Israeli military collaborates with settlers
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 6/14/2006

International Solidarity Movement (ISM) revealed today that the Israeli military, police, and secret service are collaborating with Beit Ayn settlers to seize Palestinian land in Hebron.

The settlers claimed that the land of Mohammad Jaber Solaiby is their own and the different branches of the Israeli military are mobilizing to make it so.

The Solaiby family has documentation proving their ownership of the land, but the law enforcers refuse to acknowledge the law and protect Solaiby and his property from the settlers.

Jabber Abu Solaiby owns 200 dunums of land where the Palestinian village of Beit Ummar meets the Beit Ayn settlement, near Hebron. He has filed eight different police reports with the Gush Etzion police concerning the settlers' destruction of his property and assault on him. The police have done nothing to protect him and instead have told him that he cannot go to his land.

ISM said: Yesterday a peace activist from Beit Ummar named Moussa, was detained by an Israeli intelligence service (Shabak) agent, beaten, threatened with arrest and told to stay out of the area for one month. Last Friday, the police stopped Solaiby from accessing his land. They told him that if he or his wife steps on his own land, the settlers are going to beat him.

When Moussa told the Shabak agent who identified himself as Daoud, "you are helping the settlers, not the owners of the land." Daoud responded, "That is my job." "Daoud" then threatened to imprison Moussa for eight days before a judge could decide if he can leave, which is the standard military court procedure for Palestinians.

Hassib Nashashibi, from the Ensan Center for Democracy and Human Rights, said that contrary to the official documents proving Solaiby's ownership of the land the civil administration and police claim his land has been sold to Jews. Nashashibi has also confirmed that there is no official documentation forbidding Solaiby or anyone else from being on his property, although the army, police, and secret service are acting as if there is.

"While Israel talks of convergence, the facts on the ground are military backed expansion," ISM concluded.

Previous Stories:
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  Israel kills a Palestinian security chief   (6/9/2006)

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