Ben Carden. All rights reserved.Since the beginning of 2016, the Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has sent out 76 triggers
alerting relevant NGOs to demolitions by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and
the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA). This number seems to announce an
ominous future as it already counts for more than one third of the 205 total demolitions in the entire
year of 2015.
The entire population of Area C in the West
Bank is around 300,000, accounting for 6% of the Palestinian population in the
West Bank and Gaza. Ever since the “clinical death” of the Oslo agreement in
1999 and the emergence of the second intifada in 2000, the Israeli government
has retained its control over Area C, as determined by this
accord at the end of last century.
The
Civil Administration, a branch of the umbrella organisation Coordination of the
Governmental Activities in the Territories (COGAT), manages and carries out
bureaucratic functions in the territories Israel currently controls. One of its
recent priorities has been to establish full control over the Jordan Valley, in
Area C, a region covering 28.5% of the West Bank. The Jordan Valley’s rich
agricultural land, temperate climate and the abundance of water supplies offer enormous agricultural and economic benefits to the holder of that land. In
order to establish its dominance in this area, the Israeli government has
started significantly increasing demolitions of Bedouin structures.
The issue for the Israeli government has been
the presence of the Bedouin
communities in Area C, totaling 50,000, who prevent the expansion of settlement activity and the
full control of the land. This has prompted the government to adopt a “house demolition policy”, in which they demolish
any structure, residential or animal, to deter the Bedouins from living in the
community and to move them to permanent cities either in Jericho, Abu Dis or in
other Palestinian cities in areas A or B. Demolitions have increased exponentially
over the past few years, leaving many families with no shelter for themselves
or their animals, which has led to difficult living conditions and rendered
their farming-related activities nearly impossible to maintain.
OCHA has been a key figure providing aid for
victimised families and reversing the damage that demolitions inflict upon
these communities. Their unique “emergency response” approach to the issue has
allowed them to be one of the few organisations in the territories providing
aid within ten to fifteen days of a demolition.
One of OCHA’s monitoring officers takes a very
unique approach when interacting with the communities. When I visited the rural
community of Al-Jiftlik in the Northern Jordan Valley with him, he communicated
with the victims without the subjugation and the condescension that can
sometimes accompany the interviewer with the clipboard. Instead, he created a
very interpersonal relationship with him and the various beneficiaries to
create a system of trust so that they provide him with the full account of
their situation.
The melancholy and defeated air of one father of a household in
the municipality of Al-Jiftlik was
quite evident as he told us in detail about the demolition process. The family,
who had been in the Jordan Valley prior to its occupation by Israel, had
received a demolition order in October 2009, warning them of the forthcoming
events.
Ben Carden. All rights reserved.On 10 February 2016, six years after the
initial warning, one bulldozer accompanied with an ICA vehicle came to the
house, requested everyone to exit the establishment and almost instantaneously bulldozed over the concrete blocks and zinc metal of which the house was built.
The 110 square meter building had only been inhabited by the family since early
2009 and had taken one year to build.
After the demolition of their house, we
asked them how they planned on proceeding. Many generations of this family had
created a lifestyle consisting of herding and farming, making the forsaking of this dependent source of income a crucial obstacle when deciding if they
should leave to the cities. He claimed that the family would continue living in
the area, with a makeshift shelter, and that by doing so they were “resisting
the oppressive regime” created by the presence of the Israeli army in the
territory.
Towards the end of the day, we conducted our
fifth and final evaluation in a Bedouin farming community. The family lived in
a secluded part of the mountain, three kilometers from the nearest road, and
had a combination of 900 animals ranging from dogs, goats, sheep and chicken
living with them in the mountain. The destruction of the animal shelter had
been the sixth unit destroyed by the ICA and the IDF since early 2014. The IDF
had supposedly failed their objective as the repeated demolitions had
not succeeded in relocating this family into the urban cities of areas A and B.
In order to enhance the effectiveness of the
distribution of aid to these Palestinian families, OCHA has found it
advantageous to implement emergency relief activities by coordinating with
various other organisations in the region. On 18 February 2016, I was
invited to attend a meeting with these organisations.
The first item on the agenda involved the
difficulty in distributing aid to the village of Hadidiya. Abu Saqer,
representative of the village, explained the difficult situation. He started
his speech by addressing the core motive of the IDF, such that the
Israeli efforts were not to “forcibly transfer families”, but rather were to
“depopulate” the area and “cleanse [the Jordan Valley] of Arab people.”
This statement immediately brought a stern and serious mood to the rest of the meeting.
After multiple attempts by organisations to
supply material to Hadidiya village, the IDF had consistently destroyed or
confiscated the shelter that had been donated. Abu Saqer highlighted the fact that the restriction of humanitarian aid is a growing problem, and that the timid attitude
of the Palestinian Authority was preventing them from acquiring the aid they
deserved.
Following this meeting in the Hadidiya village,
the consortium directed itself to Qusra village, where a representative of one
of the organisations discussed the Community Eyes Watch (CEW) program they
had created to respond to settlement violence towards Palestinian communities.
Communities living in the Jordan Valley are
often geographically close to Israeli settlements, which makes them easy targets
to settlement violence. The aim of the CEW program is to establish an
early warning mechanism in response to any settlement violence. The
communities, with the assistance of the consortium, would be informed of whom
to contact when they witness any aggressive act on behalf of a settler. Qusra
village is placed between Migdalim settlement and the Israeli Esh Kodesh
outpost which makes it an easy target for settler violence. A man of
Qusra village shared the story about his son who had been a victim of settlement
violence. During his child’s return home from school, he was approached from
behind and struck in the back of the head with an iron bar. The injury had caused
him to lose all sense of smell and touch, making him one of three disabled
people in the community.
The Bedouin and rural communities residing in
areas C of the West Bank are often the most remote from the conflict, yet
their presence in the Jordan Valley makes them key victims of a campaign of oppression. Whilst these people try to live a life of tranquility, they are often
forcefully brought back into a life of constant worry, fear, and uncertainty.