Lands of 'Awarta town annexed and its history falsified

Tuesday November 20, 2007 12:15 by Ameen Abu Wardeh - IMEMC News

 'Awarta village, located southeast of the West Bank city of Nablus, has been invaded by groups of Israeli settlers who are more extreme than any other settlers in the West Bank.

The town is currently an open-air jail after the Israeli closure of the main street to Nablus. Previously, it would take only ten minutes to reach the city center of Nablus on this road, but now residents of the town are obliged to use Huwara checkpoint which doubles the distance and doubles the cost.

Awad Abed As Salam, a teacher in the town, reported that Israeli settlers annexed the fields, splitting them into two parts.  The parts are separated by barbed wire rolls and electrified fences.

The settlers' homes lie behind two rows of barbed-wire, while the Palestinian farmers' fields are isolated between these rows.  Israeli forces have declared the fields to be a 'no man's land' that the Palestinians are forbidden from entering, for fear that they might try to enter the Israeli settlement.

"We as farmers are only allowed to reach our fields in the first isolated area, but the fields which are near the settlements are forbidden, and we have to watch the settlers pick our olives, unable to do anything about it", Abed As Salam said.

The fields which are now controlled by the settlers were owned by the families of Khalet Abed, Ras Ibrahim, Hijafa, Khalet Sultan, Karm al Doroob, Sheikh Mohammad Mount, Al Sa'ab and Marah al Adas.

The settlers did not stop at the seizure of land, but also have executed religious customs late at night, accompanied by soldiers on archaeological sites which they claim are Jewish religious ruins.

In fact, archaeologists have documented that the sites are Islamic ruins.   Nawaf al 'Amer, a Palestinian researcher, indicated that all evidence uncovered at the three archaeological sites of al' Ezizat, al Mafdal, and the Seventy-Sheikh point to their origins as Islamic holy sites.

But the true disaster for the residents of 'Awarta and the surrounding villages is Itmar settlement, which is a geographic and political obstacle for the residents connection with Nablus and the Jordan Valley.

The settlement was established at the end of the 1970s when the Israeli high court issued a decision to remove the settlements in the area of Rojeeb, and transfer the settlers who were living there to the Bilal Mountain lands in Deir al Hatab.

In 1984, the Itmar settlement was established by Ma'er institute students, and was named at the beginning as "Tal Hayem", as a sign to "resume Jewish life" in that area.

Jews consider the location an ideological and religious site that has alleged links with "Eliezer Itmar Benhas" according toJewish history.

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