By Kawther Salam
July 15, 2010
In the occupied towns, cities, villages and refugee camps of Palestine, stealing water and spreading drugs by the Israeli occupation are symptoms of a daily cold war in which the Palestinians are suffering of shortage of drinking water and basic daily needs, and the increasing number of Palestinian drug dealers under control of the Israeli army and police.
The Israeli occupation is destroying the Palestinian wells with bulldozersSeveral protest demos about these problems took place in Hebron during the last months. The Palestinians receive water for drinking once each three months and for 6 hours, while the Israeli colonies in the same towns steal the water for irrigating their gardens, filling their swimming pools, and for their industries from Palestinians.
During the limited hours in which they receive water, Palestinians must fill tanks, kitchen pots or underground tanks in their gardens to store some water for drinking and daily use for the next three months. Many people store their water in unhealthy ways, they leave the water uncovered or in dirty tanks where bacteria find a fertile place for living and growing.
Some days following gathering water, the Israeli occupation goes and destroys the underground tanks and wells with bulldozers, or they shoot at the Palestinian tanks on the rooftops of their houses. This is a daily hidden war against the Palestinian civilians in all the occupied West Bank cities, not only Hebron.
According the Christian Peace Maker Team, Israeli army from so called “border police” unit demolished a rainwater cistern and removed irrigation pipes from several Palestinian fields in Al Beqa’a Valley just east of Hebron on July 14, 2010, the second day of incidents in the area this month.
Israelis are destroying the Palestinian wells in Hebron.A large bagger used to break up the concrete of the cistern was just leaving the site. The driver of a large tractor lifted scoops full of rocks and dumped them into the demolished cistern. Also, workers cut and disposed of irrigation pipes laid in two fields. The fields each measured 10 dunams (approximately 40 acres). One was a field of grape vines and the other field had tomatoes planted under grape vines. In addition to dismantling the irrigation pipes, the workers also cut the twines that were holding up tomato plants. At least seven families will be affected by this destruction, in total about 50 people.
Palestinians alleged that some of the Israelis that were with the border police and the Israeli military so called district coordination office “DCO” on July 14th were from the Mekorot Company. Rather than preventing Palestinians from taping into the well at the source, the Israeli authorities destroyed the irrigation pipes in the fields of several families. Each 200m roll of irrigation drip pipe costs about 370NIS (~100$US), and the connection piping costs about 2.5NIS for each inch. For each dunam of vegetables it takes about 2-3 days to put the irrigation drip piping in place. The cost of the materials and time that goes into growing produce is high.
Rather than prevent the ‘theft’ of water (which is ironically from an aquiver under Palestine) earlier in the season, the Israeli authorities instead waited until crops were almost ready for market. Therefore this destruction is not meant to stop the ‘theft’ of water but to cause the highest impact on farmers in the region.
Drug War in Hebron
The IDF and police are using this experience and the same tactics to destroy the poor Palestinians who live in the old city of Hebron. A Palestinian policeman fought against the drug dealers in the old city and was arrested by the Israeli police and army.
EU police training the Palestinian Police how to protect the Israeli interests.Yesterday, the Israeli occupation police and soldiers stormed the house of a Palestinian police officer in the city. They beat him in front of his wife and eight children. Then they handcuffed and arrested him without allowing him to put his shoes on or to wear his pants. The Palestinian police officer was very weak and defenseless in front of the Israeli police. He did not defend himself or his honor before his family, who were forced by the Israeli soldiers to enter the kitchen like cockroaches.
The IDF showered the family of the policeman with spit, specially his pregnant wife. This Palestinian police colonel had received training courses at the hands of the European police, who trained him and his colleagues in how to repress the Palestinians and protect the Israeli squatter colonies.
They recommended them not to defend themselves against the Israeli aggression because this could be considered as “terror”. This incident makes it very clear that the Europeans did not train the Palestinian police to fight against the spread of drugs by Israeli soldiers and police, and that self-defense is not stipulated in the agreements which were signed by the US, Israel and the Palestinians.
According to these agreements and the so-called “peace-negotiations”, self-defense is considered “terrorism”.
This is the only kind of police which the USA, the European Union and Israel want to allow to bear the name of a “Palestinian Police” under the rule of the subservient “Palestinian Authority”.
Relating to the drugs plague, the Israeli police and army have increased the trafficking of drugs and increased the number of drug dealers among Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel has long experience and a rich knowledge about destroying the society of Palestinians-Arabs in Israel, what they did in part by spreading the use of drugs among these people.
The IDF and police are using this experience and the same tactics to destroy the poor Palestinians who live in the old city of Hebron. A Palestinian policeman fought against the drug dealers in the old city and was arrested by the Israeli police and army.
Yesterday, the Israeli occupation police and soldiers stormed the house of a Palestinian police officer in the city. They beat him in front of his wife and eight children. Then they handcuffed and arrested him without allowing him to put his shoes on or to wear his pants.
The Palestinian police officer was very weak and defenseless in front of the Israeli police. He did not defend himself or his honor before his family, who were forced by the Israeli soldiers to enter the kitchen like cockroaches. The IDF showered the family of the policeman with spit, specially his pregnant wife.
This Palestinian police colonel had received training courses at the hands of the European police, who trained him and his colleagues in how to repress the Palestinians and protect the Israeli squatter colonies. They recommended them not to defend themselves against the Israeli aggression because this could be considered as “terror”.
This incident makes it very clear that the Europeans did not train the Palestinian police to fight against the spread of drugs by Israeli soldiers and police, and that self-defense is not stipulated in the agreements which were signed by the US, Israel and the Palestinians. According to these agreements and the so-called “peace-negotiations”, self-defense is considered “terrorism”.
The Palestinian Authority only has poor and weak policemen, in Arabic saying “Goats and Rabbits” who can easily be slaughtered. The Palestinian police is powerless to perform any real security mission. Their main duty is to protect the security of squatter colonies and to repress Palestinian activists and political marches against the Israeli occupation. This is the only kind of police which the USA, the European Union and Israel want to allow to bear the name of a “Palestinian Police” under the rule of the subservient “Palestinian Authority”.
The story below is about the arrest of a Palestinian Police officer. It was sent to me by the Christian Peace Maker reported from Hebron.
July 14, 2010 ~
On July 13, 2pm about 20 Israeli police and soldiers invaded the Awewi family home in Hebron’s Old City. They forced the mother and the eight children into the kitchen and arrested the father, who is a Palestinian Authority (PA) police officer. The mother attempted to force the door of the kitchen open to give her husband his shoes and trousers, but a soldier pushed her against the counter in spite of her obvious pregnant status. She threw the shoes down the stairwell, hoping her husband could retrieve them.
Meantime, about 20 Israeli soldiers guarding the street below had ordered a closure of the surrounding shops and prevented Palestinians from walking past for about 15 minutes. One of the soldiers shouted to the people, “Nobody come close or we will shoot.”
By the time CPTers reached the area, the Israeli police and soldiers had taken the Palestinian to Bab il Baledeyya (Beit Romano settlement) checkpoint and ordered him behind the checkpoint gate.WA
CPTers then visited the mother and her shaken-up family. The mother shared all the above information with CPT and was obviously very distressed. The police had given her no reason for the arrest, and it can take up to 14 days before the Red Cross can find out information for family members from Israeli authorities about arrested or detained Palestinians.
Since Israeli settlers established the settlement of Avraham Avinu right next to their home the Awewi family has experienced a lot of distress. The settlers have harassed the family many times, including invasions, and a fire set to one of their bedrooms. Israeli authorities have also arrested family members at least twice. The family has received many large financial offers from the settlers to purchase their home, but the family refuses to sell.
The Israeli police released the PA police officer three hours later, reprimanded him for arresting a Palestinian in the Old City (in H2 area of Hebron under full Israeli control) and not informing the Israeli police of this, and told him not to work in the Old City.
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