Press release – for immediate release

December 16, 2010

Palestinians and rights group to the HCJ:

The IDF bars Palestinians from accessing a freshwater
spring by baselessly claiming it is an archeological site

The residents of the village of Dir Nizam in the West Bank petitioned the
High Court of Justice with the help of human rights group Yesh Din. The
petitioners claim that the Israeli authorities are preventing their access to
a freshwater spring on their land under the pretext that it is an
"archeological site" – although it was never officially declared as such –
and thus are allowing Jewish settlers to take over control and use of the
spring and surrounding land.
The Village Council of Dir Nizam in the West Bank, with the help of human rights
group Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights, petitioned the Israeli High Court
of Justice (HCJ) today (Thursday), requesting that the court grant them access to the
Ein Al-Kis freshwater spring located on their property and to their fields adjacent to
it.

The spring is adjacent to the neighboring Palestinian villages of Dir Nizam and Nabi
Saleh, and the Jewish settlement of Halamish (Neve Tzuf). This is an agricultural area
that has been cultivated for many years, but in the past few months it has become a
flashpoint of friction between Palestinian residents, Jewish settlers and the IDF, ever
since settlers started visiting the spring, turned it into a tourist site and began illegal
construction around it.

The IDF's reaction to the ongoing friction between settlers and Palestinians was to bar
the Palestinians from accessing the area of the spring and the adjacent fields. This
restriction on access not only greatly harms the livelihoods of local Palestinian
farmers, but it also amplifies tensions in the area, which is why this formerly serene
area has become a major site for protests in the West Bank.

When the petitioners tried to verify the legal basis for their expulsion from the spring,
the Civil Administration informed them that they cannot access the compound
because it was declared an archeological site.

However, an examination carried out by attorneys Michael Sfard, Shlomy Zachary

and Avisar Lev of the Yesh Din legal team, uncovered that the compound was
never declared an archeological site – and it is unclear if and when such a
declaration will take place. Therefore, the petitioners claim that the Civil
Administration's actions – which impede their movement and deny their rights – are
unauthorized, unreasonable and biased, and based on ulterior motives that aim
to expel the Palestinian petitioners from their land.

"The authorities are using archeological claims as an excuse to prevent the petitioners
from accessing their lands – based on considerations that have nothing to do with
archeology", says Attorney Shlomy Zachary. "The decision to withhold access to
the spring and the surrounding fields was taken irrespective of any archeological
relics in the area, if indeed there are any, only to evade a previous HCJ ruling against
the strategy of blocking access to Palestinians in order to maintain ‘public order’. We
ask the court to annul this decision".

For further information please contact Dana Zimmerman 972-54-2457682