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Another community expelled: Settler violence drives out 12 families, leaving one, in Khirbet Um al-Jamal, northern Jordan Valley

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Another community expelled: Settler violence drives out 12 families, leaving one, in Khirbet Um al-Jamal, northern Jordan Valley

Residents evacuate from Khirbet Um al-Jamal. Photo courtesy of residents
Residents evacuate from Khirbet Um al-Jamal. Photo courtesy of residents

On Monday, 12 August 2024, a day after Palestinians shot and killed Yonatan Deutsch, an Israeli from Beit She’an, at the Mehola Junction in the Jordan Valley, settlers set up tents about one kilometer (0.6 miles) from the homes of Um al-Jamal, a community in the northern Jordan Valley. Since then, settlers have roamed among the homes, threatening to destroy them.

The community was home to 13 families – 78 people, 43 of them minors. Eight of these families, totaling 48 people, 23 of them minors, moved to Tubas in early July, planning to stay there through August, as they do every year during the hot summer months. This year, however, seven of the families decided not to return in September. They dismantled their tents on 17 August and left.

On 16 August, five other families, totaling 30 people, 20 of them minors, dismantled their tents and left.

As of 22 August, only one family remains on site – nine people, two of them minors, with five tents. Nine permanent structures, donated to the community by an aid organization, are also still standing.

Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.
B’Tselem calls on the Israeli public and the international community to use every tool available under international law to bring an immediate end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.