The Regavim coordinator for Judea and Samaria presented extremely disturbing data to the Sovereignty Youth on the organized, European Union-backed takeover of Area C by the Arabs of Judea and Samaria.
In the Sovereignty Youth seminar that was held at the Oz veGaon preserve, disturbing photographs were presented showing what is happening in Judea and Samaria, while the discussion on sovereignty is taking its first steps in hasbara. Shay Hemo, the Judea and Samaria coordinator for Regavim, displayed the survey before dozens of youths.
Hemo emphasized the steps that the Palestinians are taking, with European backing, to establish facts on the ground specifically in Area C, which is defined in the Oslo Accords as under Israel’s civil and security control.
“In 2009 the Prime minister of the PA, Salam Fiyyad came to the conclusion that there would be no chance of having two states after the Intifada, so he planned the de facto establishment of a Palestinian state unilaterally”, Hemo began, showing the cover of the Palestinian document produced by Fiyyad in August 2009 entitled “The end of the occupation and the establishment of the state”.
This plan sets for itself the goal, first and foremost, to set up a stake in a triangle between Beit Lehem, Jericho and Ramallah, a triangle that is considered most important for Fiyyad’s practical plan. This triangle thwarts the possibility for Jerusalem to develop in the eastern direction, the only direction that Jerusalem can possibly develop. In the center of this triangle is Khan al-Ahmar.
“The European Union expresses its open support for Fiyyad’s plan”, says Hemo, citing the decision of the European Union placing it as a goal to promote and develop Palestinian planning and building in Area C. “In so doing, the Union is collaborating in the unilateral building of the state without relating to the Israeli side”, says Hemo, who presented a series of very disturbing data on what is happening on the ground and on the practical ways that this takeover is executed, with European backing.
“The construction is being done by building structures overnight, bearing European Union stickers, which is intended to warn the authorities in Israel against destroying them. This method has proved itself over the years”, states Hemo, telling of villages that did not exist and as a result of this method were defined as existing villages to be restored and rebuilt.
Another popular method is based on the mixed legislation in Judea and Samaria. “In Judea and Samaria, in the absence of Israeli law, there is a mixture of Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli law. One of the Ottoman laws is that if a person cultivates land for ten years, he can claim ownership and register it in his name”, explains Hemo, noting that the reason for this law was the desire of the Ottoman regime to expand its tax base, because according to Ottoman law, if someone cultivates land, it obligates him to pay tax to the state.
“The PA understands this matter and uses it effectively”, states Hemo, telling of planting operations, paving of roads, building structures and all of this with the significant support of the European Union, which flows huge sums of money amounting to tens of millions of dollars.
Hemo notes that while illegal building occupies from 100 to 300 meters, every illegal agricultural event takes up hundreds of acres, and from the point of view of the Palestinian plan, Fiyyad’s plan is making significant progress.
Along with the European support, the PA has set out in a fund-raising campaign among the citizens entitled “Planting a tree is our answer to the application of Israeli law”.
Hemo presented the attendees to the seminar with many photographed examples from throughout Judea and Samaria showing the agricultural takeover, the refurbishing of villages that did not exist before, paving of roads and more and again, as mentioned, all with the support of the European Union.
Hemo also described the way that the Palestinians are taking advantage of the situation that before the Six Day War, the Jordanians had enough time to regulate about a third of the lands of Judea and Samaria and left another two thirds of the lands where the law applied, which allowed a person who worked the land for ten years to claim ownership of the land. This law, notes Hemo, only relates to the Arabs, not to Jews, according to the decision of Judge Dorit Beinish.
The Palestinians make marks on the rocks to determine their own land arrangements. Israeli apathy will cause their definition to become fact”, warns Hemo. “We huddle within the Blue Lines but the war is in the open area”.
“There is no status quo. The situation is changing in an extremely dynamic way on the ground and favors the one who is most active”, says Hemo, explaining that the application of sovereignty can solve several problems, but even this is not a complete answer because “It takes only one fool to throw a stone into the well, but a hundred sages to remove it”.
“Sovereignty will annul laws such as the one described above and it will especially cut off the hope of establishing a state and remove the motivation to take these unilateral steps”, says Hemo.
Other participants in the first day of the seminar: Journalist Shalom Yerushalmi, Prof. Aryeh Eldad, head of Gush Etzion Council Shlomo Ne’eman, publicist and director of Yisrael Sheli Sarah Haetzni-Cohen, journalist Yair Sharki and Rav David Nativ.