UAWC updates “NUMGE” Delegation about the Israeli violations in Bethlehem
Ramallah – The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) organized a field visit for a delegation from the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees (NUMGE) through the Norwegian People’s Fund to update them about the Israeli violations in the villages of Soreef and Jab’aa in the southern part of the Governorate of Bethlehem. In addition to highlighting UAWC’s work to stop the Israeli confiscation order of 4000 dunums from the Palestinian land belonging to farmers in the visited area.
The director of UAWC’s Grassroots, Policies & Advocacy department Samah Darwish stressed on UAWC’s work regarding raising the farmers’ legal awareness through legal workshops within Defending Our Rights project funded by the Norwegian People’s Fund. In addition, UAWC supports the farmers through covering the land survey expenses, and representing them in the courts.
The Mayor of Soreef Mohammad Ghnemat pointed that the farmers face several Israeli violations that include structures demolition and confiscation notices, in addition to creating an occupational segregation gate between the villages of Soreef and Jab’aa that increases the suffering of the Palestinians.
Ghnemat emphasized on the importance of supporting the resilience of the Palestinian farmers and to circulate their struggle among the international society.
Moreover, the delegation met the Mayor of Jab’aa Na’man Hamdan. Hamdan gave the delegation an insight about the Israeli violations pointing that the first confiscation order against the village of Jab’aa was in 1968 and since then many confiscation notices were ordered. The Israeli occupation confiscated ten thousand dunums from the village’s land to restrict their agricultural and livestock developments.
At the end of the meeting, the delegation had a field tour to the villages of Soreef and Jab’aa, the area that is threatened with confiscation, the Apartheid Wall and the gate between the two villages.