Ongoing construction of the Israeli Segregation Wall in Bir Onah neighborhood in Beit Jala town

April 13, 2016

On the 9th of April 2016, the Israeli bulldozers escorted by the Israeli Occupation Army stormed Bir Onah neighborhood, north of Beit Jala town in Bethlehem Governorate, and start laying down the cement blocks to continue the construction of the Segregation wall in the area.

The field workers in the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) visited the site on the 11th of April 2016, and captured the ongoing construction of the Segregation wall, See the photos below:

Photos for the Construction of the Segregation Wall Section in Bir Onah neighborhood

The History of the Israeli Segregation Wall in Bir Onah neighborhood:

The case of the Segregation wall in the town of Beit Jala in general and in Bir Onah neighborhood in particular, back to the year 2006, after the Israeli Occupation Authorities issued the military order No. 62/06, which confiscated Palestinian land in Bir Onah area to construct the Segregation wall. While, according to the latest Israeli revised route of the Segregation Wall route published on the Israeli occupation Ministry of Defense website in April 2007, the wall section in Bir Onah area will extend a length of 1.2 km on lands of Bir Onah neighborhood and will pass less than 100 meters from the Palestinians houses in the neighborhood. Moreover, the wall will isolate vast areas of agricultural lands, to become on the Israeli side of the wall.

It is worth pointed that the Israel has already completed the section of the wall down the hill where Gilo Settlement exist, to the north of Bir Onah neighborhood. Israel has also lined the path of the wall section which will surround Har Gilo settlement, towards the main road leading to both Cremisan Monasteries (the monks and the Salesian nuns). The only wall section left to be constructed is the one that connects the two aforementioned sections together, starting from Bir ‘Onah neighborhood and extending upwards the tunnel road, to finally connect with the section near Har Gilo settlement. If Israel implements its segregation plans in the area, it will isolate more than 3,100 dunums of lands owned by tens of Palestinian families in the city of Beit Jala; thus depriving them their right to access the Cremisan Monasteries, the school and the only open space left for Beit Jala city

After a long court battle against the construction of the Segregation wall on the Palestinian land in Beit Jala city, on the 6th of July 2015, the Israeli court issued an order allowing the Israeli Ministry of Defense to commence the construction of the wall on lands of Beit Jala city.

For that, and from the beginning of August 2015, the Israeli Authorities placed signs in many areas in Bir Onah neighborhood in Beit Jala city, apparently for resuming construction of the Segregation Wall in the area. Noted that this came after a month of the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision in which it gave the green light to the Israeli Ministry of Defense to complete the construction of the Segregation wall in the Cremisan valley area.

Later on and on August 17, 2015, the Israeli bulldozers started leveling lands in Bir Onah neighborhood to resume the construction of the wall. The Israeli bulldozers uprooted 120 Olive trees down the tunnel road (a section of the Israeli bypass road No. 60).

And nowadays, the Israeli machines and bulldozers razed the land and laying the cement blocks on the ground.

Bir Onah is one of the neighborhoods of the city of Beit Jala. It is located in the area that was unilaterally annexed to the Israeli municipal boundaries of Jerusalem in the year 1967. The majority of Palestinians living in Bir Onah neighborhood are East Jerusalem ID card holders.

For more information about Bir Onah case, follow the links below:

Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem