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Photos by Elena Viola, AIC

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Monday demolished tents in al-Himma in the northern West Bank, the official PA news agency reported.

Head of Wadi al-Maleh village council Aref Daraghmeh said the structures were used by local farmers and shepherds, Wafa reported.

Daraghmeh said Israel demolished dwellings in the Jordan Valley as part of a policy to force residents from the land to make way for expanding Jewish-only settlements.

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In photos: Jordan Valley demolitions
by Elena Viola for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

On the eve of Palestinian Land Day, Israel demolished homes and animal shelters in three Bedouin-Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley.

Several houses and animal shelters were demolished in the small communities of El Hemmi, Al Farisiya and Khirbet Homse in Area C of the Jordan Valley on 26 March 2012.

“They want to be the masters of everything,” the wife of a farmer living in Al Farisiya says to Electronic Intifada. “Look, they destroy even animal shelters. The Ottomans, the British and the Jordanians have all occupied this land - but not one of them treated us in this way.”

The building plan for Palestinians living in Area C, which is under Israeli military and civil control, is extremely restrictive. Most of the Palestinian farmers are prevented from building concrete structures, in which they can house their families and shelter their flocks. Therefore, they can cope with the increasing growth of their families and breeding animals only by assembling temporary and illegal shacks, which serve as houses and animal sheds.

If it is indeed true that few people hold building permits for their houses and animal sheds, a large majority do hold written evidence of their land ownership. This consists of official registration documents dating back to the Ottoman and Jordanian times, but which were also ratified by the Israeli Land Administration.


In the early morning of 26 March, a convoy of Israeli military and civil administration vehicles commenced its tour of demolition from the properties of four Palestinian farmers living in El Hemmi and, within a few hours, further conducted this shameful mission in the tiny village of Khirbet Homes, located nearby Hamra checkpoint.

“Around 9 a.m. up to 30 people from the Israeli and police arrived in front of my housing tent,” says Mahmoud Awad from El Hemmi. “I was in the fields with the shepherds but, as I heard my wife and son shouting, I raced to my place. When I got here, the demolition had already started… Even though my son showed them the freezing order we had received a few months before, the bulldozers didn’t stop until everything was knocked down.”


It took less than 30 minutes for the Israeli army to do its dirty work. As the long Israeli convoy turned around and drove away, a family of ten people - including a 2-month-old baby - was left behind, homeless. As the family was given no time to pack before the demolition started, when local and international help arrived at the scene, under the rubble there were still shoes, clothes and other essential items.


Half an hour later it was Abed Rabu’s turn. “An Israeli officer introduced himself and explained that he would demolish my two houses and four animal shelters because I had no building permits for them,” said the farmer. “As he tried to shake my hand, I looked away pretending to not have seen that ridiculous move. How did he even dare?!”

Abu Rabu received a demolition order from the Israeli army in November, demanding that he destroy his own house and animal shelters, but no additional warning was sent. He decided to hire a lawyer and to take his case to court.

Around 11a.m. military vehicles and bulldozers reached the village of Al Farisiya, closed to El Hammi. For Ali Zhurida Abdallah and his family, it was the third time the Israeli army has invaded his land and demolished his animal shelters this year. “A few months ago the Israeli soldiers started threatening me,” Abu Ali says. “They even told me they would come and kill me during the night, if I didn’t leave this land and move to the city of Tubas. This is my land and I’d rather die than live somewhere else.”

Similar tragic stories followed one after the other on 26 March 2012, which was just the latest in a long history of Israeli demolitions in the Jordan Valley. In an area of which 94% was defined as Area C in the aftermath of the Oslo Accords, almost every community and village is vulnerable to the processes of demolition and often forced displacement by the Israeli occupying power.