International Solidarity Movement - Page 51 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Livelihoods destroyed in two days of demolitions in South Hebron Hills

Village elder Hajj Suleiman violently arrested during demolition of public park

July 4 | International Solidarity Movement | South Hebron Hills, occupied Palestine

The South Hebron Hills have faced two consecutive days of demolitions starting early yesterday morning, with bulldozers destroying water wells and uprooting over 500 trees in two villages.

An elderly Palestinian activist from Um al-Khair was also hospitalised yesterday after being violently detained by occupation forces.

Five JCB bulldozers accompanied by Israeli Civil Administration vans began uprooting trees – some of which were over 14 years old – and demolishing water wells in a public park between the villages of Hashem Daraj and Um al-Khair at around 9am yesterday morning.

70-year-old man Hajj Suleiman, was aggressively dragged out of the road, where he had tried to stand in the way of the bulldozers, by soldiers and pushed to the ground. He was later seen unconscious before being taken to hospital for medical attention.

Some hours later, the village elder was discharged. Despite his ordeal, Suleiman was back the next day to try to disrupt the violence of the bulldozers. He was briefly detained again before being driven in a military jeep to Um al-Khair in a attempt by soldiers to prevent him carrying out further direct actions.

Unconscious village elder carried to safety after being aggressively detained and pushed to the ground by Israeli soldiers

Hajj Suleiman receives medical attention

His nephew Tariq described yesterday’s demolition spree by the Israeli Civil Administration – the body that governs Area C in the West Bank – as “brutal.”

“They don’t leave anything alone,” he told ISM. “They demolish the peoples houses, they demolish the animal barns and now they’re starting from this year to demolish trees and water cisterns.”

The park, which is now a heap of uprooted trees, was one of the few public spaces belonging to Palestinians in the region.

This morning, the bulldozers came again, destroying two water cisterns and uprooting more trees in Dkeika, a village close to the West Bank border.

The cisterns are vital during the summer months for shepherds to graze their sheep and goats.

While the villagers’ resources were being demolished, a drone belonging to far-right Israeli NGO Regavim was documenting the scene. The group, which receives Israeli taxpayers money, is dedicated to evicting Palestinians from Area C and within Israel through court petitions. It’s likely they played a direct role in the two day demolition spree.

A drone operated by Israeli far-right NGO Regavim hovers over bulldozers wrecking water cisterns

Many Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills, which is located within Area C, live with the constant threat of having their homes, water systems, roads and farms bulldozed by the Civil Administration.

Structures built by Palestinians in Area C without building permits (less than 1% are approved by the Civil Administration) are served demolition orders while illegal Israeli settlement outposts have free reign to build with impunity.

Olive trees, some 14 years old, unearthed by bulldozers

Bedouin village of Um al-Kheir fights against new demolition threats

The illegal settlement Carmel looks over the Bedouin village of Um al-Kheir

June 26 | International Solidarity Movement | Umm al-Kheir, south Hebron Hills, occupied Palestine

The Bedouin village of Um al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills have launched a new bid to save their homes from demolition.

On Monday, activists from the village submitted a new master plan to the Israeli Civil Administration which, if accepted, would protect their community from the bulldozers.

Since 2011, 32 structures including houses, animal barns and a bread oven have been demolished in Um al-Khair with almost every family losing at least one home.

The village has been in crisis mode over the past week, going to bed each night with the fear that bulldozers could be rolling towards them in the morning.

An international presence (including people from the Good Shepherd Collective, Christian Peacemakers Team, All That’s Left and ISM) has been set up in solidarity with the people of Um al-Kheir and to provide a possible deterrence.

The community hopes to have a response from the Civil Administration in the coming days, which if given, will freeze the demolition orders for a few years.

But until a response is given, the village remains at risk of demolition.

The Civil Administration, the governing Israeli body in Area B and C in the West Bank, recently rejected the villagers’ previous master plan submitted three years ago. During this time period, demolition orders were frozen, giving the Bedouin community a brief respite. But now the freeze period is over and Um al-Kheir is once again at risk of demolition with orders against 45 homes.

The villagers are expecting a response from the Civil Administration tomorrow, which would begin the process again of freezing the orders while the master plan is deliberated.

Um al-Khair is one of the villages in the South Hebron Hills that is particularly at risk of expulsion.

It is gradually being surrounded by the illegal settlement of Carmel which is just feet away with a fence separating the two.

Five days after demolition: Picking up the pieces

June 21, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | South Hebron Hills, occupied Palestine

Palestinian flags fluttered over the rubble of Mohammad al Dababsh home in the South Hebron Hills yesterday as local activists helped the family put up a temporary shelter.

Pots and pans lay scattered amongst bricks, metal and dust – the only remnants left of the two-roomed house which was demolished on Monday.

ISM joined activists from the Protection and Sumud committee – a group that protects locals from attacks by settlers – to the village of Khalet al Dabeh where they helped the Dababsh family to erect a tarpaulin tent.

The house was the first of four homes to face the bulldozers on June 17 as occupation forces went on a demolition spree across two villages, as reported by ISM.

ISM spoke to Jaber Dababsh, the brother of Mohammad about the impact the demolition has had on his family.

“They are completely destroyed because they lost everything at once – their electricity, their home, their stuff,’ Jaber Dababsh replied through a translator.

“The situation is very hard, now they’ve got this tent and hopefully they can move in it soon because all their stuff is outside and mostly they are outside.”

Villagers, local activists and ISMers erect a tent on the site of a demolished home in Khalet al Dabeh

The tent was cold and dark, the solar panels that once supplied energy to the house now destroyed and confiscated by soldiers during the demolition. In stark contrast, the illegal settlement of Havat Maon glared in the distance. ‘The settlers have big homes, running water and electricity,’ a member of the committee told ISM. ‘This family just has a tent.’

During Monday’s demolition, a member of the al Dababsh family broke through the closed military zone around his house in a desperate attempt to save it. He was aggressively pushed back by Israeli border police who threw him to the floor. He was later hospitalized.

Jaber told ISM that workers who had been removing his family’s possessions from the house just before the demolition stopped when his brother ran through the closed military zone. This meant many of their belongings were left in the house when the bulldozer ripped into it, including the children’s school bags and books.

The door of the al Dababsh home demolished this week

Even the tent is not safe from the occupation forces. Tents put up to shelter families after demolition are also routinely confiscated by the Civil Israeli Administration.

ISM asked what the family would do if the tent was taken.

‘We will stay here,” Jaber replied. “We will put up another one. This is not something that will surprise us, it’s something we expect to happen under this occupation.

“This is their [Israel’s] thinking, to make us get out of the village. It’s been five days since the demolition and they [the al Dababsh family] are still here, living outside.”

Villagers and members of the Protection and Sumud committee pose with a Palestinian flag outside the newly constructed tent

Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills are denied access to running water, electricity and permits to build new structures – including schools and medical centres – by the Israeli occupation. As a result most of 30 villages in the area are at risk of demolition.

Despite being deprived of their human right to shelter, the al Dababsh family remained defiant.

“If you demolish, we will build, if you uproot our trees we will plant more.” This is the family’s message to the occupation.

Villagers live in fear and uncertainty as four more homes demolished in South Hebron Hills

June 18, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | South Hebron Hills, occupied Palestine

The al-Dababsh family watch as their home is demolished. *Pic: Basil Adraa*

Occupation forces went on a demolition spree yesterday in the South Hebron Hills, bulldozing the homes of four families in two villages.

A convoy of border police, Israeli Civil Administration officials, soldiers and two JCB bulldozers arrived in the village of Khalet al Dabeh at around 9am to destroy a house belonging to Mohammad al Dababsh.

Twelve members of the al Dababsh family including seven children, who have lived in the region for generations, are now homeless and have been given tents to sleep in by the Red Cross.

“People used to live in tents and caves and they had their dream come true to live in a house – they came up from under the ground into the light,’ Basil Adraa, a youth activist from the neighbouring village of al-Tuwani, told ISM.

“Now they have gone back 10 years, living before without light and houses.”

Adraa along with other local activists and ISMers arrived to Khalet al Dabeh just ahead of the demolition.

Members of the al Dababsh family were shouting in distress and at one point attempted to run through the line of border police – who had announced a closed military zone around the house – in a bid to protect his home before it was raised to the ground.

Omar al Dababsh was thrown to the floor by soldiers as he ran. His injuries required urgent medical attention and he was taken to Hebron hospital.

Soldiers also shoved local activists and ISMers in the scuffle.

A Palestinian man lies injured after being thrown to the ground by occupation forces by his demolished home

Adraa was filming the demolition from a roof near the al Dababsh house when soldiers threatened to throw a sound grenade at him if he refused to get down.

A separate building storing solar panel batteries was also destroyed and the panels were confiscated.

After forcing a family of 12 into homelessness, the convoy moved on to the village of al Halawe where they destroyed a further three homes belonging to the Aram family.

Adraa told ISM that a ‘demolition day’ has happened every week this year, except during Ramadan when there were two demolitions in five weeks.

The region of the South Hebron Hills is in Area C of the West Bank where almost all construction by Palestinians is banned by the Israeli government.

Most of the region’s 30 Palestinian villages have demolition orders on at least one building meaning they could be bulldozed at any time.

Local activist group, the Good Shepherd Collective, which raises awareness about demolitions in the South Hebron Hills area stated on its Facebook page: “It is worth noting that these demolitions, injuries, and confiscations do not simply impact and traumatize the families and individuals immediately affected – demolitions, especially during the oppressive heat of the summer, force families to rebuild in order to meet their basic needs, and in the meantime rely on their extended family and community members.”

An Israeli border police aggressively pushes locals and humanitarian observers

Adraa added: “It seems like a Nakba for these people, because the biggest goal for the occupation is to evacuate the people from these villages to the cities. So in this kind of demolition, big demolition, it’s a serious step to evacuate the people and take them from their land which is illegal by international law. They want to demolish houses so that the settlement can expand.”

Despite the ban, which also forbids Palestinians to hook up to the electricity grid and water supply, illegal settlers in the region continue to construct new buildings unimpeded by Israeli forces.

South Hebron Hills: Settlers wielding sticks launch night attack on Palestinian home

June 17, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | South Hebron Hills, occupied Palestine

Occupation forces attempt to arrest Palestinians outside At-Tuwani house

Settlers bearing sticks from the notorious Havat Maon illegal outpost tried to attack a Palestinian home two nights ago in the village of At-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills – the latest in a stream of attacks against the same home.

The Zionist attackers ran towards the house on June 15, which belongs to the Rabai family, bearing sticks but retreated after children playing nearby called out to their parents.

The group of around 8 settlers were seen running back into the line of trees encircling the illegal settlement, situated just 300m from the Palestinian home.

Due to the close proximity of the Rabai house to the outpost, it faces near constant assaults, with settlers often breaking the windows and even attacking members of the family.

A member of the Rabai family told ISM that he has had to replace the windows at least five times.

Occupation forces, called by the settlers, marched to the house shortly after the incident, claiming that 49 Palestinians had attacked the initial aggressors with stones.

However, not only was it clear that Palestinians had not started the assault, it was also clear that there were nowhere near 49 villagers at the scene.

Four IDF soldiers tried to enter but were prevented by the presence of other villagers, local activists and international observers.

The soldiers eventually left without making arrests. However, the Rabai family requested ISMers to stay on the roof till morning in case soldiers returned to detain anyone in the middle of the night.

The soldiers did not come back to the house but were seen making patrols until the early hours of the morning.

The family’s home is the closest house in At-Tuwani, a village of 350 people, to Havat Ma’on outpost, making it a prime target for the 40 particularly violent settlers who live there.

The Rabai family home with Havat Maon, an illegal outpost in the background

One member of the family, who prefers not to be named, told ISM that the settlers had previously thrown stones at his mother and wife while she was carrying their child.

‘My house can never be empty,’ he tells ISM. ‘My daughter is crying in the middle of the night, if she sees the gun of the soldier she will shout, ‘they will kill us, they will kill us!’

In the past, settlers would try to attack the house on a daily basis. The Rabai family have to be on constant alert. ‘I keep my clothes and shoes ready by my bed,’ he told ISM during the incident.

At-Tuwani and its surrounding villages have been terrorised by the settlers of Havat Ma’on and other illegal outposts – as well as by the soldiers that protect them – for 20 years. But despite using vicious tactics to scare the Palestinians into leaving, including poisoning their sheep and water supply and beating farmers and international observers, the villagers have held their ground.