ICAHD builds, benefit, JCB statistics, new play

Approximately 60% of Beit Ummar’s residents rely on agriculture for their living, but they face two main threats to their livelihood: encroachment by Israeli settlers and the army on their lands, and a chronic need to improve the agricultural infrastructure, thus allowing farmers to cultivate more land.

The project differs from usual ICAHD building projects in several ways: it is not a demolished home we are rebuilding but an agricultural outbuilding; the project cannot be done in public as an outward expression of resistance to the Occupation, as ICAHD rebuilding projects have always have been, because we need to protect both the owner and the building, which he fears will be targeted if attention is called to it; and ICAHD volunteers will not participate in the construction since, again, that would call attention to the site.

Nonetheless, this is a political project that impacts tangibly on the ability of Palestinian farmers to remain on their land, a purpose consistent with ICAHD’s goals.

The full report of the project will be posted to the ICAHD website and a link to it will be included in the June ICAHD Actions Bulletin.

The evening will be compered by actor and writer Norma Cohen and includes a performance by the Palestinian dance group, Hawiyya, a short film clip by renowned filmmaker Bruno Sorrentino following his recent trip to the West Bank, poetry by rapper Zeynab Mufti, film extracts from 'The Wrong Sort of Jew' and music from Garth Hewitt, the Aida Youth Centre in Bethlehem, Cleo Sylvestre, the Bagelites and John Forster/Lou Eastern European.

There will also be contributions from ICAHD's Director Jeff Halper, ICAHD UK Director Linda Ramsden and Rashed Khudairy from the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign.

The event will include a mini-auction hosted by patron Clare Short, to include original works of art, ceramics, Palestinian embroidery, a selection of books from New Beacon Bookshop and others, Rio Cinema tickets and meals at Cafe Palestina. The full list of items can be viewed on the ICAHD website where bids can now be placed.

This year ICAHD UK must raise £10,000 for our campaigns so please dig deep and donate as much as you can.

Benefit Compere writer/actor Norma Cohen Benefit Auctioneer Clare Short, former MP

Photo: Corporate Occupation

For the last five years Corporate Occupation, based in the UK, has carried out research to strengthen the growing BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement by investigating companies that are complicit with Israel’s violations of international law. One aspect of its work involves collating statistics from every demolition or confiscation of structures, destruction of water systems, or razing of land that Israel has carried out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (excluding Gaza) and within Israel’s borders.

Corporate Occupation uses ICAHD’s monthly demolition and displacement reports for its research and ICAHD UK provides funding for its research of photographic or video evidence of which company’s equipment (for example JCB or Caterpillar) that is used in each incident. During 2022 Israeli authorities used JCB excavators and smaller backhoe loaders in the demolition of structures and water systems. JCB was amongst the top three companies within the six categories identified by Corporate Occupation and was top of the list in affecting the lives and the displacement of the Palestinians.

This information is valuable because ICAHD UK uses it in our campaign to pressure the Bamford family, owners of JCB, to stop its equipment being used in war crimes, something that it has ignored for over three years. See the results from 2022and then help to keep up the pressure by writing to Lord Bamford and the NSPCC which accepts JCB’s tarnished money. Send the statistics to your MPs because JCB fails to implement due diligence as required by the Department of Trade. Further guidance and contact details are found on the ICAHD website . Protect the Palestinian People Photo: +972 Oren Ziv – Palestinians in Ein Samia forcibly displaced Following Israel’s election which has resulted in Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power as Israel’s prime minister, ICAHD’s Jeff Halper predicted in December that Zionist Cossacks would be unleased on the Palestinians . Since January, this is exactly what has been happening. Already this year Israeli forces have killed 108 Palestinians within the West Bank and East Jerusalem which is more than double the comparative figure from the same period in 2022.

Extreme settler violence was unleased in February’s pogrom in Huwara when dozens of houses and cars were torched. Large-scale raids have happened in Palestinian villages, towns and cities resulting in scores of Palestinian injuries. Rural agricultural communities within Area C are under constant harassment from the settlers as well as from the Israeli army, making it difficult if not impossible for farming activities to continue. The most recent example happened in Ein Samia where on Monday, 22^nd May, the last of the 200 residents left because living there had become unbearable due to settler and state violence that has included the demolition of their homes and infrastructure. This is forced displacement and a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Governments are selective in which countries are called to account for the implementation of international law and has failed the Palestians. It is understandable that Palestinian armed activity has also increased in their attempt to resist Israel’s settler colonial agenda to clear more of historic Palestine of the indigenous population as it makes space to double the number of settlers within the next few years. Therefore, more bloodshed is predicted.

During the Badil/Kairos Palestine webinar on 24^th May, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said that several times the Palestinians had called for UN Protective Presence to be sent to their aid however the request was always vetoed. Albanese stressed that civil society should get their respective government to push for a UN Protective Force to be dispatched and that it could either civil or military.

This is another urgent issue to raise with your political representative . New play set in East Jerusalem

The dates of the 2024 extended study tours have been announced.

Palestinian farmland in Beit Ummar

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