2023-10-29 20:57:56
Israeli settlers are exploiting the war to expel Palestinians from their villages in the West Bank
On October 12, two hundred Bedouins in Khirbet Wadi al-Siq, east of the city of Ramallah, left their lands and took refuge in the nearby village of Taybeh following the Israeli army gave them one hour to leave.
According to a report prepared by Agence France-Presse, the Bedouin shepherds left their homes and left on foot with the livestock following dozens of settlers, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, arrived in the village.
Representatives of Khirbet say the army did not respond to several requests to postpone the evacuation.
Abu Bashar, who took refuge with dozens of families in Taybeh in the central West Bank, confirms: “We are paying the price for what is happening in their country,” in reference to the war that has been going on since October 7 between Israel and the Hamas movement.
Abu Bashar leaning on an olive tree in the town of Taybeh in the central West Bank (AFP)
Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israeli towns on the border with the Gaza Strip, killing 1,400 people, most of them civilians, on the first day of the attack, according to the authorities, who reported that Hamas fighters also took regarding 230 people hostage.
Israel responded with intense bombing of Gaza. Since then, more than eight thousand people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, according to the latest toll announced by the Ministry of Health in the Hamas government yesterday.
The West Bank is also witnessing an escalation in violence, as more than a hundred people have been killed in confrontations between Palestinian youths, the Israeli army, and settlers since the beginning of the war.
More than 490,000 settlers live in the West Bank in settlements considered illegal under international law.
Every day, 8 incidents of violence once morest Palestinians are recorded, including intimidation, theft, and assault. According to the British newspaper “Daily Mail” and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
As for Alia Malihat, who lives in the Bedouin village of Al-Marajat between Ramallah and Jericho, she confirms, “We no longer sleep. This is a nightmare.”
Malihat fears that the residents of her village will be displaced. She says: “Since the beginning of the war, we have seen settlers carrying more weapons… It is very difficult.”
She added, “We ask ourselves what will happen (…) We are experiencing a second Nakba because of the settlers and the army,” referring to the Palestinian Nakba in 1948.
Contents of homes scattered as a result of the Israeli settlers’ attack on Khirbet Wadi al-Siq (AFP)
Mleihat comes from the Negev desert, from which they were displaced or left in 1948 to the West Bank.
In the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, 7,607 people have been displaced since the start of the current war, more than half of whom are children, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
About 1,100 people were forced to leave their lands during the past year and a half.
“Destroy everything”
As for Abu Bashar, who only wants to return to his home, “I have no other place to go (…) All our things are there, (the mortar) that we buy in large quantities, the tractors, and the solar panels.”
A week following their expulsion, the army allowed the residents to return to collect their belongings, but when they arrived they found everything destroyed.
Abu Bashar says: “They destroyed everything (…) Bags of animal feed are scattered on the ground.”
Israeli settlers entered Khirbet Wadi al-Siq and scattered the contents of the houses (AFP)
The agency observed looted homes, empty wardrobes, broken children’s beds, torn curtains, and papers, shoes and toys scattered on the ground. The agency’s staff noted the presence of civilian cars in and around Khirbet, and the Israeli flag was raised on a number of them.
Abu Bashar confirms that all he wants is for them to let him live in peace. Because he might no longer bear it. He added, “There is a long-term plan to expel us and seize our land.” “They took this opportunity to do so, while everyone was watching what was happening in Gaza.”
“The army does not interfere”
Israeli human rights activist Guy Hirschfeld explains that settlers have been intensifying their efforts to expel Palestinians from their lands since the beginning of the war. He added, “The settlers are exploiting the war to end the cleansing of Area C of non-Jews,” referring to lands classified as “C” or “C” according to the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as these lands constitute 61 percent of the territory of the West Bank.
Hirschfeld points out that an area of 150 square kilometers in the West Bank has already been emptied of population.
The settlers enjoy strong support from the far-right government coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while they do not enjoy similar popular support.
The head of the West Bank Protection Coalition, Allegra Pacheco, says that the Israeli army, which is deployed in large numbers in the West Bank, “does not always intervene in settler violence.”
The head of the coalition, a group of non-governmental organizations that coordinate humanitarian aid, adds that “their presence (i.e. settlers) usually leads to an escalation of violence.”
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