Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Tuesday 13 February 2024, at around 11:00 A.M., a Jordan Valley settlement regional council official arrived with soldiers at some farmland in the village of al-Hadidiyah in the northern Jordan Valley. The Israeli forces confiscated a truck carrying two tons of fertilizer, claiming it was illegal. They ordered the driver to follow them to the Beka'ot military base and from there to the military base in Hamamat al-Maleh, where he was told to leave the truck with its cargo.

In the late afternoon on Wednesday, 9 August 2023, settlers arrived in a Jordan Valley regional settlement council vehicle at the pastureland east of the village of al-Hadidiyah in the northern Jordan Valley, where two of the village’s residents were grazing their flocks. The settlers summoned soldiers who confiscated the two cars owned by the shepherds on the pretext that they had driven into forbidden territory. The soldiers drove them to a nearby military post.

On Saturday, 3 Dec. 2022, at around 4:00 P.M., a representative of the Jordan Valley regional settlement council came with a military escort to an agricultural plot northeast of the village of al-Hadidiyah and ordered Palestinian farmers who were plowing the land to stop. He also demanded that a village resident who was driving a tractor follow him and the soldiers. When the convoy neared Khallet Makhul, residents blocked the way and entered into an argument with the soldiers that lasted about an hour. The vehicles then continued on their way, with the resident driving the tractor to a nearby military base, where it was confiscated on the grounds it had been used to work land in a closed military zone.

On 24 July 2022, Jordan Valley settlements regional council personnel and soldiers who accompanied them chased Palestinian vehicles transporting water for watering flocks in al-Hadidiyah community. The forces confiscated two tractors and a water trailer and drove them to one of the settlements in the area.

On the morning of 30 May 2019, at about 8:00 A.M., Israeli Civil Administration personnel came with a tractor and bulldozer to Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley. They had a military jeep as escort. The troops demolished two tents that served as seasonal dwellings and a sheep pen. One of the residential tents had been donated by the Red Cross and the other had been purchased with aid money from international humanitarian organizations. The troops also slashed and ruined ten canopy tents, some of which had been purchased with international aid funds. Later that morning, at about 10:00 A.M., CA personnel with a military jeep escort arrived at the village of al-Hadidiyah in the northern Jordan Valley. There, too, the troops demolished two tents that were seasonal homes and two tents that served as sheep pens.

Yesterday (Monday, 5 November 2018), at about 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with two truck-mounted cranes and a military and Border Police escort to the village of al-Hadidiyah in the northern Jordan Valley. The troops dismantled and confiscated two shacks and three residential tents that were the home of a family of eight, including four children. They also dismantled the residential tent of another villager. In October, Israeli security forces had demolished these people’s homes, and the residents had rebuilt them. The troops also demolished a sheep pen.

On Thursday morning, 11 Oct. 2018, at approximately 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration officials came with a military and Border Police escort and two bulldozers to the village of al-Hadidiyah in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished three huts that made up the home of a family of eight, four of them children, and a tent in which another member of the community lived. They also demolished a paddock and two livestock pens. The next day - Friday, 12 Oct. - al-Hadidiyah was declared a closed military zone from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. About ten soldiers, escorted by two police officers, came to the area and prevented Israeli human rights activists from helping the residents rebuild their homes. The soldiers arrested one of the activists.

Video filmed by 'Aref Daraghmeh, B'Tselem

This morning, 20 Feb. 2017, the Civil Administration demolished the home of an elderly woman – a trailer donated by a humanitarian aid organization – in the Palestinian community of al-Mehtiwish, which lies near Khan al-Ahmar on land Israel earmarked for expanding the Maale Adumim settlement. The CA also demolished a water pipe in the Jordan Valley which residents of Khirbet al-Hadidiyah and Khirbet Humsah had laid with the help of humanitarian organization, as Israel refuses to hook up these communities to the water grid. The pipe had been restored by residents after being demolished by the CA on 10 Jan. 2017.

On 10 December 2015 Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) issued an interim injunction in the petition filed by families from al-Hadidiyah. The injunction orders authorities not to demolish the families’ tents. On 30 December 2015 the HCJ ruled, with the agreement of the petitioners and the state, that as long as the residents erect no new structures or implement changes in extant structures, no demolitions will be carried out until further notice. The residents’ petition is scheduled to be heard in February 2016.

Today, Dec. 3, Civil Administration personnel and soldiers came to the al-Hadidiyah community in the northern Jordan Valley and confiscated seven tents donated to the community by the French aid organization ACTED. Residents were already living in four of the tents confiscated, which were erected after the authorities demolished and confiscated tents on three separate occasions between Oct. 26-30th. Two of the families whose tents were confiscated, with a total of 15 members, including four minors, were left with no shelter against the rain and cold. The Israeli authorities’ continued harassment of the al-Hadidiyah community is part of ongoing efforts by the Civil Administration and by the military to expel Palestinian communities from Area C. This government, systematically pursued for years in contravention of international humanitarian law, constitutes the forcible transfer of protected persons inside the occupied territory, whether directly through home demolitions, or indirectly, by creating unlivable conditions.

On 30 Nov., Israeli authorities confiscated tents given by aid organizations to the al-Hadidiyah community in the northern Jordan Valley, following an earlier demolition that left 15 people, including 4 minors, homeless and the dirt road to the community severely damaged. This is the latest step in ongoing harassment of this community. Hiding behind building laws, Israel is pursuing a policy of expelling Palestinians from Area C by making life there unbearable, which amounts to the forcible transfer of protected persons in occupied territory.