There are three cases where settlement expansion is suddenly exploding because of the wall, bringing into focus the real intentions of building the wall. They are:

Jayyous/Zufin with the expansion at Nofei Zufim, Nof HaSharon and Nirit/ Alfei Menashe, Har Gilo/Gilo West and Wallaje.

Without the wall, private contractors would not be interested in any of these places, whereas now, with the wall, no Israelis will be living next to “Arabs” where once those areas were not at all sought after.

Politically the link is now easy to see between the Wall and settlement expansion despite all past promises and statements as to Israel’s intentions. The facts on the ground now speak louder than words.

Israeli past obfuscation as to not wanting to expand settlements & promising to allow farmers access to their land can now be seen as yet another Israeli bluff. A smokescreen, behind which the building and its strategy were planned.

In Jayyous this is the most striking, because the Palestinians in this village are a farming community which is now being completely cut off from its land by the wall. No farmers are affected elsewhere as badly, and therefore threatened with “transfer” once they have lost their only means of providing for themselves.

The Israeli strategy (IDF, settlers and government) has been to target the Palestinian landowners who do not have water rights, either by declaring their lands “state land” or by weakening their hold on their land by cutting them off from their water supply or irrigation system.

Once the land is dried out, and the Palestinians are denied access in various ways (labourers’ access denied, or keeping the gates closed for weeks at a time during Israeli high holidays, or making hours the gates are open incompatible with basic farming needs, military courts not allowing the court file to be opened, etc.), that land then only has value as prime real estate for building. In Jayyous, it is no coincidence that the owner of the Lidar company which is going to be developing the Nofei Zufim expansion of Zufin is Israel’s reputedly wealthiest man, Lev Leviev.

We were expecting an Olive Oil delivery yesterday from Palestine, the shipment arrived and was cleared through customs just in time for Christmas delivery. However, on opening the container we found that it did not contain our Olive Oil order but contained a cargo of oil destined for Italy !

We’re still in the process of tracking our shipment down and have been in touch with the shipping agent in Haifa, Israel, who’ve taken responsibilty for the incident. The cause of the incident is believed to be the result of the shipping firm in Israel placing our cargo in the wrong container.

We’re also in touch with the people in Italy whose cargo we currently have, they’re clearing their container through customs at present and it’s quite likely that our Oil is with them.

As soon as we have more information we’ll post details here & they will be emailed out to all our customers.

Those customers who were waiting for a pre-xmas Olive Oil delivery - we can assure you that we’re doing our utmost to track the container and have it delivered to the UK, we’ve been contacting all our waiting customers by phone or email but please do accept our apologies if we haven’t been able to reach you.

The shipment was insured and we’ll be seeking compensation to recover all extra costs incurred as a result of this incident.

Thank you very much for your understanding and patience.

The Zaytoun Team

Since Zaytoun started taking order’s in Easter of 2004 we have, thanks to the help of countless individuals and organisations, managed to purchase & import some 15 Tons of Palestinian Olive Oil equivalent to approximately 30,000 bottles.

We plan to continue the momentum which has built up around this initiative and our aim for 2005 is to import 45 tons of Palestinian Olive Oil, together we can make this happen.

Once again, thank you for your trust & support & we look forward to working with you all to further build & strengthen this project in 2005.

The Zaytoun team

News from Within is a monthly magazine published by the Alternative Information Center which reflects the center’s combination of political activism with research and analysis.

It challenges the Jewish and Zionist nature of the State of Israel and the authoritarian nature of the Palestinian Authority.

News from Within is at the forefront of the debate that surrounds the economic, social and cultural forces of globalisation and their impact on the conflict in Palestine-Israel.

More information available on News from Within’s website

Palestinian farmer Sharif Omar, from the West Bank village of Jayyous, was among the Palestinian delegation to the Paris European Social Forum in 2003 and also during the recent Netherlands Social Forum.

In his function as chairman of the organization of farmers affected by the Wall, he has also been a frequent guest in many other European countries and has received broad media coverage on many occasions.

This emergency call is due to Israel’s sudden attempt to expropriate the land belonging to Palestinian farmer Sharif Omar and his colleagues for the purpose of building a complete new settlement.

No sooner did Sharif Omar return to Jayyous, we received the shocking information that the bulldozers have already begun their work. we have learned that by now more than a hundred olive trees have been uprooted.

The emergency call is to anyone who is travelling to the Occupied territories to travel to Jayyous. Any individual or delegation would be welcome, as there is no time to loose! There is already a peace camp on the land, including solidarity Israeli?s.

Further updates on the situation in Jayyous is available here including an excellent article by the Christian Science Monitor

Photo’s are available
here and here

We’re in the xmas edition of The Big Issue magazine - many thanks to the Editor John Bird for the double page spread & the truly excellent article.

Mayor of Bethlehem criticizes the “silence” of the Christian world
IMEMC-News Desk & Agencies, December 14, 2004, 08:02

Mr. Hanna Nasser, Mayor of Bethlehem criticized the “silence of the Christian world” amidst all sort of military aggressions and violations in Bethlehem and described their position as shameful”.

Nasser in a press conference held in relation to the upcoming Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem , said that Bethlehem had been subjected to continuous military invasion for more than four year,
while the Christian world stood helpless.

“For more than four years, army continuously invaded the city, destroyed confiscated lands, while the Christian world stood helpless in spite that Bethlehem has a unique importance for the Christians, and non Christians, all over the world”.

Nasser added that when the church of Nativity was surrounded on April 2002, the world stood short of saving the city and when the crisis was solved, the besieged residents were deported to the Gaza Strip and Europe.

Moreover, Nasser said that the army is continuously confiscating lands in the north of the city for the separation wall, while settlers and soldiers controlled Palestinian homes near Rachel Tomb, in order to transfer the tomb and Bilal Bin Rabah mosque area into settlements.

“What is happening in the holy city of Bethlehem is an shameful act to the Israeli government which conducts these violations while the Christian world is watching these violations without attempting to save the city”, Nasser said.

Nasser added hat the size of Bethlehem is reducing as the Israeli authorities continued their plans to expand the settlements surrounding the city and destroying its fields, in addition to
destroying the northern entrance which is the main “gate” for tourists and pilgrims to the holy city.

Zaytoun had it’s first meeting today with the British based Palestinian Charity Interpal, the purpose of the meeting was mainly to get to know each other.

Also, discussed was the Interpal event bieng held at the British Libary this week where organisation’s such as Oxfam, War on Want amongst other’s have been invited im order to explore a common platform to work togather for peace in Palestine. The invitation to the event was kindly extended to Zaytoun.

Interpal also expressed an interest in a bulk purchase of Olive Oil from Zaytoun which would prove very helpful in marketing the Oil to the Arab and Muslim communities in the UK.

sal
http://zaytoun.org

Tomorrow (sunday 5th december) academics begin a campaign to break links with Israeli universities, the start of the campaign will be marked by a conference held at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

The campaign coordinator, Professor Hilary Rose, said that it marked a substantial escalation of the boycott movement.

The campaign committee has drawn up a manifesto calling on academics to break links with Israel by refusing to work with Israeli institutions, referee academic papers, grant applications or attend conferences.

Take part in The New Statesman magazine’s competition (available in the shops & online) & win one years supply of Olive Oil, Zatar and Olive Soap from the West Bank !