Facing Expulsion

On Monday, 14 December 2020, at around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a Border Police escort and a crane truck at the community of a-Zar’i (Za’atrah), which lies near the village of a-Za’ayem in al-Quds District. The forces dismantled and confiscated two tin-roofed wooden shacks that were home to two couples.

The community consists of 20 families, numbering 125 people in total, including 45 minors. The residents are hooked up to the village’s water and power grids and their children attend its schools. From there, the forces continued to a-Za’ayem itself, where they dismantled and confiscated a shack belonging to a resident that served as a carwash. The forces also confiscated equipment from the owner of the carwash.

At the same time, around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a Border Police escort and a crane truck at the community of Abu a-Nuwar, which lies southeast of the town of al-‘Eizariyah in an area Israel defines as E1. The forces dismantled and confiscated a tin-roofed wooden shack that was home to a family of six, including four children.

On Wednesday, 8 July 2020, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with an escort of Israel Police, Border Police officers, soldiers and a crane truck at the Abu a-Nuwar community, southeast of the town of al ‘Eizariyah, in an area Israel defines as E1. The forces dismantled and confiscated a wooden and metal structure under construction intended as a couple’s home.

Later on, at around 10:00 A.M., the forces arrived at the community of Abu al-Hilu, in the Khan al-Ahmar area, east of Jerusalem. There, they confiscated a shack intended as a couple’s living quarters. In addition, they confiscated a solar power system belonging to the family which included four solar panels. The solar system was constructed and maintained by the NGO COMET-ME with funding from the European Union.

On Wednesday, 4 December 2019, at around 5:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel accompanied by Border Police and special Patrol Unit officers arrived at the Wadi Abu al-Hindy community in al-Quds District, southeast of the town of al-’Eizariyah. The forces demolished two shacks that housed two married couples, brothers and their wives, a total of four people, and two other shacks used as washrooms.

The Wadi Abu al-Hindy community is home to about 280 residents who make their living primarily from shepherding. It has an elementary and middle school for local children. Children of high school age study in the a-Sawahrah area or in al-’Eizariyah. At around 6:00 A.M., the forces arrived at the Abu a-Nuwar community, located southeast of the town of al-’Eizariyah in an area Israel refers to as E1, where they dismantled and confiscated a shack used by a local resident as a livestock pen.

At around 10:00, the forces arrived at the Wadi Esneisel community where they demolished two shacks where two families numbering a total of 13 members, including nine children, had lived. The forces demolished two more shacks, one used as a communal kitchen and the other as a communal washroom. The shacks had been donated by an international aid organization.

The community of Wadi Esneisel is home to some 130 residents who make their living primarily from shepherding. School children in the community study in schools in the al-’Eizariyah area.

Finally, at around 10:30, the forces arrived at the al-Ka'abneh community in the Nakhila area of al-Quds District, northeast of the town of ‘Anata. The forces demolished a shack that housed a family of nine, including four children. The structure was donated by the European Union. From the forces continued to al-Fuqarah community where they demolished a plaster-walled tin-roofed structure used to store grain donated by the European Union.

The community of al-Ka'abneh is home to some 100 residents who make their living primarily from shepherding. School children in the community study in schools in the ‘Anata area. The community of al-Fuqarah is home to some 40 residents.

On Monday, 11 Nov. 2019, at around 6:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with dozens of Border Police officers and a crane truck at the community of al-Muntar, which is located in al-Quds District, southeast of the town al-'Eizariyah. The forces dismantled and two shacks used as residences by two families numbering a total of seven members, including three children, and a water container that belongs to one of the families.

The community is home to some 350 people who subsist mostly on raising livestock. About 40 of the children attend elementary school in the community, and the others attend various schools in the area of al-'Eizariyah and Abu Dis.

At around 8:00 A.M. that morning, the force arrived at two communities that live in the area Israel defines E1: the Abu a-Nuwar community southeast of al-'Eizariyah, where they dismantled and confiscated a shack that a resident used as a livestock pen, and the Wadi Jmeil community, where they demolished a residence made of plaster boards that was home to a family of two. The second community numbers about 30 people and its children attend school in nearby al-'Eizariyah.

This morning, 4 July 2018, Israel continued implementing its policy of transferring Palestinian communities: In Khan al-Ahmar the Civil Administration began paving an access road leading to the community to facilitate its transfer. According to reports by the Red Cross, 35 people were injured in clashes that  ensued. Four were taken to hospital and the rest were treated on site. In the nearby community of Abu a-Nuwar, the CA demolished nine homes and three farm buildings, leaving 62 people homeless. The CA came to Susiya, apparently to plan the demolition of seven structures there. Israel claims it is merely enforcing the law, on building without permits. But the residents are not criminals: Israel denies them any way of obtaining construction permits and creates unbearable living conditions, hoping they leave - ostensibly of their own volition - so that it can take over their lands. Transferring communities in a war crime; no court ruling or military order can whitewash it.

This morning, 4 Feb. 2018, at about 5:00 AM, Civil Administration officials and security forces arrived at the Abu a-Nawar community in some 20 jeeps. The forces demolished two buildings at the community’s school that were used by some 25 children in the 3rd and 4th grades. The officials declared the area a closed military zone and demolished the classrooms, which were funded by the European Union and the Palestinian Authority. Over recent months the residents of Abu a-Nawar have pursued a legal struggle to regulate the buildings in their community, including the classrooms, which were demolished before the legal proceeding in their case was completed. The demolition order for the classrooms was issued in December, and since then the students have been learning at the community’s guesthouse. The demolition of educational buildings is one of the means Israel uses in its attempt to expel Palestinian communities from their homes, so that it can concentrate the residents in enclaves and use the territory for its own needs.

This morning, 13 December 2017, residents of the Abu a-Nuwar community found a demolition order that had been placed inside the fourth-grade classroom in one of the school’s buildings. None of the residents saw any security forces in the community, and when the order was placed there is unknown. The order states that if the School owner does not remove it in 72 hours, the authorities will demolish it, at the owners' expense. 72 None of the residents saw any security forces in the community, and when the order was placed there is unknown. The community has about 650 residents, about half of them are children and youths. It lies southwest of al-'Eizariyah, in the area Israeli authorities have designated as E1. It is flanked by settlements on both sides, Kedar and Ma’ale Adumim. The school has two buildings, an old one, which houses the kindergarten and first and second grades – a total of 72 students. The second structure is newer, built in late September 2017, and houses grades three to four, with 25 students. On 7 October 2017, Civil Administration officials, accompanied by security forces, confiscated the doors to these two classrooms. Last summer, military forces arrived at the school, declared it a closed military zone and confiscated solar panels that supplied power to the school and the community’s guesthouse.

On Wednesday, 9 August 2017, at about 1:00 P.M., dozens of Civil Administration officials and Border Police arrived at Abu a-Nuwar, a Palestinian community which Israel refuses to hook up to the power grid. They confiscated solar panels and related equipment, all of which were donated to the community by a humanitarian aid organization about a month ago. Abu a-Nuwar lies between the settlements of Kedar and Ma’ale Adumim, in an area that Israeli authorities have defined E1. Some 650 people live in the community, about half of them minors.

The main route to Abu a-Nuwar was blocked off and the troops prevented anyone from entering or leaving. The area of the school, which was empty due to the summer break, was declared a closed military zone. The CA confiscated two solar-panels stands and ten solar panels that had been installed in the school yard. They also broke down a door to a room in the school, went in and seized two circuit-breaker panels and 12 batteries that were in the room. The confiscated solar panels supplied power to the community’s school and preschools, which are attended by a total of about 72 children, as well as to the community’s guesthouse. The equipment was seized despite an interim injunction issued that day prohibiting enforcement (in the form of demolition or confiscating solar panels) until 16 August 2017.

On 27 Sept. 2016, Israel demolished 22 structures, half of them homes, in five West Bank communities: in the northern Jordan Valley, near Ma’ale Adumim, the South Hebron Hills, and East Jerusalem. This left 56 Palestinians, including 30 minors, homeless. The authorities also demolished water cisterns, livestock pens, and part of a school. This is part of a massive demolition campaign to pressure Palestinians to leave Area C that has, since the beginning of 2016, left 1,010 people homeless, including 530 minors.

Additional demolitions since we reported the early 2016 demolition campaign: On Feb. 20, Israeli authorities confiscated two large caravans used for expanding the Abu a-Nuwar school, where some children study in other communities due to overcrowding. On Feb. 15, 32 structures, including 10 homes were demolished in Ein a-Rashash, leaving dozens homeless. These demolitions and confiscations are part of an unusually massive demolition campaign the Israeli authorities launched in Palestinian shepherding communities in the West Bank in Jan. 2016.