Palestinian Families in Mleihat Endure Night of Terror Following Settler Home Invasions

 

A settler is photographed during the violent invasion of Palestinian family homes in Mleihat. via Jordan Valley Solidarity

12/1/2023 Mleihat, Jordan Valley. Occupied West Bank

Via: Jordan Valley Solidarity

Under the cover of night, several Palestinian homes in the Mleihat Arab community endured violent incursions by settlers in an attack overseen by the occupation army. Disturbing video of the storming of Palestinian family homes last evening in Mleihat displays a nightmarish scene in which a heavily armed extremist used his gun to viciously beat a resident and then pursued him at gunpoint. 

 

During the home invasions, the settlers, one who has been identified as Zohar Sabah, committed violent assaults of Palestinian residents, traumatized children, insulted the women of the home and stole sheep from two Mleihat residents.  This hours-long campaign of terror is part of a wider, coordinated project of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land by ideological extremist settlers who have been targeting small, isolated Palestinian communities for years.  These assaults have soared in pace and have remained at fever pitch since October 7th with over a dozen farming and shepherding communities effectively terrorized into abandoning their villages under death threats accompanied by the destruction of water infrastructure, the smashing of vehicles, the destruction of farming equipment.  

The violence committed against Palestinian family homes of Mleihat last evening is but the latest echo of settler brutality including tactics disturbingly targeting children and weaponizing their proximity to occupation forces against Palestinians through false accusations which place their lives at the whim of occupation troops who have long acted with the affirmed assumption of impunity. 

The violent settler invasions of Mleihat last evening goes unanswered by the same authorities and occupation army whose lines have been intentionally blurred with the terrorist extremists who committed, and continue to perpetrate, these acts. There is no recourse for the victims, only endless nights of waiting until the next settler invasion, beating, shooting or theft is violently visited upon them by a gang whose arms continue to be supplemented by the Israeli government even as they offer lip service of “reigning in settler violence.” 

Abduction and death threats in Tuwani

Occupation forces abduct 40 year old Palestinian from Tuwani.

 

Since October 7, Mus’ab Rawai and his family have endured intensifying harassment and intimidation by illegal settlers from the nearby outpost of Havat Maon. Built on stolen village land, it has some of the most violent and “ideological” settlers in the area.

The family home, which is located on the edge of at-Tuwani in Masafer Yatta, the village the family have called home for generations, became a target for attacks as the nearest home to the outpost following its establishment eighteen years or so ago. The family were prevented from accessing their grazing land for livestock and were often subject to violent attacks.

Over the past seven weeks, Mus’ab and his family have been subjected to almost daily harassment by heavily armed settlers / settler militia (most wearing army uniforms) from the outpost. This has taken the form of everything from preventing access to their land for harvesting olives, theft of equipment and vandalism to physical attacks and beatings, death threats and raids by soldiers / settler militia.

On one such raid five weeks ago, internationals were with the family and witnessed the aggressive behaviour, including smashing of mobile phones, physical manhandling, extensive damage done to property and food stores under the pretext of a search and threats to “come back and do much worse”.

Today, the family were subject to a further serious attack by two heavily armed settlers accompanied by three “soldiers” who invaded his home.  Mus’ab recognised them as the same group who had invaded his home and beat him and his brother two weeks previously as they objected to the family looking out from their home towards the settlement

On this occasion, apparently incensed by Mus’ab letting his sheep graze on his own land adjacent to his house, one of the settlers (in army uniform) pointed his gun at Mus’ab threatened to kill him or anyone who came to help. The settler threatened to kill his wife and children, directing his weapon towards them, telling the women that if they didn’t get back in the house he would kill them all.

For no reason, the settlers then took Musab’s  40 year old brother, Amjad, zip tied his wrists behind his back and tightened them further and forced him to the ground when he complained they were to tight and then abducted him, throwing stones at Musab’s house as they did so. The settler-soldiers kept him captive for around one and a half hours, a period of intense anxiety for the family. He was taken by another group of soldiers in a vehicle along the main road to around 15km away from the village and ordered out. From there he had to find a lift back.

The cumulative effect of these incidents is having a devastating impact on the family’s wellbeing. The constant stress of anticipatory anxiety as to what will happen next, of having to maintain watch at night every night , and the sense of injustice arising from the impunity with which the illegal settlers perpetrate their crimes, takes its toll.

 

Zanuta: The Return

On November, 29th 2023, International Day of Solidarity with Palestine, Palestinian villagers forcefully displaced from their lands through threats of murder by Israeli settlers, returned to their village, Zanuta, in Masafer Yatta. 

Supported by Israeli activists, and with international press in attendance, the villagers made their way to the site despite the road entrance having been blocked by the Israeli occupation forces. Soldiers did not prevent villagers from accessing the site but stipulated that they were not to repair any structures or build anything new.

Ethnically cleansed, abandoned village of Zanuta; photo by Bob
Ethnically cleansed, abandoned village of Zanuta; photo by Bob

After the soldiers left, a group of settlers turned up and threatened the villagers that if they remained at the site then they (the settlers) would “throw a big party”. The implication being that the villagers would be attacked.

As the villagers and activists were leaving, an armed militia, suspected to be settlers, wearing army uniforms and masks arrived. They stopped the villagers, searched the cars and inspected their IDs. Under observation from the activists and press, the militia let the Palestinians go.

The villagers of Zanuta have exercised their right, in the face of intimidation and threats, to return to and reclaim their homes and land. 

“Isn’t it enough?”: Water in Um Al-Khair

Villagers in Um Al-Khair have been repeatedly prevented from bringing their sheep to graze on the outskirts of the village. In one such recent incident, settlers attacked the Palestinian shepherds, and together with Israeli police and civil administration officials claimed that the village’s water infrastructure was on settler land, and threatened that the residents of Um Al-Khair would be prevented access. 

Water infrastructure threatened at Um Al-Khair

Umm al-Khair is a small Bedouin herding community. Its history is woven with the history of Palestine. Its Bedouin villagers were forced to flee their ancestral lands in 1948, a forced ethnic cleansing known as the Nakba, a word in Arabic analogous to the Hebrew Shoah, both meaning catastrophe. These refugees resettled in Um Al-Khair: “the good place”. 

Within meters of Um Al-Khair lies Carmel, an illegal Israeli settlement began in 1980 and 1981. Um Al-Khair is now surrounded on three sides by the settlement, described as a “green oasis that looks like an American suburb”. Meanwhile, in stark contrast, over 100 homes, many simple tin structures, have been demolished by the Israeli Army in Um Al-Khair, a village of mostly children and youth. 

Um Al-Khair is a village of artists and poets, who have continually rebuilt from the ruins.

Roses and a mural in Um Al-Khair stating “We will not leave Umm Al-Khair”
Mahmoud Darwish quote on mural in Um Al-Khair
Mural about remembrance and perseverance in Um Al-Khair

Like many nearby Palestinian communities it is threatened with complete erasure. The water network now threatened is the only source of water for the people of Um Al-Khair. 

In the words of one resident of the village, “I really do not understand what this damned hatred is. Why are people being fought by cutting off their water, and breaking the water network?… Water is a right for everyone… No one can live without water, so why are we always the ones who suffer? Isn’t it enough to attack us? Isn’t it enough to demolish our homes? Isn’t it enough to prevent us from obtaining electricity? Isn’t it enough to confiscate our lands? Cutting off water networks is a shameful and scandalous crime. I really wonder when the settlers will cut off our air? If they can, they will.”

A Song from Gaza: Alone (لوحدك)

Alone/ لوحدك is a poem by Egyptian poet Ehab Lotayef performed by Haidar Eid on the music by Reziq JuJu.
Haidar Eid is a professor at al-Quds University in Gaza City now trying to stay alive in the midst of the genocidal attack by apartheid Israel on Gaza.
Haidar wants to express the feelings of the people in Gaza, that the world has left them alone.
Lyrics:
لوحدك
Alone (On your own)
لو الدنيا ضاقت وجار الزمان
ومات الضيا واستبد الظلام
When your world collapses, when times are most difficult
When light suffocates, when darkness reins
(x2)
وهانوا الكرام وسادوا اللئام
وتهنا ما بين الحلال والحرام
When the righteous are oppressed, when the wicked rule
when the world can’t distinguish right from wrong
وحده صوتك ينور ليالي الأسية
بكلمة جريئة تناجي النهار
Only your voice will illuminate these harsh nights
with a brave word, that summons daylight
(x2)
لو ناسك خنوعة وصاحبك جبان
يحب المراوغة، يخاف م الكلام
When your people submit. When your friend is a coward
afraid to rise up, afraid to speak
(x2)
في وسط المظالم وتحت الحصار
يا واقف لوحدك مفيش لك خيار
In the midst of injustices and under siege
You, who stands alone, have no recourse
غير صوتك: تنور ليالي الأسية
بكلمة جريئة تناجي النهار
But your voice: illuminate the harshest of nights
with a courageous word, usher daylight
(x2)