Bismillah [hidayahnet] ACTION ALERT: West Bank Villagers threatened with expulsion

[Islahonline]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033  www.gush-shalom.org          West Bank villagers threatened with imminent expulsion          International action alert          After the background information follows a request for sending your protest letter (sample letter given) to an also given list of email and fax addresses. Included is the address of a website from where you can send faxes all over the world as a free internet-based service.          Tel Aviv, April 19, 2005          Yesterday morning (April. 18) the tiny Palestinian village of Aqaba, south-east of Jenin, received a new visitation from Asher, the local boss of the Israeli army's "Civil Administration".     Aqaba villagers have long come to dread Asher's visits. On one past occasion, he had come to decree that the village's mosque and kindergarten were "illegally built" and had to be pulled down - a threat removed only after half a year of struggle. This time around, Asher came with expulsion orders for people. Three Aqaba families - twenty seven adults and children in all - were handed orders stating: "You are staying illegally in a closed zone, proclaimed according to article 70 of the Judea and Samaria security ordinance 378 of 1970. You are hereby ordered to vacate said closed zone within 72 hours. Failure to heed this order may result in your removal by force and the confiscation of your livestock, and you may be held accountable to refund the army's expenses for said removal."          Nobody knows with certainty how long the village of Aqaba had been declared "a closed zone" according to occupation law. Aqaba has the bad fortune to be on the edge of the Jordan Valley, an area earmarked for annexation to Israel as far back as the Alon Plan of the early 1970's which still very much guides the policies of the present government. The intended annexation of the Jordan Valley appeared in a map published just last Friday (April 15, 2005) on the front page of Yediot Aharonot, reportedly reflecting the territorial ambitions of the Sharon Government. Over the decades, its inhabitants endured numerous acts of harassment by the Israeli military, evidently aimed at making them go away "voluntarily".          The people of Aqaba have little recourse except appealing to the help and support of people of good will, inside Israel and internationally. In the past, such support proved effective, and with your help it can prove so again. We ask you to send, either the sample letter following or a text of your own, to the addresses provided, and in addition try to get your newspaper and/or radio or TV station interested in the issue.          ---sample letter----          Dear Sir or Madam          I was shocked to hear that on the morning of April 18, the "Civil Administration" of the Israeli military government issued deportation orders to three families, altogether comprising 27 adults and children, ordering them to leave within seventy-two hours their village - the village of Aqaba, south-east of Jenin on the West Bank. Let me note that Aqaba is a tiny village numbering no more than a few hundred people. No violent incidents had ever been marked there even at the height of the fighting of the past four years. No charges were made against the people marked for deportation other than "being illegally present in a closed zone". This kind of behaviour by the military authorities would be unacceptable at any time - all the more at what is supposed to be a period of rapprochement and a renewed hope for peace. I ask you to do all in your power to get this inhuman decree annulled forthwith, and also to remove the classification of Aqaba village as "a closed zone" under occupation law, which gives a "legal" base for such expulsion orders.          [your name and address]     -----end sample letter-----          Hereafter follow the addresses to which we hope you will send your complaint; the best is to send where possible NOT ONLY an email but ALSO a fax, and therefore the first information which follows is about a website from which faxes can be sent - NB, it is a free advertiser based service:          Send faxes by email - free of charge:     http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html     (instructions at: http://www.tpc.int/faxbyemail.html )          Send your complaint to the following addresses          To: the Civil Administration of the West Bank military government: Fax  972-2 9977326          + copies          To:     Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,     Office of the Prime Minister     3 Kaplan Street, P O Box 187     Jerusalem 91919, Israel     Fax:  +972 2 6705475     E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]          To:     Minister of Justice Tzippi Livni     Ministry of Justice     29 Salah al-Din Street     Jerusalem 91010, Israel     Fax:  +972 2 6285438     E-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]          To:     Minister of Defence Shaul Mofaz     Ministry of Defence,     37 Kaplan St., Tel-Aviv 61909, Israel.     Fax: +972-3-69-62757/16940/17915     e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]          To:     Minister of Foreign Affairs, Silvan Shalom     Ministry of Foreign Affairs     9 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd., Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91035     Fax 972-2-5303367     e-mail:        Foreign Minister's office - [EMAIL PROTECTED]       Director General's office - [EMAIL PROTECTED]       Spokesman's office - [EMAIL PROTECTED]       Public Relations - [EMAIL PROTECTED]          To: the nearest Israeli Embassy:          (Addresses of Israeli embassies worldwide can be found at     www.embassyworld.com/embassy/isreal1.htm or go to the Government of     Israel website at www.info.gov.il/FirstGov/)          To:     President George W. Bush,     Fax: +1-202-456-2461;          To:     Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice,     Fax: (+1)-202-261-8577;          To: the office of the special middle east coordinator fax: (+1) 202 647 4808          To: Tony Blair, Prime Minister, Britain (Fax +44-207-925-0918)          And last but not least:          Copies to     Aqaba Municipality <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>     Gush Shalom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>          ________________________________          For further details:     Haj Sami Sadek, Mayor of Aqaba Ph. +972-9-2572201 Fax +972-9-2572201     Mobile +972-55-795286     Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson +972-3-5565804, +972-50-6709603     ____________________________                  -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of Hidayahnet unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. 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