#WestBankUnderAttack | Annexation | IOF displace the Jordan Valley’s residents under pretext of military exercises

[ PIC 09/11/2012 – 09:43 PM ]
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NORTHERN JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC)– The northern Jordan Valley has been recently witnessing mass deportations, to be added to relentless campaigns of house demolitions, chasing the citizens, arresting shepherds and preventing construction and infrastructure.

The head of Wadi al-Maleh village council, Aref Daraghma, told PIC’s correspondent that: “Wadi al-Maleh has been recently witnessing mass deportation under the pretext of military exercises, including tens of families in five Bedouin communities living in the region.”

He added that the occupation authorities prevented services for the Bedouin communities’ residents, banned them from using the natural resources, and notified them of the demolition of all their houses, noting that the occupation already started demolishing dozens of buildings.

Mokhlis Massaeid, head of the village council of Yarza in the Jordan Valley, said that the communities recently targeted with deportation are: Yarza and Ras al-Hamra, al-Mayta, Wadi al-Maleh and Ain al-Hilweh and that these sites have a population of 1000 inhabitants.

Activist in resisting settlement in the Jordan Valley, Mohammed Daraghma, pointed to PIC’s correspondent that the occupation’s aim behind using the wide military maneuvers, as a pretext, is to force the residents to permanently leave the region, and to implement the Judaization schemes.

He stated that the occupation authorities will never allow the residents, once they left these areas, to come back again.

Mohammed Makhamra, a resident in Wadi al-Hilweh, revealed that the residents may face dangers if they chose to not leave their lands, as the military exercises are carried out using live ammunition. Thus staying in the region during the maneuvers means being inside the firing range of the occupation forces.

Makhamra added that such maneuvers often cause injuries among the citizens and noted that sometimes the Israeli soldiers break into the neighborhoods and start training in the alleys and terrorizing the children claiming that the area is a closed military zone and ordering the citizens to leave it to ensure their safety.

“We fear that if we leave because of these exercises, the occupation forces will demolish all our homes with its military bulldozers”, he said.

He called the local and international institutions to take effective actions regarding the issue of the Northern Jordan Valley.