmental role, he is pushing for the demolition to happen imminently.

Khan al-Ahmar is located a few miles east of Jerusalem between the two major illegal Israeli settlements of Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim. It is one of the few remaining Palestinian communities within the E1 area which Israel wants cleared for settlement expansion hence its need to demolish Khan al-Ahmar and forcibly displace the residents, a war crime under international law. Israel argues that it can carry out the demolitions because the village was built without a permit, something which is virtually impossible for Palestinians living in Area C to be granted with not more than 1% of applications approved annually.

Further settlement expansion in E-1 will cut the West Bank in half so that there is no contiguity between the north and the south. For years, even the US opposed this plan on the grounds that it would destroy the two-state solution.

Almost daily Israeli authorities demolish Palestinian homes, and these are reported on ICAHD’s social media platforms. Whole communities within Masafer Yatta (in the South Hebron Hills) continue under imminent threat of demolition and displacement which will leave over a thousand Palestinians homeless. This is all part of the Zionists’ settler colonial plan as it removes the indigenous Palestinian population and replaces it with a Jewish population.

Tent of Nations is an educational and ecological farm that is located on a hilltop between Hebron and Bethlehem. Surrounded by five settlements ever creeping closer, the Israeli government claims ownership of the land which the Nasser family has challenged at a cost of $200,000 in legal fees. Their case has been sent from Israel’s Supreme Court to the military court and they hope it can be re-registered as private land and not state land. Register for this webinar here (https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcuc-ygqz4uGNQI-mH3nKkMx25yJYhYRXMf )

Tent of Nations – Entrance to one of the caves Tent of Nations field with settlement in background

Photos J Hastings-Thomson

Attend the MEMO Conference ICAHD’s Jeff Halper has been invited to speak at the forthcoming MEMO conference on Saturday, 4^th February from 09.30 am – 5.30pm.

The Middle East Monitor, MEMO, publicity states that the Palestinian quest for freedom and independence is arguably the last of the great anti- colonial struggles. It is, in every respect, a response to Zionist settler colonialism, which was premised on the racist notion of the ‘white man’s burden’ to civilise the darker races.

After its establishment on 78% of historic Palestine in 1948, Israel has worked assiduously to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state in the remaining 22%. Instead, it has deliberately created an apartheid reality in which two peoples occupy the same land but with one people, Israelis, totally dominating the other.

This conference examines at all aspects of the Palestinian reality under the three broad themes of apartheid, genocide and decolonisation. It seeks to initiate a dialogue that will foster greater international cooperation for the full attainment of Palestinian national rights.

The conference will open with Prof Michael Lynk as keynote speaker. Prof Lynk served as the UN’s seventh Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and will travel from Canada to attend the conference.

Jerusalem’s Old City with Silwan in the foreground and view of West Jerusalem in the distance

Applications are being received for participation in the next 11-day issued-based study tour to Palestine/Israel that will include thirty encounters with leading voices in ’48 and in the OPT. Don’t delay in applying because there is much interest in the tour scheduled for autumn 2023. “I strongly recommend this tour. I have visited Palestine many times over the years, but my visits have tended to concentrate on one issue each time. The ICAHD tour gave me a coherent picture of the whole. Sadly, the situation gets worse for the Palestinians each time I visit but the tour is a good spur for action.”

Gill Knight, leader of the PSC group in Hastings – Nov 2022 Find out more and summit your online application here (https://icahd.org/extended-study-tours/ )

Wednesday 15 February 2023 - ICAHD UK Webinar -

Saturday 30 September 2023 - ICAHD UK Annual Conference - Amnesty International UK, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA. Times and programme to be confirmed

From all at ICAHD UK. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israeli-Committee-Against-House-Demolitions-UK/366423593418140 Facebook https://www.twitter.com/ICAHDUK/ Twitter http://icahduk.org Website mailto:info@icahduk.org Email