Description

Photos: Published by B'Tselem

A view from the village to the settlement of Har Homa. Photo: Faiz Abu Rmeleh, B’Tselem, 20 March 2025

The view from the village towards Beit Sahour. Photo: Faiz Abu Rmeleh, B’Tselem, 20 March 2025

A village home demolished on 10 Jan. 2025. Photo: Faiz Abu Rmeleh, B’Tselem, 20 March 2025
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April 22, 2025

A whole village facing expulsion!

In 1967, Israel extended the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Municipality over thousands of hectares of illegally annexed land. The residents of Khallet a-Nu'man were unaware their village was included, and Israel did not issue them East Jerusalem residency cards. They are defined by Israel as "illegal residents" in their own homes.

Over the years, the municipality refused to prepare a master plan and allow construction in the village, despite collecting property tax.

The threat of expulsion peaked on 26 January 2025, when a building inspector escorted by Border Police delivered "stop work orders" for all the homes and the mosque – a step that precedes demolition orders.

The attempt to drive the entire village out is part of efforts to maintain a "demographic balance" in Jerusalem, i.e., retain a Jewish majority>>
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Israel increases efforts to expel entire village of Nu’man in southeastern Jerusalem

by B'Tselem
April 1, 20254

On 26 January 2025, the Jerusalem Municipality distributed stop-work orders, which are essentially the initial stage of issuing demolition orders, for the mosque and all the houses in the Palestinian village of Khallet a-Nu’man. The municipality refers to the village, which lies in southeastern Jerusalem, as “Mazmuriyeh” after a nearby archaeological site.

The village was established north of the town of Beit Sahur about 100 years ago and is currently home to 150 Palestinians, about 40 of them minors. In 1967, Israel annexed its territory, and the village now lies at the southeastern edge of what Israel considers the city limits of Jerusalem. Despite annexing the village, Israel never recognized its residents and did not issue them East Jerusalem ID cards.

Until 1993, the village residents were largely able to go about their lives as they always had. That year, Israel imposed a closure on the West Bank, cutting the village off from both the West Bank and from East Jerusalem, to which the residents were denied entry. As described below, their plight worsened after the construction of the Separation Barrier in 2003 and the installation of the Mazmuriyeh checkpoint in 2006, separating the village from the rest of the West Bank. Since then, village residents have been living under extreme movement restrictions and are subjected to harassment, a planning chokehold and the threat of expulsion from their homes.

Over the years, the municipality has refused to draw up a master plan for the village or to allow construction in it, even of preschools or homes to accommodate natural growth. Residents have had no choice but to add on to their homes without permits – and the additions were then demolished by municipal order.

The threat of expulsion peaked on 26 January 2025, when the municipality sent a building enforcement officer, escorted by Border Police officers, to deliver 32 “stop-work orders” in the village. The orders were delivered to the mosque and to all the 31 residential buildings, which include 45 apartments, and some of them predate the establishment of Israel or the annexation of East Jerusalem.

Muhammad Dar’awi, 34, a father of four, said in a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 4 February 2025:

"On 26 January 2025, I found a demolition order issued by the Jerusalem Municipality pasted on the wall of our house. The order said we had to appear at the Jerusalem Municipality on 28 January 2025, but I don’t understand how they expected me to do that, since I have a West Bank ID card and Israel doesn’t allow me to enter Jerusalem...

I have a shop in Beit Sahur. I could make things easier for myself and move there, but I’m not prepared to do that. Even though daily life in Khallet a-Nu’man is very difficult, I’d rather stay in my home and my village. I simply refuse to leave the village where I was born and raised, and where all my childhood memories are.

My ten-year-old daughter Jawarah is very stressed by the demolition order. She’s afraid they’ll demolish our home before she has time to pack her clothes, books and toys, so she already packed everything in a bag."

Background

Palestinian settlement in Nu’man began in the 1930s. In 1967, when Israel illegally annexed parts of the West Bank and registered most Palestinians living there as East Jerusalem residents with Israeli IDs, it did not issue IDs to the residents of Nu’man, although the village lies within the annexed land. Repeated applications by the villagers over the years to receive Israeli IDs and register as East Jerusalem residents were all denied by the Ministry of the Interior.

This refusal has put the residents in an impossible situation: they are considered “illegal aliens” in their own homes and place of birth, and any interaction with soldiers or Border Police may result in arrest or expulsion to the West Bank outside the annexed area. In 2003, Border Police several times entered homes in the village, took away the inhabitants and let them out in Bethlehem District, on the grounds they were “illegal aliens.” After a High Court petition on the matter, the expulsions stopped, but the villagers’ official status remains unchanged and they are not allowed into other neighborhoods and villages in the annexed area. In 2023, the Jerusalem Municipality began collecting property tax from the residents retroactively as of 2018 – even though it still refuses to provide them with essential municipal services, including water, sewage and garbage collection. Residents continued to receive these services from the West Bank, but about two years ago, police at the checkpoint began denying passage to the garbage truck sent by the council of the nearby village of al-Khas, and since then, residents have been forced to dispose of waste themselves.

Since the construction of the Separation Barrier in 2003 and the erection of the checkpoint in 2006, the residents of Nu’man have been living in complete isolation. On one hand, as they are not registered as Jerusalem residents, they are not allowed to enter other parts of the city. On the other, the Separation Barrier and the Mazmuriyeh checkpoint have cut them off from West Bank residents, who are denied access to Nu’man. The police officers and security guards staffing the checkpoint have a list of 150 village residents, and they alone are allowed through the checkpoint into the village. In the last five years, residents have been forbidden entry on foot and can only cross the checkpoint by car.

Though residents are barred from accessing stores in Jerusalem, they are not allowed to bring in products such as eggs or meat from the West Bank, unless approved by the Israeli Ministry of Health, and they cannot have furniture or electrical appliances delivered to their homes from the West Bank. The absurd situation forced upon village residents even precludes them from holding events such as weddings or funerals in the village, as they cannot invite guests, and they are forced to hold such celebrations elsewhere in the West Bank. Additionally, since Israel imposes restrictions on the transport of livestock through the checkpoint, they have been unable to continue earning their living from shepherding and had to sell most of their sheep. Palestinian emergency vehicles are also not allowed through the checkpoint, and residents must call ambulances and fire trucks from Jerusalem, which take longer to arrive.

Village resident ‘Etidal Dar’awi, 51, a mother of four, said in a testimony she gave B’Tselem data coordinator, Layan Mahameed:

"The police officers at the checkpoint have a list of names of village residents and only they are allowed in. For example, my daughter’s husband isn’t allowed to visit us. My daughter is on the list and they still let her in, as well as her children, who are minors, but only when they come with her. When they grow up, they won’t be allowed to visit us either. On holidays, for example, our custom is that children visit their parents, but instead, we have to visit them. I married a village resident and my family is not from here, so all these years, they haven’t let them visit us even once. It makes me very sad.

This situation forces us to have our weddings and funerals outside the village. We’re not even allowed to celebrate or mourn. That is part of our suffering here. We can’t make plans like everyone else. We have to think about things that others don’t think about.

The refusal of the Ministry of Interior and the Jerusalem Municipality to recognize the residents of Khallet a-Nu’man as Jerusalem residents is part of the policy practiced by all Israeli governments in Jerusalem since 1967. Its main goal is to secure a ‘demographic balance’ in the city – in other words, efforts and resources are devoted to preventing the Palestinian population from growing compared to the Jewish population. At the same time, the Jerusalem Municipality constantly works to expand areas designated for Jewish residential use, including land belonging to Palestinians, and promotes Jewish takeovers of buildings inside Palestinian neighborhoods through discriminatory laws. To achieve this goal, Israeli authorities employ various measures to drive Palestinians to leave East Jerusalem, from barring development and restricting travel to prohibiting family unification. In Nu’man, this policy takes its most extreme form – a plan to expel residents from their homes in order to transfer the area to Jewish hands."

Ibrahim Dar’awi, 77, a father of three, said in a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 3 February 2025:
I am a lecturer in political science and geography at Al-Quds Open University. My family and I live in Khallet a-Nu’man. We didn’t get Jerusalem ID cards in 1967, because the occupation authorities ignored our village in the census they conducted, even though they did include the residents of Zur Baher and Um Tuba, which are a ten-minute walk from here. Since the separation fence was built in 2003 and the Mazmuriyeh checkpoint in 2006, the soldiers at the checkpoint have only let people whose names appear on their list into the village, meaning only village residents. Also, for five years now, we haven’t been allowed to enter the village on foot, only by car.

The Israeli occupation also refuses to issue us building permits in the village and demolishes everything built here without a permit. Even an application we submitted to build a daycare center in the village was denied.

On 26 January 2025, a municipality enforcement officer came to the village, accompanied by Border Police officers, and posted stop-work orders on village homes and on the mosque. The enforcement officer told us the residents had to come to the Jerusalem Municipality on 28 January 2025. He knows the residents have Palestinian ID cards so they can’t enter Jerusalem without a permit, and Israel hasn’t issued such permits since 7 October 2023.

There are houses in the village that were built in the 1950s and 1960s – before the occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Even those houses are under threat of demolition. My house, for example, was built in 1963. The date is engraved on its bricks.

When Israel occupied East Jerusalem, there were 40 people living in the village. Now, there are 150. Over the years, because of the home demolition policy and the siege on the village, many young people have moved to the nearby villages of al-Khas and Dar Salah, which are part of Bethlehem District in the West Bank. Most of them leave when they get married because they’re not allowed to build homes here, but they don’t change the address on their ID cards, so they still have the right to enter the village.
A village resident who marries a woman from outside the village adds his wife and children to the list at the Mazmuriyeh checkpoint, so they can enter the village. On the other hand, if a girl marries a man who is not a village resident, Israel allows only her and her children to enter, as long as they are under 18. The husband isn’t allowed in, and the children won’t be either, when they grow up.

It’s hard for us to keep in touch with people who live outside the village, because they’re not allowed to visit us or even attend our celebrations or funerals. To allow relatives and friends to attend, we have to have ceremonies outside the village.

The view from the village towards Um Tuba. Photo: Faiz Abu Rmeleh, B’Tselem, 20 March 2025
The view from the village towards Um Tuba. Photo: Faiz Abu Rmeleh, B’Tselem, 20 March 2025
Once, we tried to invite guests from outside the village to the funeral of a resident. We coordinated their entry in advance, and the police at the checkpoint did let them in. But it was the only time we did that, because when they left, the police officers detained them and took them for questioning at Checkpoint 300, at the entrance to Bethlehem.

Before the fence and checkpoint were installed, children from a-Nu’man went to school in Jerusalem – in Zur Baher and Um Tuba. The village also had a Palestinian Authority medical clinic, but Israel didn’t allow the staff into the village, so we lost our ability to receive medical treatment in the village. Today, we have no health insurance, no right to National Insurance benefits, no access to schools in Jerusalem, and our children study in schools in nearby West Bank villages. In 2018, the Jerusalem Municipality started collecting property tax from us, but it doesn’t provide us any services.

Palestinian ambulances and firefighters are not allowed in, either. If there’s a fire in the village, we can only call an Israeli fire truck, but it takes them time. I don’t understand why, but I assume they simply don’t care. Ten years ago, a fire broke out in an apartment in the village. The Israeli fire truck took a long time to come, so people from the village put out the fire themselves. Fortunately, no one was injured, but by the time they had the fire under control, everything inside the apartment was burned.

Palestinian garbage trucks from the village of al-Khas haven’t been allowed into our village for two years now. We’ve been disposing of waste ourselves since then. I take the garbage bag in my car to nearby villages and throw it in the dumpsters there. We’re not allowed to bring gas tanks into the village, and also eggs, chicken and meat that aren’t produced in Israel.

At the beginning of 2025, the army installed two gates at the entrance to the village to control traffic in and out of the village separately – in addition to the yellow gate installed in the past, that controls both lanes together. Sometimes the police officers close the gates. I fear that these gates are the end of the story. Our village will be completely sealed off, and people won’t be allowed in or out."