Israeli military prolongs Amniyr closure; CPT releases video on recent
evacuation

Amniyr, South Hebron Hills, West Bank

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/user/AtTuwaniProject#p/u/0/tVFzTCKSerI

The Israeli army renewed the 'closed military zone' order for the
village of Amniyr until next Monday, May 16, effectively keeping
Palestinian owners off their land for at least another week.

CPT has released a video of the evacuation of Amniyr, a Palestinian
village south of Yatta, carried out by the Israeli military on Friday,
May 6.  After declaring the area a closed military zone, soldiers and
police used tear gas and sound grenades to chase away the families who
own the land.  The previous day at 5 a.m., the military destroyed six
shacks and uprooted 150 olive trees in Amniyr, demolishing all the
structures in the village for the third time in about ten weeks.

On January 19, 2011, the Israeli Occupation Authorities delivered
demolition, evacuation and halt  construction orders.  Since then, the
village was completely demolished on February 22, then again on March
29, after the Palestinians of Amniyr rebuilt their homes. According to
the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Land
Research Center (LRC), the owners of the 88 dunums of land targeted by
the evacuation order have original ownership documents from the
Turkish Ottoman era.

In the last fifteen years, Palestinians in the area have endured
several waves of eviction and land confiscation.  Using military
orders to establish closed military areas, “security zones” and a
“National Park” prohibited to Palestinians, the Occupation Authorities
have thereby restricted the land accessible to Palestinians. The
Occupation Authorities have also destroyed cisterns and caves and
denied basic services to the Palestinian families still living on
their land, while allowing Israeli settlers to build homes and
facilities on the confiscated land.

For background information on the area see
http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=3002

--
CPT-Palestine in At-Tuwani,
South Hebron Hills

0542-531-323
0595-980-718
Twitter @cptpalestine