Shadi Samreen (43 years) could only lie in front of the bulldozer of the occupation, to prevent it from bulldozing his family's land in the Rababa Valley in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday morning, so he wore his face and put his hands behind his head and his leg over the other, indifferent to the shovel of the bulldozer that swung over his body.
"I did not feel fear of death, the real fear was that the land of my fathers and grandparents would go to Jerusalem. I was ready to die for it. The occupation threatened me with arrest and told them that I was carrying out my duty towards my land, and that I had dug my grave in it." Thus Samrin began his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, who joined him A group of Palestinian youths tried to prevent the advance of the bulldozer, but the occupation forces dispersed them by force, and attacked them with rubber and gas bombs.
It also arrested 5 other young men who confronted the police forces, the army, municipality crews, and the Antiquities and Gardens Authority, after they brutally assaulted them in front of the elderly, women and children who came from early morning to eat breakfast on their land and to prevent it from passing it.
Omar Samrin watches the occupation bulldozer bulldozing his land in preparation for its confiscation (Al-Jazeera Net)
Judicial procrastination and the exploitation of quarantine
after his expulsion from his land, Samrin and members of his family went to the Israeli Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem before the "emergency" judge, to issue a decision to stop the sweeping work on his land, a request submitted by the family's lawyer Muhannad Jabara 6 months ago, and the decision was not issued To this day, the bulldozer of the occupation took advantage of the current delay and tight closure in Jerusalem, under the pretext of the Corona pandemic, and bulldozed some olive trees, citrus and seedlings that the family planted.
Only a few Jerusalemites who live in the Rababa Valley were able to attend the site, in the absence of media lenses due to the ban on movement.
Omar Samreen (60 years) sits in Rababa Valley in the sunshine, watching the bulldozer bulldozing his family's land, and following up by phone the court’s decision with his cousin Shady, and he tells Al-Jazeera Net, “To whom do we complain and the judge is our adversary? We do not trust the decisions of the occupation courts, but we are forced, we come to the land every Day in the morning, we grow lentils, onions and garlic. "
Since its invasion of Jerusalem in 1967, the occupation has sought to fully capture Wadi Rababa through several projects (Al-Jazeera Net)
Royal documents before the establishment of the occupation
The area of the Samrin family is about 10 dunums, which is part of the lands of Wadi Rababa that belong to Jerusalemite families in the town of Silwan, such as the Al-Abbasi family, Al-Ashqar, Al-Zaghal and Abu Sneina, which the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority has been seeking for years to raze and confiscate to turn it into so-called A “Biblical Garden” within the “Holy Basin” surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Omar Samrin says that his family possesses ownership documents for their land in Wadi Rababa dating back to the Ottoman era before the establishment of the State of Israel, and that the family obtained documents in 2004 from the Israel Lands Administration and the Israeli Courts Department certifying the Samrin family's ownership of the land, but the Nature and Parks Authority strikes all of this aside. .
Abdul Karim Abu Sneina: The occupation invokes the excuse of cleaning and gardening the land, in order to be able to confiscate it (Al-Jazeera Net)
Flimsy arguments with settlement goals,
Abd al-Karim Abu Sneinah, head of the Wadi Rababa neighborhood committee, confirms to Al-Jazeera Net that the occupation invokes the excuse of cleaning and gardening the land, so that it can confiscate it and establish settlement projects on it later, adding that justifications such as "establishing a park and a park" and "improving the city's landmarks" lead to The end is based on settlement targets, as happened with many lands in occupied east Jerusalem.
Abu Sneina says that the occupation prevents the people from plowing and reclaiming their land even by the simplest means, which forces them to cultivate it and take care of it secretly.
He goes back, saying, "My family has lived in Wadi Rababa since 1958, before the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, and after its occupation, the occupation and its settlers began attacks, theft and intimidation of the residents of the valley. Years ago, they resumed sweeping the lands of the Al-Abbasi, Ashkar and Dajani families in the valley, and what we are witnessing today is the last line of defense." ".
A general picture of the Rababa Valley, which occupies an important location close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City (Al-Jazeera Net)
Old and modern attacks
The Rababa Valley is located on an area of about 300 dunums from the heights of the western town of Silwan, which is the southern facade of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In view of the importance that the valley occupies, it has been targeted by occupation plans, in the past and present, which were represented by the bulldozing and confiscation of lands, and the establishment of 3 settlement outposts near the Wadi al-Rababa neighborhood, which is inhabited by 800 people, some of whose houses were demolished under the pretext of not being licensed.
About 10 years ago, 935 mock Israeli graves were erected in the valley within the so-called "Samposki Cemetery", in addition to digging the foundations of a suspension bridge in 2018 that passes through the valley from Al-Thawri neighborhood to the Al-Dajani family endowment area southwest of Al-Aqsa Mosque.