Israeli army and settlers are carrying out a co-ordinated ethnic cleansing campaign in Hammamat Al Maleh, Hammamat Al Miteh and Hammamat Al Burj in the Northern Jordan Valley.
Around 15 Palestinian families were forced to dismantle their homes and prepare to leave the area in recent weeks due to the mounting pressure, according to Mahdi Daraghmeh, head of the Hammamat Al-Maleh Village Council. In total, 36 families have now been forcibly displaced and the remaining families continue to be targeted daily.
In January, Israeli settlers built a farming outpost off Tubas Road and began a vicious campaign of daily harassment and violence towards Palestinian shepherding families in the area as well as the school in Hammamat Al Maleh, which is attended by children from the local community. Since then, the settlers have been combining multiple tactics to terrorise and forcibly displace the families from their homes, including: burning homes; stealing animals; destroying vital equipment and animal feed; trespassing by foot and ATVs, attempting to storm houses; grazing cows on families’ land; and physical assaults.
The settlers are supported and backed by the Israeli military and police, who not only allow the settlers to get away with these crimes, but also combine the settler attacks with raids and demolitions.
Every morning, the settlers, some armed, have been bringing hundreds of cows to graze on the families’ properties, bringing them up to and between the families’ homes and even next to the local school, all day long and into the night as well. Settlers use the cows to trespass on Palestinian land, terrorise the families, and damage crops and property.
On January 19 two settlers grazed their cows amongst a Palestinian family’s home and belongings in Hammamat Al Miteh. They walked around menacingly touching the their buildings and farming equipment, looking in all the tents, eyeballing lambs and baby goats, counting the animals and testing the security of the fences. They stole wood from the family before leaving to terrorise Palestinian families in the neighbouring community. On February 8, the Israeli army demolished two of the family’s tents. This happened on the same day that thru destroyed Fatima Alyan Daraghmeh’s house in the neighbouring Ein Al Hilwe.
While the children watched their home being demolished in Hammmat Al Miteh, soldiers picked up them up and told them “it’s ok”. The army also damaged the infrastructure that allows thr families in the community to access wifi, leaving them without phone signal or internet access. Not only was this both inconvenient and a threat to the safety of the families, it also impacted the effectiveness of solidarity presence offered by volunteers.
The same settlers were terrorising Fayez Rijahaleen’s family in Hammamat Al Miteh. On January 19 they trespassed on the their property, broke some the family’s belongings and took videos of Fayez’s wife, young kids, and a lamb inside one of their tents. They then sat down next to the entrance to the family’s home, trapping the wife and kids inside and threatening to enter. The settlers then began harassing Fayez, flicking ash and spitting at him. Laughing and sneering, they kept shoving a camera in his face, asking him questions like “who are you?”.
The settlers also physically assaulted Palestinians at two other locations in the area whilst soldiers watched. Three Palestinians were detained by the army and then later released.
On the 15th of February, settlers set fire to one of Fayez’s tents in the middle of the night, completely destroying it. They also cut the wire for the internet and stole the family’s security camera.
Further down the same road, in Hammamat Al Maleh, settlers have been driving around the local school, scaring and filming the children, questioning and attempting to intimidate the head teacher and to storm into Maryam Daraghmeh’s home.
Soldiers – who the Palestinian community suspects were a vigilante group as they did not come with vehicles or standard army communication equipment – also raided the school principal’s office and the adjacent home of Burhan Daraghmeh’s family during the night on February 2nd. They destroyed their belongings, zip tied the wrists of three family members and made them kneel facing a wall, and threatened the family with guns.
The same week, settlers destroyed two tonnes of barley and two tonnes of wheat stocked on Mariam Daraghmeh’s property.
Another 10 days later, more than 10 settlers smashed up two cars, broke into Burhan Daraghmeh’s house and physically assaulted five family members, two Israeli activists and the head of the Hammamag Al Maleh council, Mahdi Daraghmeh, who was knocked unconscious and had to be taken to the hospital.
These are just a few examples of the violence of the Israeli occupation in the area this year, as they continue to ramp up the pressure on families in the Northern Jordan Valley as part of a long-term, co-ordinated campaign to force the Palestinians away from their homes and annex them into the local city of Tubas.