CADFA press release 17/11/17
CADFA is extremely concerned at the sudden news that the villagers of Jabal al-Baba have been suddenly been told by the Israeli army that they must leave the area within the next week This is part of Israel’s effort to free up land for expansion of Israeli settlements in the controversial “E1” area around Jerusalem. All settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law – and pushing the local inhabitants off the land to replace them with others amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Jabal al-Baba is close to Abu Dis, CADFA’s partner town, and known to many of the hundreds of visitors that CADFA has taken to Palestine in the last fourteen years. When we heard this shocking news, we held a spontaneous demonstration (it was the middle of Friday so only members who were not working could take part) in order to send an immediate message to our friends in the threatened village that they are not forgotten.
We have also written the open letter below to our MP Keir Starmer which is pasted below. We are asking our members and others to be active in bringing this to international attention, so that the homes of the people in Jabal al-Baba can be saved
LETTER TO KEIR STARMER MP
Dear Keir
This is to ask you please URGENTLY to raise the question with the Foreign Office (and via them the Israelis) of the future of Jabal al-Baba Bedouin village which is not far from Abu Dis, Palestine (West Bank). We were horrified to hear yesterday that the Israeli military have given the villagers a week to leave their homes. This is an established community including old people and children. We have visited the place on many occasions and know it is under threat as the Israelis want to push ahead with one of the most controversial of theit illegal settlement projects in the West Bank, the E1 project. The people of Jabal al-Baba have been under tremendous pressure from the Israeli military. We have seen the ruins of demolished buildings still marked with European Union flags as they were donated by the EU. A school was demolished by Israel in August.
The whole village is now under threat and there is no time to lose. This is inhumane ethnic cleansing and it is wrong. The military orders issued yesterday 16th November gave them eight days to leave their homes – what can be done to protect them?