Vulnerable Communities have their houses demolished
Special Report 27th March 2008
EAPPI-Hebron Team
The EAPPI-team of Hebron visited, with the help of the UNOCHA expert for the Hebron governorate Mr. Hamed Qawasmeh, four of the sites where house demolitions took place on Wednesday 19th March. The idea of the tour was also to present to us the different types of vulnerabilities the communities in southern Hebron suffer from. These were:
- vulnerability to displacement through house demolitions;
- vulnerability through threats to livelihood, namely sheperding;
- vulnerability of sustainable life through restrictions on movement and access.
The first of the house demolitions sites was in the Al-Baqa’a area between Kiryat Arba and Kharsina settlements. Kharsina, although physically a separate settlement, is for bureaucratic advantadges presented as a neighbourhood of Kiryat Arba. The house demolished was just beneath the settlements, between it and the road. The area suffers from extensive closure on roads, and vehicle drivers are fined. According to Mr. Qawasmeh, six (6) of the houses in the area have been previously demolished. The threat of displacement is serious. One of the families had stated that if it weren’t for ICAHD rebuilding their house, they would have left the area.
The second place was Deirat, directly east of Yatta. There, a two story building had been demolished that housed two families. The demolition also damaged the foundations of the neighbouring house. According to the family, the house had been built 6 years ago. The father we met had seven children of which the eldest was 12 years old. The two tents, provided as a `relief package` for the demolition were pitched next to the site. The family’s current wish is to be able to build a house with two rooms – one for housing each family. As the estimated costs are at 20 000 shekels, and the father has had no work for the past 1.5 years, the family is seeking assistance, without success so far. One other house of this family has had a demolition order pending for 17 years. Mr. Qawasmeh attributed the lack of enforcement to legal efforts by the family. Lack of access to legal aid was emphasised as increasing the probability of the enforcement of existing demolition orders.
South of Deirat is the community of Umm Lasafa. The house that was demolished was intended to be the son’s one day. It housed the father, his wife and three children, of which the eldest was three. This family has already been displaced once by settler attacks from further south. The community of around 26 people have had three previous demolitions, and three more houses had demolition orders pending. Also a cistern had been bulldozed. It is believed that the intention is to displace this family by making life so hard that they will want to leave. Furthermore, the known impossibility for Palestinians to attain a building permit in Area C supports the interpretation of `voluntary` displacement on an ethnic basis. Another well had been poisoned by settlers. The people that lived in the demolished house now live in the `relief package` tents.
The last demolition site we visited was in what is not yet recognized by Israel as, but de facto is, a seamzone-area on the southern border of the West Bank, next to Beit Yatir settlement. The community faces all the difficulties of moving in and out of a seamzone, without a permit system. This area is located just beyond where the fence/wall stops. Yet we witnessed a new concrete structure of about a meter high and 400 meters longs, continuing in the planned direction of the fence/wall. The family currently has access to 300 dunums of grazing land to the north, but would effectively be cut off were the barrier to be built. Additionally, due to restrictions on access the family has the problem of getting supplies. The water has to be trucked in, but as Palestinian drivers cannot enter the seam-zone, it often cannot be delivered. The house that was demolished also had its foundations rooted out of the earth. The family totals fifteen people. Also the sheep pens have demolition orders on them. During the winter, the weakly built structures caved in with the snow, and the family lost 10 sheep.
The whole area south of Yatta in general is extremely vulnerable. The combination of last year’s drought and this year’s shortage of rainfall, with an estimated 150% rise during the last few years in the price of fodder to be fed to sheep, is devastating for communities relying on herding. Additionally, restrictions on movement, also close to settlement areas, diminish the amount of grazable land people have access to. According to Mr. Qawasmeh, whereas previously in these areas sheep grazed 4-5 months of the year and lived the rest off of fodder, the period is now reduced to 2-3 months.
Lastly, it is clear that all of these communities are vulnerable to displacement through the serious settler harassment in the region, and the settlements themselves encroaching on their land. The extreme example of the poisoned wheat and grass that was spread out by the Ma’on settlers, that killed 70 sheep and injured the same amount attests to this. Further, the villagers of At-Tuwani could not sell their sheep products for two years, because of fear of them being poisonous. The EAPPI-team also visited a bedouin community of 125 people in Um Al-Kher Al Faqir, that is surrounded by the Carmel settlement. Every structure has a demolition order on it, except one house that preceeds the beginning of the building of the settlement. Last year on Valentine’s Day, 11 strutures were demolished. The families have bought this land and have the deeds to prove it. However, they do not have access to any legal aid. Settler harassment is very common. The families have diversified their sources of livelihood to decrease their vulnerability by sending their children to work in cities. Two days ago, the water to them was cut off, due to a 20 000 shekel debt the families were unable to pay.
It is clear that the whole area to the east and south of Yatta, consists of extremely vulnerable communities, especially those living close to settlements. The enforcement of demolition orders prove that the ’voluntary’ displacement and transferral of people according to ethnicity is a policy that is alive and well, and vigorously pursued by the responsible Israel State agencies.
Photo: The newest extension of the fence/wall.
