February 1 – Israeli pressure on the Abu Najeh family in al-Kalayel, on the outskirts of al-Mughayyir (East Ramallah), continues to escalate. Today, Israeli military forces carried out yet another raid, issuing a one-day closed military zone order that does not include the clause allowing residents to remain on their land. Despite this intimidation, the Abu Najeh family has decided not to leave their home. During the raid, Israeli forces arrested French citizens Mercier Eli and Camille who are now facing deportation.
The closed military zone designated by the new order includes the outpost terrorizing the family and its surroundings. However, no enforcement action has been taken against the settlers, who continue to trespass freely on Bedouin community land. This again demonstrates the cooperation between official and unofficial instruments of Israeli violence in implementing the policies of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing against Palestinian communities in areas Israel deems strategically valuable.
Today’s raid also involved the detention of three international solidarity activists. One activist was forced into a military jeep and later released on the side of an apartheid road, where settlers who had been following the vehicle further harassed him. French activists Mercier Eli and Camille were taken to the police station in the Shaar Binyamin settlement and questioned for allegedly violating a legal order. At around 10pm, Eli and Camille faced a visa revocation hearing, after which they both decided to resist deportation. They are currently held at Ben Gurion detention center, waiting to be forcefully expelled from the country.
These arrests come amidst an ongoing campaign of intimidation against the Abu Najeh and Abu Hamam family in al-Khalayel, who have faced months of coordinated attacks by Israeli forces and settlers. Recently, settlers have continued to graze their livestock on Palestinian lands surrounding the homes (allowing their animals destroy olive trees) and stealing water, all while being aided and abetted by the Israeli army. Settlers have destroyed and stolen parts of a neighbor’s fence multiple times, allowing their sheep to destroy the family’s olive groves.
Camille, who was arrested during today’s raid and chose to resist deportation, wrote: “If you are reading these words, it means that I am being detained by the army. I left as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. The purpose of the trip was to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank who, since 1948, have been subjected to colonization in the form of harassment, expulsions, assaults, rapes, and murders. In response to these constant violations of their rights, Palestinians are resisting in many ways to defend their right to remain and live with dignity on their land. It was in an attempt to support this resistance, within my means, that I chose to go to the West Bank. I feel it is necessary to seek to establish concrete and material solidarity with Palestinians and colonized peoples, and this trip was a way of doing so.
Mercier said: “I choose to support Palestinian resistance as any resistance against oppression and injustice. Free Palestine, freedom for all oppressed peoples”.
The occupation’s efforts to expel the international presence from the area have also intensified in recent months:
- December 30 – In the same area, Israeli forces surrounded, threw to the ground, handcuffed and kidnapped three international activists. They were held for hours at a military base without being traceable before being transferred to a police station. One of them was injured in a settler attack on December 7, when settler’s injured the family’s matriarch, 59-year-old Fadda Abu Naim, 13-year-old Riziq Abu Naim, and four international solidarity activists.
- December 18 – Israel deported two US activists, Irene Cho and Trudi Frost, after they spent a week in jail challenging their unlawful arrests and deportation orders. The two were previously arrested on December 12 at the Abu Hamam property in al-Khalayel, after Israeli forces served a month-long military area order encompassing an area which did not include the Abu Hamam residence where the activists were staying. Several military raids took place the following days as the forces looked for solidarity activists.
- January 18 – Israel deported Irish and US activists after four internationals were arrested at the Abu Hamam residence during a settler incursion.
These attacks by settlers and soldiers aim to forcibly displace the residents of al-Khalayel from their land as part of the implementation of the Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. In this case, displacing the family will also facilitate Israel’s creation of a line of settlements and settlement outposts all the way from the East Ramallah area to the South Nablus area, and from there to the Jordan Valley.