The attack of the settlers on the activists in Anatot

The Story of the Land Grab

The violence of settlers is again striking the headlines. The following video, made by Solidarity, tells the whole story of what happened last week in the settlement of Anatot (AKA Almon).

I was lucky, unlike many of my friends, activists in Solidarity and Ta’ayush and in other groups, i wasn’t injured and even my car is now back, fixed, from the garage. I don’t want to add more words on what happened (i urge you to watch the video, and to read some of the descriptions here and here), but i thought it was important to bring the story of the land grab that was in the background of this incident. It is an example of how the settlements take over Palestinian lands, even when officially the Palestinian owners are still “allowed” to access them. See the details in the following presentation:

Anatot is only one of many other settlements that took over Palestinian lands. Few months ago, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition by Palestinians from the village of Jaba’ together with Bimkom and Yesh Din that asked to cancel a construction plan of a settlement because it crated enclaves of private Palestinian lands within the fenced area of the settlement. The Supreme Court approved the plan, and ruled that because officially the owners of the lands will be allowed in their lands, there should not be a problem to surround their lands with houses of settlements. Unfortunately, in too many cases where the Palestinians should be able to have access to lands that are trapped within settlements, eventually they are not allowed in, or they can only enter with coordination with the Israeli army which is limited, and with permits. Usually it means that it is very very hard, if not impossible, for the Palestinians to make free use  of their legally owned property. Many times, the fight to access one’s property has to include going to the courts (see here) or, like in Anatot, a long and hard political struggle, and the chances to succeed are not so high. Unfortunately, many Palestinians give up.

Read more about private lands in settlements in Peace Now’s report.