Al Mazra’a Al Qibliya

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Since 2007 the Brighton Tubas group has been in contact with a village called Al Mazra’a Al Qibliya, near Bir Zeit in the West Bank. After ending up there for a demonstration during one of the delegations the group felt that the village needed continued support despite being outside of our twinning area. The people of Al Mazra’a have been experiencing continuous settler violence and during the last few years the surrounding Israeli settlement Talmon B has confiscated over 2,000 dunums of the village’s land. It has monopolised the water resources in the area, built illegal outposts and prevented Palestinians from harvesting their olives. In early 2008 Mohammed Shreitih, a student from the village, was murdered by a settler. (For more about the past situation in Al Mazra’a see http://www.brightonpalestine.org/node/236 and follow the links from there).

So far the Brighton Tubas group have been in Al Mazra’a to support them during demonstrations and olive harvests. We are also working with human rights organisations to push for the murderer of Mohammed Shreitih to be brought to justice.

Al Mazra’a al Qibliya is not within the Brighton Tubas twinning area. The village is very proactive in their resistance to the continuing settlement expansion and the Municipality is desperately looking for a dedicated group to twin with them exclusively. If you or any group that you know would be interested to twin with Al Mazra’a and the Al Zaytonah Municipality, please get in touch with the Brighton Tubas Group for more information.