The repeated violations led by the Israeli occupation led us on the lands of the town of Anata and the right of its citizens to conduct a special dialogue with its mayor, Taha Noman Al -Rifai, to light on its size and the extent of its impact on the reality of the town’s geographical and demographic town and its future, which he described as “tragic”.
The town of Anata is located in the northeast of occupied Jerusalem, and there is no authority for its municipality on all lands, as part of it belongs to the municipality of the town, another for the municipality of the occupation in Jerusalem, a third part that provides its residents with the services of the Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), and a fourth part of the Bedouin population.
During the special dialogue conducted by Al -Jazeera Net with the mayor, he said that the occupation was issued and seized 90% of the village’s lands, and built 5 settlements on it, in addition to his intention to surround them in the apartheid wall of all sides.
The following is the full text of the dialogue:
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Beginning, how much is the area of the land of the town of Anata historically, and how much is the area of confiscated lands?
The town of Anata was historically arranged on an area of 32 thousand dunums (the dunum is equal to one thousand square meters) and it is registered as “Tabu” that has ended since 1956, but the wall was applied to the town from the four sides, and it was confiscated with 30 thousand dunums, and only one thousand dunums remained outside it.
957 of the remaining dunums of the municipality’s validity, which is classified as “B” according to the Oslo Agreement, means Israeli security, and is administratively affiliated with the Palestinian Authority.
About 500 dunums of land have become under the authority of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem, and 220 dunums are classified “C” areas permitted to build in it, but under the penalty of personal responsibility, which are areas that follow the occupation authority security and administratively.
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What are the settlements held on the lands of the town of Anata?
There is a “Anatot” camp and settlement, and each of the settlement “Nafi Prat”, “Kfar Adumim” and “Alon”, and part of the “Mishor Adumim” settlement.
Hence, Anata is spoken by all entities, either with settlements or the apartheid wall.
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The people of Anata previously managed to stop the settlement crawls in some areas, restore lands such as “Global Hill” and stop the incision of a street linking Shatri “Anatot”, told us about this experience.
With the assistance of the municipality, citizens filed claims that reached the path to the Israeli Supreme Court, and we swore a strong argument and the strong argument to win some of them, but we lost others.
Among the cases in which we succeeded is to stop the incision of a road in favor of the “Anatot” settlement, and the restoration of the “World” hill that they sought to include this settlement, but the Supreme Court was unable to keep up with the settlers because of the strength of our argument and the credibility of the lawsuit, and that was in 2016.
On the other hand, we did not reconcile in other cases, including the restoration of the lands that were confiscated in the settlement of the “Mishor Adumim” settlement, and the court’s response was that this confiscation took place since 1974 for the purposes of building the settlers of “Ma’aleh Adumim” and “Mishor Adumim”.
Also, we did not succeed in cases related to the apartheid wall after our attempt through the Israeli judiciary to remove and remove it because it is applied to the town, and on this, there are no cases stuck in the Israeli courts now.
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How much is the population of this town, and how much is the proportion of the Israeli (blue) identity campaign?
The population of Anata is 30 thousand people, including about 13 thousand Jerusalemites carrying the Israeli (blue) identity card, an Israeli identity issued by the occupation authorities to the Palestinians within the borders of the city of Jerusalem as residents, not citizens.
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Most of the blue ID campaign is forced to pass the Shuafat camp barrier daily. Tell us about the suffering caused by this barrier, and when did you exacerbate?
The Shuafat camp barrier constituted additional pressure on the town of Anata, because the wall included it and included each of the Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh and Al -Salam suburb with the town, and therefore Anata became the destination to expand in terms of construction on the one hand, and for everyone who wants to go out and enter from the only external port on the northeastern side to avoid passing the Shuafat military camp barrier on the other hand.
We are talking about 120 thousand Jerusalemites who live in these areas, and all of them pass from Anata when the barrier is closed, and because of the poor dealing with them during its passing, and thus they come out of Anata towards other barriers that lead to Jerusalem, which are either a firm, leader or Issawiya.
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During the last war between Israel and Iran, an iron gate was installed at the entrance to the village. Was it besiege all directions, and what is the danger of this gate?
The portal was installed on the only port of Caesa, and about 150,000 citizens became in a large prison, and if it suddenly closed it in conjunction with the closure of the Shuafat camp, the Jerusalemites cannot reach their city, and the Palestinian (Green) ID Card campaign is not able to get out of Anata towards the other West Bank cities.
We can say that the apartheid wall is the vial and the gate is its cover.
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Recently, Anata has been targeted by the campaign of raids tonight, arrests, theft of money and the golden formula, in which framework you look at this campaign, and do you see that the arrests are targeting a specific segment or is it random and aims to intimidate and deter?
In this part, I cannot separate an infringement from the general atmosphere in the West Bank areas, which is part of the equation, and there is no difference between it and any other Palestinian village or city, and it has no privacy in this aspect.
The incursions accompanied by a campaign of arrests and field investigation are repeated with the citizens who are released after hours, and there are many citizens whose detention period extends and filed an indictment against them.
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We also noticed the village targeting the demolition policy recently, and carried out some demolitions without prior warning. Why did the inhabit of the population escalate the demolition?
The demolition escalated in Anata after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on the seventh of October 2023, and it is linked to the issue of classifying part of the town’s lands as “C” regions, so homes and facilities are demolished either under this pretext or under the pretext of their proximity to the wall.
Although the citizens were keen to stay away from the wall until a distance of 150 to 200 meters in some cases, their homes were also destroyed by alleging it to the wall of the apartheid, and there is no alternative to housing in the region for everyone who destroys his home because of the great population overcrowding, and thus they are forced.
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How do you see the future of the town if the situation continues as it is now?
The case is tragic because the siege is applied due to the wall, and there are no lands to build on it and the demolition continues.
Informed in a brief town and a future town and a future asylum project, because 30 thousand people live on a geographical area that does not exceed a thousand dunums, and there will be a major population explosion after a decade, and therefore citizens will have to get out of them in search of residential apartments in which they live and this is voluntary displacement.
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Finally, what are the most prominent challenges facing you as a Palestinian municipality?
The most difficult thing we face is extreme crowding, and the lack of Palestinian sovereignty over this region, which creates a fatal security vacuum that increases the burden on us.
I see that Anata will turn in the future from a town into a population gathering that is similar to a camp due to the lack of spaces and lands.
