Protesting against the total destruction of Nuaman village

Saturday, 3.9.05, at 7:00 AM marking the opening of the school year in the OPT, Israeli activists and Professors from the Hebrew University will accompany the children of Nuaman on their one kilometer journey to their school at Al-Has, beyond the Separation barrier.

• Please contact Adi Dagan, spokeswomen, Coalition of Women for Peace, 052-3575526.

The small Palestinian village Nuaman, a peaceful and romantic piece of earth with 25 houses at the south-eastern corner of Jerusalem in the direction of Bethlehem is stuck in an unbearable situation:

• In 1967, the territory of the village was annexed to Jerusalem, but its inhabitants were given identity cards of the West Bank. Therefore, they are not allowed to enter Jerusalem and are staying illegally in the houses in which they were born and raised their families.
• The road to Jerusalem was blocked for cars; the children were expelled from schools in Jerusalem; even paying fines became an impossible task as the inhabitants can't reach Israeli post offices; friends and relatives, even those living in the neighboring village Al-Has, are not allowed to enter Nuaman because inhabitants of the West Bank are not permitted to enter Israeli territory.
• Recently, as a consequence of the construction of the "Separation Fence" and of the road to the settlements Tekoa and Nokdim, the inhabitant's access to the West Bank was also blocked, and the village has no more connection to the world and to the district towns Bet Sahur and Bethlehem where the working places, schools and hospitals of the inhabitants are located. The blocking of the roads for cars prevents basic provisions to the village that doesn't even have a shop, not to speak about luxuries like the clearing of garbage and maintaining the water and sewage system.
• This week, the residents of Nuaman were told that a new road to Har-Homa settlement will be built on their land and consequently houses in Nuaman will be demolished. Development plans of Har Homa show that it will expand on Nuaman`s lands.
• The Israeli High Court of Justice approved the rout of the wall which separates Nuaman from the West Bank. The residents of the village will have to prove on an individual basis that they have been living for so and so years in the village in order to stay in their homes. Those who will fail to supply the documents demanded by the state of Israel will be expelled from their homes.