🚀 go-pugleaf

## Nachricht <6dZ31tHDg2B@forum.nadeshda.gun.de> vom 09.09.97 20:41 weitergeleitet
## Ursprung : /A R C H I V  1
## Ersteller: i.musa@NADESHDA.gun.de (Izzeddin Musa)



                  *** *70,000 dunums targeted* ***
         *Stonecutting operation drives Jenin villagers out*

                         by Muhammad Balas

  The Israeli occupation forces have over 500 dunums near the village
  of Khiljan in the Jenin area to expand Israeli stonecutting opera-
  tions in the northern West Bank.

  According to the Director General of the Jenin branch of the Minis-
  try of Local Government, Fathi Atatrah, the move of part of a pre-
  liminary steps to seize over 70,000 dunums that belong to a number
  of villages in the area - Khiljan, Um Dar, Tourah - eventually for-
  cing the villagers out. All of the villagers lie west of the forest
  of Ya'abad.

  "The area surrounding Khiljan is considred to be one of the richest
  sources of marble in Palestine and Israel is after those natural
  resources," he said on Monday adding: "Lately, the company dug
  tunnels 60 meters deep, and struck a vien of fine marble that has a
  particular appeal on the European market."

  But Attarah also said that the methods used by the stonecutter com-
  pany were part of israeli plans to drive the Arab population out.

  He said that the Israeli company running the stonecutter avoided the
  use of filters and made no effort to take precautions to protect the
  villagers and the environment from population, in order to make life
  in the area unbearable.

  The villages most affected are Khiljan, Um Dar, Ya'abad, all of whom
  have sent complaints to Governer of Jenin, to the ministry of Health
  and of Local Government as wel as to Knesset members, and legal orga-
  nisationsdemanding the closing dwon of the stonecutter operations.
  They call it the Um Rihan stonecutter after the area.

  Farmer Taisir Al-Khatib said that the farmers in the environs of
  Khiljan have not been able to harvest the olive groves for the
  past two years. They have turned white from the dust of the Um
  Rihan stonecutter.

  "The dust is affecting us all - peiople, animals and plants," he
  said, noting that the number of people suffering pulmonary diseases
  has risen.

  He added that the villagers were recently approached by the Israeli
  Intellegence officers who had proposed to buy their property "for
  very tempting sums which we refused." Al-Khatib said. (Hallo, hallo
  oldy dirty jewish methods!).

  Surrounded by an electric fence, the stonecutter company has been
  burrowing at 60 meters deep, often using explosives. "This has
  caused much structural damage to thehomes, and entitles them to
  compensation," Local Government representative Attarah said.

  The Um Rihan stonecutter suspended operations during the first few
  months of the Intifada. It resumed work following the signing of
  the Oslo Accords three years ago (thanks Arafat, thanks Abu Mazen),
  in September 1993.


  THE JERUSALEM TIMES, September 5, 1997

  Wachtberg, 09.09.1997                    IM / Forum for Plaestine



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