By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
JERUSALEM, Israel — Last Sunday, Israeli security forces dismantled a Palestinian protest camp that was constructed during President Obama’s recent visit to Israel in protest to the expansion of settlements in the controversial site known as E-1, a corridor that connects the West Bank with East Jerusalem.
Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that, just before dawn, around 200 Israeli officers removed some 40 demonstrators from the camp. Police said that no weapons were used, and that they were deployed to the area after activists refused to leave. Forces arrested four people, including two women charged with violating military orders and resisting arrest. Also among the arrested was the event organizer, Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti. Arrestees were taken to Maale Adumim Police Station and were later released on bail. Barghouti said that around 50 other protesters were placed on a bus and later released in the Palestinian-controlled portion of the West Bank.
Dubbed “Ahfad Younis,” the camp was pitched last Wednesday on a hill adjacent to another camp site known as Bab al-Shams, which was erected earlier this year before eventually being taken down by security forces on the grounds of “public disorder.” The camps are an attempt to draw attention to Israeli plans to expand settlements into the controversial E-1 corridor. Critics of the expansion say that the plan to build 3,500 housing units in E-1 would “cut off the northern part of the West Bank from the south, and would leave Palestinian areas of Jerusalem surrounded by a chain of Jewish ones, threatening the vulnerability of a future Palestinian state.”
Similar encampments have sprouted throughout the region, but were taken down quickly by security forces.
During his visit to Israel, Obama acknowledged that the expansion into E-1 would be “particularly problematic.” “Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, that an independent Palestine must be viable with real borders that have to be drawn,” said Obama in a speech to students in Jerusalem last Thursday.
The international community itself has urged Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his government to reconsider the expansion. Early in Obama’s first term, Netanyahu agreed to a ten-month slow down. Talks then resumed briefly in 2010. Afterwards, talks went stale as Netanyahu refused to extend the slowdown and construction continued. Palestinians might increase their efforts for international recognition if Israel continues to construct settlements in the West Bank. “We have to focus on the steadfastness of our people, and we have 63 international agencies we can join,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, referring to the Palestinian plan for international recognition.
For further information, please see:
Al Bawaba — Israel Dismantles Palestinian ‘Bab al-Shams’ Protest Camp — 24 March 2013
Al Jazeera — Israel Dismantles Palestinian Protest Camp — 24 March 2013
Haaretz — Israel Dismantles Palestinian Tent City Built at Start of Obama Visit — 24 March 2013
San Francisco Chronicle — Palestinians Cool to Partial Settlement Freeze — 24 March 2013
