Al-Aqaba is a very small village in the Jordan Valley, southeast of Jenin, that, from 1967 until 2003 served as military training grounds for the Israeli Army.
Israeli soldiers used to conduct their trainings using the villagers (for example, practicing detaining people, invading homes in the middle of the night, etc.) In 2002, the Village of Aqaba won an important legal victory, obtaining an Israeli Supreme Court decision calling on the Israeli military to close its training grounds in Al-Aqaba.
In June of 2003, the army finally pulled back and some villagers, who had previously left the village because of the unbearable living situation (since 1967, al-Aqaba's population decreased by 85%, dropping from around 2000 individuals to approximately 300), started coming back. With the help of international supporters, the village built a kindergarten (130 kindergarteners and 70 elementary school students attend school there) and other structures, including a small sewing factory to employ local village women.
Now the Israeli government seeks to destroy this village, issuing demolition orders for 35 structures, including the kindergarten, sew factory, the mosque, medical center, and homes built by returning villagers, claiming that they were built illegally.
The U.S-based "Rebuilding Alliance" (www.rebuildingalliance.org) retained Israeli attorney Elia Tusya Cohen who will present the village's petition to the High Court of Israel this Thursday, April 17, 2008. Your intervention is crucial in advance of the court date, in order to try to save the village!
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