Network members' News

Preliminary reports on
Israeli army violations against Palestinian culture, education and administration in Al- Samu’ town, Hebron, During the period from April 10th-11th, 2002

Prepared by Land Research Center Jerusalem

April 12th, 2002

IntroductionB Israeli political and military leaders in Sharon’s government claim that the aim of the current military operations against Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps is to arrest or kill Palestinian fighters. Regrettably, this Israeli notion is believed by many people in the world. However, a quick look at the results of the ongoing Israeli aggression proves the opposite. By issuing a series of preliminary reports on Israeli violations in two groups, the first, tackling the violations in the cultural, educational and administrative fields, the second, tackling the historical and religious fields we hope that the human conscience will wake up before it is too late.

Violations against the town of Samu’, Hebron
Al- Samu’ town is located south of Hebron city close to the borders with the Negev desert and Beersheba area. It has a population of 18 000 people. The remaining land area owned by its residents is 13000 dunums. The people of Samu’ mostly depend on animal husbandry as main income, however, this source of income sharply decreased due to the confiscation of large areas of graze and agricultural land at the hands of the Israeli occupation authorities for settlement and road construction. Following the beginning of the peace process, the Palestinian National Authority opened a police station in the town.
On 8.4.2002, an Israeli military force re-occupied the town and imposed curfew on its residents. The Israeli attacking force found no resistance whatsoever and withdrew from the town after two days. There were no killings or injuries, but the following damage was done to town institutions:

1st. The police station:
It was totally destroyed and its contents damaged.

2nd. The municipality building:
The following damage was done:

1. Blowing up the main door with dynamite, consequently, destroying the front wall;
2. Destroying 13 inner wooden doors, smashing windows and damaging aluminum panels and beams;
3. Destroying desks and meeting table;
4. Confiscating 7 computers, one type machine, disks and CDs;
5. Destroying the photocopy machine and fax machine;
6. Confiscating mobile phones;
7. Confiscating the aerial photograph of the town which was earlier bought from an Israeli company with 10 000 US $;
8. Tearing up the master planning maps of the town;
9. Vandalizing construction licensing files;
10. Vandalizing all the files and contents of the engineering department, including tenders, projects…etc;
11. Confiscating files of land expropriation cases which include land ownership documents, maps, and court minutes and decisions.

3rd. The child rights library:
A modest library established two years ago with USAID given through Save the Children Fund. The library only contained 900 books for children from the age of 6 to 18 arranged in a hall whose total area is 140 M2 and an administration room. This modest child facility exposed to the following damage at the hands of barbaric Israeli soldiers:

1. Blowing up the door of the library with dynamite;
2. Confiscating five computers;
3. Destroying electronic child games;
4. Destroying children toys of different make;
5. Destroying the administration office, 9 desks, 50 child wooden chairs, a number of shelves and cupboards donated by the Japanese government through the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and Information;
6. Tearing up most books into pieces and throwing them all over the place.