EU diplomats say IDF manhandled them in West Bank, violated humanitarian law.

Press Release Sept. 21, 2013

Gush Shalom: The passion for destroying small villages ended up causing a diplomatic incident.

 Israeli soldiers resorted to violence against diplomats from France and other European countries on their way to give humanitarian aid to inhabitants of a village destroyed by the IDF. Quite embarassing, just a few days after the government made a desperate plea to the European Union to relax its new guidelines , excluding Israeli organizations active in  the Occupied Territories from getting European grants. 

Already for many years, the occupation authorities implement the most brutal policy precisely against the smallest and weakest of the Palestinian communities. Poor  shepherds who live in miserable huts or in caves, at the Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills. They want nothing but to be left alone to live their life  of poverty, but the State of Israel is sending soldiers and police and bulldozers to demolish their homes and leave them without a roof over their heads. .

Those who implement this cruel policy have the illusion that no one notices and no one cares what happens in remote, out of the way spots. When the tiny village called Khirbet Makhoul was destroyed and its residents left destitute and homeless , the world did hear about it. Immediately there arrived a Red Cross delegation and after them,  representatives of the European Union - from France , the UK , Spain , Ireland and also from Australia - to support the residents and bring them tents and emergency supplies. This was a clear humanitarian duty , understandable to all . Understandable to all except those who run the occupation policy, people who seem to have long since lost any vestige of moral sensitivity .

Contact: Adam Keller +972-(0)54-2340749 

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IDF STOPS PALESTINIANS FROM REBUILDING RAZED WEST BANK VILLAGE.

Jerusalem Post staff, REUTERS         20 September  2013

IDF soldiers detain Palestinian in Jordan Valley, September 20, 2013 Photo: REUTERS

IDF soldiers clashed with Palestinians and foreign activists attempting to raise a makeshift tent encampment near Hamdat in the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank on Friday.

The IDF called the incident a "disturbance of the peace," and a provocation," while European diplomats said they were "manhandled" and illegally prevented from delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians by the IDF.

Homes in the Palestinian Beduin community of Khirbet Al-Makhul were originally demolished earlier this week after the High Court of Justice ruled that they did not have proper building permits.

The IDF prevented activists from putting up new tents on Friday and confiscated equipment used to raise the makeshift settlement.

The IDF spokesman's office said that security forces encountered rock throwing and used riot dispersal methods in handling the incident. Three Palestinians were arrested and the area was declared a closed military zone.

A Reuters reporter saw soldiers throw sound grenades at a group of diplomats, aid workers and locals, and yank a French diplomat out of the truck before driving away with its contents.

"They dragged me out of the truck and forced me to the ground with no regard for my diplomatic immunity," French diplomat Marion Castaing said.

"This is how international law is being respected here," she said, covered with dust.

The IDF stated that "reports that foreign diplomats abused their diplomatic privileges are currently being reviewed, and if required, complaints will be filed with the relevant authorities."

Locals said Khirbet Al-Makhul was home to about 120 people. The army demolished their ramshackle houses, stables and a kindergarten on Monday after the High Court ruling.

Despite losing their property, the inhabitants have refused to leave the land, where, they say, their families have lived for generations along with their flocks of sheep.

A spokesman at the British Consulate General in Jerusalem said London was "seriously concerned" by the Makhul demolitions and by the subsequent refusal to let villagers receive aid.

IDF soldiers stopped the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delivering emergency aid on Tuesday and on Wednesday. IRCS staff managed to put up some tents but the army forced them to take the shelters down.

Diplomats from France, Britain, Spain, Ireland, Australia and the European Union's political office, turned up on Friday with more supplies. As soon as they arrived, about a dozen IDF jeeps converged on them, and soldiers told them not to unload their truck.

"It's shocking and outrageous. We will report these actions to our governments," said one EU diplomat, who declined to be named because he did not have authorization to talk to the media.

"(Our presence here) is a clear matter of international humanitarian law. By the Geneva Convention, an occupying power needs to see to the needs of people under occupation. These people aren't being protected," he said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that Makhul was the third Beduin community to be demolished by the Israelis in the West Bank and adjacent Jerusalem municipality since August.

Palestinians have accused the Israeli authorities of progressively taking their historical grazing lands, either earmarking it for military use or handing it over to the Israelis whose settlements dot the West Bank.

Israelis and Palestinians resumed direct peace talks last month after a three-year hiatus. Palestinian officials have expressed serious doubts about the prospects of a breakthrough.

"What the Israelis are doing is not helpful to the negotiations. Under any circumstances, talks or not, they're obligated to respect international law," the unnamed EU diplomat said.

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