Press Releases

BADIL Alternative Information Center 
For Immediate Release 
2 April 1998 

On 31 March 1998, one day after the evacuation date set for SUMOUD Camp, Israeli authorities arrived at the camp to inform the remaining Palestinian families at the site that their tents and shacks were constructed without permits and would be demolished within 5 days.  The following day, 1 April, Israeli municipal officials along with a large contingent of Israeli police arrived at the site accompanied by 4 bulldozers to evict the residents of the camp.  The families were given 3 hours to remove their belongings. 

The remaining tents and wooden shacks were severely damaged by the bulldozers and not all of the families were able to remove all of their belongings from their homes at SUMOUD Camp.  A spokesperson for the camp said that the families would be moving to the same empty building in East Jerusalem where approximately half of the original number of families at the camp relocated to on 28 March. 

The residency and housing problems of the families remains unresolved.  The building where the families now live lacks running water, sanitation and electricity while al-Quds University claims to have rented the building from the Waqf.  Members of the Lobby for Palestinian Women’s Rights in Jerusalem will meet with the families at their new site in the coming days to discuss their immediate needs and plans for the future. 

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For more information contact the Lobby at BADIL Alternative Information Center, (2) 747347 or [email protected]; Jerusalem Center for Women, (2) 574-7068 or [email protected]; Palestine Human Rights Information Center, 628-7076.