Squeezed and punished by the Israeli occupation

Salwa (17), Seham (37) and Zenab (73) are three generations of women of the Palestinian Salah family who live in Al-Khader, a town of 10,000 people in the Governate of Bethlehem. Like many families in the West Bank they have experienced the injustice, frustration and powerlessness of a practice called 'administrative detention' at the hands of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force). The Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem describes administrative detention as "detention without charge or trial, authorized by administrative order rather than by judicial decree. Over the years, Israel has held Palestinians in prolonged detention without trying them and without informing them of the suspicions against them. While detainees may appeal the detention, neither they nor their attorneys are allowed to see the evidence."

It was June 5th last year and Salwa (16 at the time) had finished her second last year of schooling and was looking forward to the summer. She tells us that she was in bed asleep that night but this is where she does not feel comfortable telling us more detail, all she says is "I had no idea that the army were coming for me that night." Salwa spent almost seven months in prison; she was released on January 1st this year. When asked why this happened her mother Seham says "I have no idea, the lawyer had no answer either. Usually in such cases the lawyer explains the reason for arrest but in this case the lawyer came to us looking for answers." The arbitrary nature of what happened to Salwa is something that does not surprise the family greatly as Seham says "Under occupation anything can happen." She also reflects on visiting Salwa in prison "There was a fence and glass between us when I visited in the prison. It was not possible to touch and we were standing, it was not possible to sit. There were 12 families in the room with you and it was very hard for us to her each other through this glass. We brought her three year old sister to the prison in the hope that they would allow a face to face visit with her. However they did not allow it and this visit has affected her as in kindergarten she has asked some of the young children to face the wall and she has pretended to search them. She saw this happen in the prison."

The effect on Salwa has been more profound. Seham says that "This was too hard a thing for a young person to do. I don't feel like she is a 17-year-old anymore. I asked her to stop high school. But she wanted to finish. Before jail she was relaxed and strong, now she is nervous and does not feel good. She is under pressure in school and always out doing courses. We are not relaxed until she comes home every day. The school have an upcoming trip to Jericho. But her father is afraid to send her. She goes through two checkpoints on the way and we are afraid she might be harassed or even arrested again."

Salwa's father can only pick up a few casual days work during the week, but it is not making ends meet. He used to have 100 dunums of land that he farmed but now these are on the other side of the separation wall and he cannot access the land. In 2004 the International Court of Justice declared that the route of the wall through the West Bank and Jerusalem was illegal. In total Al-Khader has lost 20,000 of its 22,000 dunums to the other side of the separation wall. It has had a devastating effect on the town that is hugely dependent on agriculture. In this situation of pressure on space there is little room or indeed chance for the town to expand in an area that is controlled by the Israeli authorities. The Salah family have had their house demolished by the IDF two times; this is why they (Salwa, her parents, her two brothers and three sisters) live with Zenab in a two room house. Seham says, "Here when we build a house we do not relax afterwards as it can be demolished."

Ramzi M. Salah, the 33-year-old mayor of Al-Khader synopsises the main issues of the town, "The main issue is that the wall separates us from our land, then there are the demolition orders – in the last six months 25 home demolition orders have been issued. No permission is given by the Israeli authorities for new buildings and also the schools are getting more crowded. There are IDF incursions and harassment every day and administrative detention is becoming a part of everyday life for more and more families." He estimates that there is a 60 percent unemployment rate in Al-Khader and in relation to solutions he says, "American support for Israel is crucial and the EU does nothing but talk. All that we ask for is the implementation of UN decisions."

A report published by the UN in May 2009 on the Bethlehem area has concluded that the continuation of the measures of Israeli settlement expansion, construction of the separation barrier and the zoning of the Bethlehem Governate under Israeli control, "compromises the future economic and social development of the Bethlehem Governorate."

Please click here, for UNOCHA's May 2009 report entitled Shrinking Space: Urban Contraction and Rural Fragmentation in the Bethlehem Governorate.