Givat Zeev - the technique of settlement expansion
We went by taxi. We were delayed because of two flat tires, but it was an excellent arrangement.
08:15 Jib checkpoint, Givat Zeev, Agan Ha’ayalot (Deer Basin)
The checkpoint has been transformed into a huge, roofed structure. There’s one narrow pedestrian lane. The rest is for vehicles crossing to Area B, Ramallah and Qalandiya on a road that passes under Highway 443. Even though it’s fairly late in the morning, workers with permits are still crossing. Some don’t receive a monthly pay slip, from which we infer their permits aren’t legal. Most of them work in Givat Zeev. The soldiers at the checkpoint never heard of us. They’re suspicious and don’t allow us to approach. We don’t insist, because there’s not much to see now.
We decided to drive to the additional construction at Givat Zeev – Ramat Givat Zeev and Agan Ha’ayalot. It’s the same old system: a settlement is established a few kilometers from Givat Zeev (Agan Ha’ayalot), and then it’s connected to an additional settlement between the original town and the farther onet. The neighborhood in the middle is already named for the original town/neighborhood (Ramat Givat Zeev). The construction has shaved the hillside and houses ultra-orthodox families. There are many elaborate playgrounds and additional areas ready for building.
There’s no checkpoint leaving Givat Zeev, but entrance from Highway 443 is limited by a checkpoint. We didn’t go there.
Agan Ha’ayalot (Deer Basin)
Ramat Givat Zeev – connected the existing Givat Zeev to Agan Ha’ayalot.
Nabi Samwil
We came to see what had changed in this little Palestinian village trapped by the Nabi Samwil site and the nature preserve that had been established there. According to the owner of the kiosk at the entrance – everything’s great, “and whoever says otherwise is lying.”
Al-Jib CP Givat Zeev (Jerusalem)
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Al-Jib CP GivatZeev (Jerusalem)
It is located on the separation fence, west of the al-Jib enclave. The checkpoint is regularly manned by Border Police and private security companies. Palestinians are not allowed to cross except for residents of the al-Khalaila neighborhood of the village of al-Jib, residents of al-Jib who own land on the western side of the fence, residents of a-Nabi Samuel, which is their only access road to Ramallah and the villages in northwest Jerusalem, as well as Palestinians with work permits in the Givat Zeev settlement and UN workers passing through UN vehicles.
(Updated January 2020)
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Jerusalem
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The places in East Jerusalem which are visited routinely by MachsomWatch women are Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. During the month of Ramadan, also the Old City and its environs are monitored.
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Nabi Samwil
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Nabi Samwil - a village literally placed in a transparent cage.
This Palestinian village is 800 years old. It is located on top of a hill, its altitude 890 meters above sea level, and overlooks the entire area. According to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, the Prophet Samuel was buried here. In recent years the mosque has been turned into a popular Jewish prayer site. Jews use the basement for prayer, and Muslims the upper part of the mosque. New signs are placed here, containing verses from the Jewish scriptures and mention of exclusively Israeli historical times. The nearby spring has become a popular site of ritual bathing. On Iyar 28th, every year, a mass-celebration is held in memory of the Prophet Samuel.
Until 1967 this was a well-off village that developed around the mosque, with a population of 1,000 owning thousands of dunams of farmland. In 1967 most of the villagers fled, and only 250 remained. In 1971 Israel expelled them, and until the 1990s completely razed its houses that were sitting on a Crusader and Hellenist archeological stratum, without any kind of compensation for the expelled inhabitants. Parts of the village lands are at present used for the settler-colony of Har Shmuel, another part has been declared a national park. Villagers have tried to restore their lives on their remaining lands, a short distance from their original homes, in an area that formerly held structures to house the village’s livestock.
Then the Separation Fence was erected in the West Bank, the village remained an enclave caught between the Green Line and the Fence, and its inhabitants were torn away from other West Bank villages. Any exit to the West Bank requires crossing the distant Jib checkpoint, with a permit. The movement to Israel inside the Green Line is forbidden as well. In 1995 the entire village area was declared a national park – not only around the mosque and antiquities around it which take up about 30 dunams, but an area of no less than 3,500 dunams including the new village and all of its land. Any additional construction is forbidden: any room, caravan, fence, a newly planted tree. Work permits are issued sparingly. There is a tiny school made up of several caravans.
Watch the movie by Eran Turbiner and MachsomWatch: NABI SAMWIL 1099-2099, a film by Eran Torbiner
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