Description

Rebuilding the recently demolished Al-Makhrour restaurant

Friday I 18.5.12 I 8:30

The Jerusalem-Bethlehem Combatants for Peace group would like to invite you to a joint Israeli-Palestinian activity, aimed at cleaning and clearing up the wreckage at the site of the Al-Makhrour restaurant, outside Beit Jala.

On Thursday, May 3rd, the Al-Makhrour restaurant was demolished by IDF bulldozers, following a demolition order issued by the Israeli civil administration in 2005.
The owners of the restaurant are Michelle and Ramzi Qesieh, whose house in Beit Jala was demolished during the second Intifada. About a year ago, the family built their new house next to the restaurant, for which a demolition order has been issued as well, and could be executed at any given time.
In the past few months the restaurant has hosted groups touring the Bethlehem area with Combatants for Peace, and so became a place of peace and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

On Friday, May 18th, we will hold a first joint activity at the site, in order to clear the wreckage and prepare the grounds for rebuilding the restaurant.

We will gather at 8:30 at the Teddy Stadium parking lot, and should be back at around 15:00.

If you intend to join us, please sign up by filling the online form

For any question or additional information, please contact Ilan at ilan@makinghistory.co.il
Building a Peace Tent in Khirbet al-Tawil


Saturday I 19.5.12 I 8:00
The Tel Aviv-Nablus group of the Combatants for Peace movement would like to invite you to take part in an act of resistance, in which we will build a peace tent, and decorate it with the village children. The tent will host diplomats, human rights activists and guests who take interest in the village.

Khirbet al-Tawil is located between the town of Aqraba in the Nablus governorate and the Jordan valley.

Since the 1980s, the state of Israel has been systematically seizing the village's lands. The seizure (in which authorities employed methods such as arresting shepherds and helicoptering them to jail, confiscation of farm animals and equipment, fines and house demolitions, to name a few) has pushed the residents into the westernmost part of the village, adjacent to Aqraba. Out of about 35,000 acres once belonging to the village, only a few percents are left. In recent months, the IDF and the Israeli civil administration have been issuing orders of demolition for structures in the area, (many of which are impermanent, e.g. tents and tin shacks), claiming that they were built without permits, or within areas defined as military shooting ranges.

For most of the residents this would be the third time to have their homes ruined and themselves uprooted from their lands.

This Saturday, we will come to Khirbet al-Tawil to protest against the policy of demolishing and uprooting of Palestinians residents, which is being implemented through forceful and unjust methods.

Arrival in private vehicles – we will leave at 8:00 from the Tel Aviv Arlozorov train station, next to the Shlomo-Sixt car rental terminal. Arrival back in Tel Aviv at approximately 14:00.

If you would like to participate, please sign up via the online form.

More information regarding the dangers Khirbet al-Tawil is faced with can be found in this article from Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/this-is-no-life-1.410809

A story covering Israel's policy of legalizing West-Bank lands for future settlement expansion can be found here: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-defense-ministry-plan-earmarks-10-percent-of-west-bank-for-settlement-expansion-1.421589