At-Home with Gila Svirsky

Jerusalem
2 September 2004
Subject: Eviction Threat to Cave Dwellers

Please forward!

Friends,

We need the help of decent people from all over the world to prevent the threatened expulsion by Israel of a powerless community of herders and farmers who live in caves in the Occupied Territories, with little connection to the outside world.

Fourteen Israeli organizations have joined together to help them, and are sponsoring a petition called:

"Stop the Eviction of Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills"

For your convenience, we have pasted a copy below.
If you'd like to sign, click on:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SafeCave/petition.html

More details below.

Sponsoring organizations (all Israeli):

* Bat Shalom * Coalition of Women for Peace * Fifth Mother * Gush Shalom * HaCampus Lo Shotek [Campus Speaks Out] * Israel Committee Against House Demolitions * MachsomWatch * New Profile * Noga Feminist Journal * Public Committee Against Torture in Israel * Rabbis for Human Rights * Ta'ayush: Arab-Jewish Partnership * Women in Black (Israel) * Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Israel Section)

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The Petition:

To: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Ministry of Justice Yosef Lapid

STOP THE EVICTION OF PALESTINIANS FROM THE SOUTH HEBRON HILLS

We, the undersigned, call upon the Israeli government to abandon all attempts to evict the Palestinian inhabitants of the south Hebron hills from their ancestral homes in the region. Forcible expulsion of a population is reprehensible and a violation of international law. Israel, as a member of the community of nations and a signatory to the Rome Convention of 1994, is committed to safeguarding the population of the occupied territories and is strictly forbidden from any attempt to change its residency status. We further demand that the Israeli authorities protect this population from ongoing harassment and aggression by Israeli settlers in the area.

If you'd like to sign, click on:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SafeCave/petition.html

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Background Information

We ask your help in preventing an emerging human and cultural tragedy in the south Hebron hills on the West Bank in territory occupied by Israel.

This area is inhabited by a small Palestinian population of approximately 2,000 pastoralist herders and farmers living in caves carved out of the mountainside. Their way of life is unique in Palestine, perhaps in the Middle East, as they have survived by farming the rocky hillsides and tending their flocks for at least 170 years.

Today, their homes, fields, and way of life are under existential threat. Israeli settlers have established a string of settlements and illegal outposts in this area and seek to annex the land in the immediately foreseeable future. The Jewish settlers of Susya, Maon, Yatir, and other places in the Hebron hills are among the most militant and violent in the occupied territories, and they have turned the lives of the Palestinian cave-dwellers into a nightmare.

With support from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Civil Administration, the settlers have systematically destroyed nearly 80% of the Palestinian's cave-homes, in some cases going so far as to poison their wells. In most cases, even simple agricultural work, such as sowing the fields or harvesting the crops, has become impossible; settlers and soldiers terrorize the Palestinian families and chase them at gunpoint from the fields. Indeed, several of the cave-dwellers have even been shot by these militants. In most cases, the IDF and Civil Administration have turned a blind eye to these crimes.

Recently the cave-dwellers were informed that the Israeli government intends to permanently expel them from their villages and seize their lands. The threat is real, credible, and immediate.

We, a coalition of organizations in the Israeli peace movement, are trying to prevent this from happening. A legal battle in the Israeli courts, led by human rights lawyer Shlomo Lecker and the staff of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, has temporarily granted these people the right to remain on their land. However, there are now indications that the Israeli High Court of Justice will soon issue a decision that allows the IDF to evict the Palestinians and seize their land.

We have joined together to help these people preserve their homes, their culture, and their human dignity.

We need your help. We feel now that only massive international pressure will be able to stop these heinous crimes. We ask you to help by signing this petition, and forwarding it to colleagues and friends. We will ensure that it is brought to the attention of the Israeli authorities.

Please help us protect these innocent families from falling victim to the conflict in the Middle East.

In our experience as Israelis, serious petitions can be an effective tool in cases of this nature.

If you'd like to sign, click on:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/SafeCave/petition.html

Sponsoring organizations (all Israeli):

* Bat Shalom * Coalition of Women for Peace * Fifth Mother * Gush Shalom * HaCampus Lo Shotek [Campus Speaks Out] * Israel Committee Against House Demolitions * MachsomWatch * New Profile * Public Committee Against Torture in Israel * Rabbis for Human Rights * Ta'ayush: Arab-Jewish Partnership * Women in Black (Israel) * Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Israel Section)