Arab Abu Farda, Qalqiliya District
This past week, an officer from the Occupation Administration went to the village of Arab Abu Farda, isolated in south Qalqiliya, and ordered them to remove streetlights that they had recently established in the community; the residents have refused and thus far the lights remain.
***image2***Arab Abu Farda is among 5 villages in this area which is isolated from the entire the West Bank, located on the other side of the Wall. The Occupation officer informed the people in the village of the intention to relocate the people of Arab Abu Farda from their village to a small wooded area located east of the village of Nabe Ilias, which is located inside the Wall. In doing so, he emphasized that they plan to terminate the people’s current existence in their village. The Occupation administrators also served the people with demolition orders for three agricultural barracks that are in the village and owned by people in Qalqiliya City. Of the barracks threatened, one is 50 square meters, built on 5 dunums of land, and another, also 50 square meters, is established on ten dunums of land. A third barrack is also threatened.
The village of Arab Abu Farda is isolated behind the Wall in south Qalqiliya along with the villages of Arab Ramadin, Wadi Rasha, Daba and Ras Tira. Although the Occupation Administration previously demanded that the people in all of these villages have “permits” to live in this area, it now seems that this was to be a temporary measure in the larger plan of evacuating, or expelling, the people from these communitie. It would seem that the Occupation Forces are starting this process with Arab Abu Farda, as it is a “good” target for expulsion, being the smallest of the five with only about 75 people living there. In this way, the Occupation Forces can begin to achieve their goal of total expulsion while sending a message to the other, larger communities of what is to be their fate as well.
Ali Abu Sherab
Six days ago, an officer from the Occupation Administration arrived at Ali Abu Sharab’s home to tell him and his family that they could no longer insist on remaining in their home, which has been isolated by the Apartheid Wall.
***image3***The officer told the family that by staying in the home, it was creating trouble for the soldiers who now had to open and close the gate in the Wall twice a day. Since the Wall and, in turn, the gate, was imposed on the family, Imm Amar has had to escort her children to and from school daily. This entails going with the children in the morning and staying in Jayyus all afternoon until school is let out, since the soldiers refuse to let Imm Amar back through the gate in the interim. In addition, this has forced the oldest daughter in the house to discontinue her studies in order to take care of the home while Imm Amar is away. The Occupation officers told Abu Amar that it would be “more convenient” for the soldiers if his wife and children moved to a house inside the village of Jayyus, while Abu Amar could stay with his goats in his land, so that they would no longer have to open the gate. The family’s ongoing resistance to the Wall, and their refusal to evacuate the land has created trouble for the Occupation Forces who wish to seal the gate completely.
Abu Amar responded by saying, “I have been living in this house for 14 years now and I will not have another house in another place.”