Palestinian regains land in legal struggle

After six years of legal struggle, Khaled Atiyeh, a Palestinian citizen from the village Dora al-Qara, north Ramallah, has finally seen the Israeli settlers leave a settlement deemed illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court. The court also ordered the demolition of the Giviat Olbana settlement. "Seeing the houses of the illegal settlers on my land demolished, gives me hope to see the day when all the Israeli settlements on the lands of the Palestinians are destroyed, all these settlements are neither legal nor legitimate, as they are built on lands owned by Palestinian citizens," Atiyeh said to Arabstoday.  Atiyeh, 48 years, and nicknamed Abu Firas, added: "I can't express my feelings in words. Israel will not be able to build any more illegal houses, nor seize any more lands, this is the result of a six year struggle in Israeli courts against the threats of the settlers." "My own piece of land could be considered  pebble in  the mountain of the stolen Palestinian lands, so I urge all true owners of these lands to regain their rights and their lands from the Occupation. They have to do this till their last breath, so we can restore our dignity, and our lands occupied by Israel," he continued.  Atiyeh, a father of two daughters and three sons, started a legal struggle against Israeli authorities in 2006, to regain his land, plus lands owned by other Palestinian citizens, on which Giviat Olbana was built. After nearly six years of judicial hearings, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a verdict stating that the "illegal" neighbourhood should be demolished, and the true owners should regain their lands. Giviat Olbana was part of the Beit Eil settlement, which is built on thousands of acres of illegally confiscated land owned by Palestinian citizens, in the city of al-Birih and the al-Jalzoun camp, in addition to the villages of Dora al-Qara, Beiteen and Ein Yebroud. Atiyeh said: "The story began in 1995, when the settlers started to build some small caravans on the edges of the village. In 1996, the Palestinian residents organised a demonstration against this trend, but the Israeli police cracked down on the demonstration leaving one dead, the residents began to feel afraid of walking in their own lands. In 2002, Israeli authorities built a fence around the houses of the new settlers to protect them, after they had kidnapped a Palestinian resident and killed him. Then came 2006, when the settlers bulldozed most of our lands to build Olbana, that is when I said this is enough." Atiyeh went with his ownership papers to the human rights foundation "Yish Dein", which helped him take his cause to the Supreme Court, demanding a halt to the constructions, and regaining the lands. The case was postponed to October 29 2008, as the court asked Atiyeh and his neighbour Harbi Mostafa to submit more papers. This gave the settlers the needed time to resume constructions in Olbana.  On November 17 2008, the court issued its first verdict in the case, stating that construction must be halted and the lands must go back to the legal owners, but the verdict was not implemented until September 21 2011, when the court stated that all buildings should be demolished and the lands be handed to the Palestinians. The court set May 1, 2012 as a deadline to implement the verdict. Nearly a month earlier the settlers burnt two vehicles owned by Atiyeh as a threat, but this didn't stop him. On April 27 this year the Israeli government appealed against the verdict. The appeal was rejected by the court on May 7, 2012, and the court issued a final verdict to implement both the demolition and the hand over on July 7 as a deadline. Khaled claims to have received a lot of offers to give up his land, including supposedly a villa in the United States as compensation. The settlers started to burn buildings owned by the Palestinians including a mosque burnt last Tuesday "in revenge for Olbana". Khaled doesn't rule out being targeted himself, but insists he won't give up on his rights regardless of any threats, and hopes all Palestinian citizens will follow his steps.  "I will defeat the occupation, I will take my land back, and I will grow olive trees in it again," he concluded.