Palestinian family forced to live without shelter or water by Israeli army
Despite the fact that the Palestinian bedouin family has ownership deeds of their land in the West Bank, Israel is relentless in trying to force them out. The army, on one of their recent raids, confiscated everything the family owns; even their water tanks, leaving them with no shelter or water, a basic human need. “As if they are deliberately and intentionally seeking to deprive us of all the essential aspects of human life.”
By: Harith al-Hosni
TUBAS, West Bank. Dec 23, 2019 (WAFA) — On the foothills of a mountain overlooking Al-Baqai’a Plain to the east of Tubas, in the northeastern West Bank, lived a Bedouin family in tents after leaving the southern West Bank city of Hebron on the first of December.
During this short period of living there, Israeli forces have twice verbally ordered Abu Thaher family to leave the 11 dunums of land under the pretext of being in closed military and live-fire zones, despite the fact that the family has ownership deeds, known as Tabu.
According to one of the family members, Zaid, on the third raid on the area, Israeli forces dismantled and seized all the residential tents and others used for animal husbandry without giving them any prior official notices, displacing the whole family and leaving them without shelter.
Israeli forces also seized the only clean water tank the family had, leaving them only with a livestock water tank used for the animal watering needs; “as if they are deliberately and intentionally seeking to deprive us of all the essential aspects of human life,” said Zaid.
In most cases, Palestinian families attempt to rebuild and restore what the Israeli occupation has demolished, however, in the case of Abu Thaher family, there was nothing left to restore after Israeli forces dismantled and seized everything there, leaving them without any basic living standards.
“We will start from scratch…Neither we nor our animals have shelter today,” said Zaid’s mother, Zainab, who lost her 60-square-meters home tent in the demolition raid.
“They only gave us 15 minutes to empty the tents…Without giving any explanation they began to dismantle the tents and load them into trucks…They left us helpless without any shelter,” added Zaid as he spoke vigorously in contrast to the silent mother who said very little after being at a loss for words following the demolition of their entire tents.
“Take a look, nothing was left to suggest any life signs here…They left us here as primitive people,” said Zaid as he pointed toward the empty land where they had been living since the beginning of this month.
In light of the low front expected to hit the region, the mother who spoke of concern about the animals given the fact that most Bedouins rely on livestock as their main source of income said: “The first thing we have to do is to find shelter for the animals…This is a hard life that lacks any pillars of survival.”
B’Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in occupied territories, has monitored demolitions carried out over the years, counting at least 698 Palestinian residential units demolished by the Civil Administration — the branch of the Israeli military designated to handle civil matters in Area C in the Jordan Valley — from the January 2006 through September 2017.
The demolished structures were home to at least 2,948 Palestinians, at least 1,334 of whom were minors. Of these, 783 Palestinians (including 386 minors) had their homes demolished at least twice.
From January 2012 to through September 2017, the Civil Administration also demolished at least 806 non-residential units, including agricultural structures, added B’Tselem.
According to B’Tselem, “the ban on Palestinian construction and development in the Jordan Valley takes a particularly harsh toll on the roughly 10,000 residents of more than 50 Palestinian communities in Area C that Israel is attempting by various means to drive from their homes and land.”
“The authorities deny these communities any possibility whatsoever of lawful construction to meet the needs of their population, and refuse to connect them to water and power supplies.”
