Testimonies

Bahitha al-Hazalin, 38

I'm married to Yasser al-Hazalin, a resident of Umm al-Kheir. I'm his second wife. We married in 1996. At first, we lived in a tent, like the rest of the people in our village. We had five children, the eldest of whom, ‘Ali, is now eight years old. The tent did not protect us from the cold, the heat, and the wind, so my husband decided to build a house from concrete, like the one his first wife has. She lives with her seven children in the house next to ours. My husband sold my gold jewelry to build the house, which is seventy square meters. In 2003, we moved in and were happy because we had a house different from the other houses in the village.

In 2006, after we got a few stop-work orders because we didn't have a building permit, the Israeli authorities demolished the house, and we became homeless in the blink of an eye. We went back to living in a tent.

Bahitha al-Hazalin with two of her children. Photo: Musa Abu Hashhash, B'Tselem, 19 Nov. '09.

My husband didn't want me to continue to live in a tent, so a few days after the house was demolished, he began to build another house from concrete, next to the house that was demolished. He took big loans from relatives to finish the construction quickly. He built the house, 100 square meters, and we moved in.

Although our house is different from most of the other houses in the village, which are basically tents, our life is no different from that of the others. We live in dismal poverty. You can see it in the food we eat, our clothes, and in every aspect of life. We usually live on bread and tea and wear rags and cheap clothes. We do not have electricity in the village, so we bake bread over the fire, and we do not have modern appliances, like refrigerators and washing machines. We haul water on donkeys.

Donkey carrying necessities to Umm  al-Khir. Photo: Musa Abu Hashhash, 19 November 2009.

My husband used to be one of the biggest sheep raisers in the area. The grazing land was open and we had hundreds of heads of sheep. Now, because of the settlers in the area, we can't go to the grazing land. The price of fodder has gone up, and raising sheep has become very expensive. My husband had to sell his sheep, as did many others, and we were left with only twenty head. This is not enough to support seventeen people - my husband, my children and I, his first wife and her sons, and his mother and sister.

Al-Hazalin family, Umm al-Khir. Photo: Musa Abu Hashhash, 19 November 2009

On 11 November, the Civil Administration handed us stop-work orders on all tents and concrete houses in the village, including mine, that of my husband's first wife, and that of our neighbor, ‘Abd Saliman al-Hazalin, which are built from concrete. The authorities issued three demolition orders, for 17 structures - houses, tents, and one tin hut. We've been very worried since then. I'm afraid the bulldozers will come and demolish everything, and we'll be left again with nothing, particularly now with the winter about to begin. If this is what will happen to me and my children, I'd rather die.

Bahitha al-Hazalin, 38, who is married and has five children, lives in Umm al-Kheir, in the southern Hebron hills. She gave her testimony to Musa Abu Hashhash on 19 November 2009 at her house.