Over the past few days settlers led by Arieh King have been harassing Palestinian residents of Beit Hanina where, according to King, settlers will “very soon” take over four houses, plus an additional two houses in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where violent nighttime evictions aided by the Israeli police have become commonplace. The immediate target of window-breaking, curses, violent encounters and now a police search of the home “for weapons” is the Natche family of Beit Hanina.

King is the front-man for Irving Moskowitz, a wealthy owner of bingo casinos in Hawaiian Gardens, a poor Latino community near Los Angeles, who is bankrollingsome 17 settlements around East Jerusalem to “buffer” the Old City and “Judaize” East Jerusalem (see the StopMoskowitz website.) A friend and benefactor of Netanyahu, Moskovitch was behind the opening of the tunnels under the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem in 1996 that resulted in the deaths of 80 Palestinian protesters.

The Moskowitz/King strategy is to establish settlements in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, often in houses acquired by dubious and violent means. Among the settlements established or on the way are the City of David (Silwan), just below the al-Aqsa mosque; Ma’ale Zeitim and Ma’ale David in the Ras-el-Amud quarter on the southern side of the Mount of Olives; Beit Hoshen on the Mount of Olives, where several Palestinian families were violently evicted from their homes and which flies an enormous Israeli flag; Beit Orot, on the northern part of the Mount of Olives, where last year Mike Huckabee laid the foundations for an expanded settlement; the Shepherds Hotel and Sheikh Jarrah, now renamed Shimon Hatzadik; a plot in the village of Anata to the east of the Hebrew university; and now the homes in Beit Hanina.

Police raid the Natche family home in Beit Hanina, ostensibly searching for weapons. The Natch home is under threat of eviction by settlers. Photo courtesy of Felizitas Hoffmann

While King, Moskowitz and other organized settler groups frame their taking of Palestinian homes as “reclaiming” Jewish properties from before 1948, Palestinians are legally prevented from even approaching the courts to reclaim their lost properties in “west” Jerusalem– the homes, businesses and lands that once comprised 40% of the now all-Jewish part of the city. King works through a company called The Israel Land Fund that, according to its website, “is dedicated to enable all Jews (Israeli and non-Israeli citizens) to own a part of Israel. It strives to ensure that Jewish land is once again reclaimed and in Jewish hands. House by house, lot by lot, the Israel Land Fund is ensuring the land of Israel stays in the hands of the Jewish people forever.”

Just how sleazy the settlement racket is can be gleaned from The Israel Land Fund’s website. It employs, we learn, three full-time employees who “are well versed in Arabic, and all served as officers in the Israel Defense Force.” It adds menacingly and tellingly: “These skills are frequently called into play in their dealings with Arab sellers and with the local population in areas that the Fund is active.” The Fund’s employees are proficient in English, we are told, “since the Fund’s main proponents are from the English speaking public.”

The “process” of acquiring an Arab property, described on the website, also offers insights into King’s methods. First, “the buyers [i.e. Jews] will be shown properties or land they may be interested in purchasing, without directly identifying the property. This is to prevent the possibility of over-exposure of the property [read: the neighbors, or even the people living in the home who think they own it, might find out] which may result in the cancellation or withdrawal of the property by the seller [not necessarily the owners nor the people who believe the home belongs to them] or cause damage to the deal.” Only when “the buyers” are sufficiently committed will The Fund then conduct negotiations on their behalf. “It is only at this stage, once the ILF is convinced of the seriousness and authenticity of the buyers, that the ILF will reveal the seller and enable the buyer to visit the property.”

The “settlement business” cannot function, of course, without extensive official support. Settler groups and their lawyers are able to keep even weak or non-existent cases in court for years with the help of their deep pockets and compliant judges. Palestinians, even those with strong cases, simply cannot afford the expenses of litigation. If a Palestinian or his children run afoul with the law, especially in cases of alleged stone-throwing, the settlers, through their lawyers and sympathetic police, can extricate the person – for a price, often his home. The municipality is enlisted either to threaten families who are targeted for various building violations with fines or to issue demolition orders against their homes, and building permits elsewhere are used as inducement to get Palestinians to leave targeted areas, such as Silwan.

Deals are also struck. Rumors are that the Natche home in Beit Hanina will be offered to a poor Palestinian family in the Old City whose home is small and cramped but is strategically located for purposes of judaization. Poor and vulnerable families are enticed to sell for exorbitant sums (hence we don’t want to “over-expose” a potential property), or houses are “bought” from an absentee relative in some far-off country and the family evicted in the middle of the night without even knowing their home was sold. (Good lawyers can solve any legal complications.)

So from the Natche family to the judaization of Jerusalem, compliments of a California bingo parlor-cum-casino operated on the backs of low-income Latinos and English-speaking Jewish “buyers”.

Following the 1948 War, the Bedouin population in the Negev Desert in southern Israel was forced to change its way of life. Prior to that time Bedouin wandered freely in the deserts, which are now under Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian jurisdiction. In 1953, the Israeli army ordered many of the Bedouin, among them the villagers of Al-Araqib, to abandon their lands for six months. During this time the army used the land for military exercises. To this day, the right of the Bedouins to return to their land has not been recognized. With no consideration of their traditional nomadic lifestyle, many Bedouin were moved to permanent urban settlements where they suffered from unemployment, crime, and psychological distress.

In the 1950s, a small number of Bedouin managed to return to their land in the village of Al-Araqib and were joined by a number of additional families in the late 1990s. The families understood that if they did not return they would ultimately lose all rights to their land. Because the villages are  “unrecognized” they have no infrastructure: no electricity or water, no health and educational services, and no road and sewage systems. The Israeli authorities have made the lives of the villagers impossible. Those who returned suffer from the repeated destruction of their homes which are considered illegal, and of their agricultural crops. In 2009 the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) began planting the Ambassadors Forest on the lands of Al-Araqib in an effort to complete the Israeli appropriation of the land and to prevent the dwellers from using the land for housing or farming.

Between July 27, 2010 and the end of 2011, structures in the village were demolished 33 times, but the residents continue to struggle and refuse to leave their ancestral land.

During 2011 the village of  Amniyr was demolished five times by the Israeli authorities. On February 22nd, Israeli bulldozers advanced and destroyed seven tents, two water wells, and dozens of olive trees. The tents were destroyed with all the contents and belongings of the families remaining inside. Following the demolition the IDF declared the site as a “closed military area”, and forbid the families to re-enter.

New  structures were donated to the community as emergency aid, and their water cisterns were rebuilt with the help of Israeli activists from Ta’ayush. Unfortunately, more demolitions followed soon after. During the months of March, May, June and July 2011, the village was completely demolished again and again. They now have no water or shelter. Ten of the families now sleep in Yatta and come during the day to tend to their olive and almond trees. Mohamed Hussein Jabour and his wife Zaffra refuse to leave.

Israel now controls 40% of the West Bank through 149 settlements and 102 outposts, housing more than 500,000 Jewish Israelis, as well as through closed military zones and declared nature reserves. In addition, house demolitions, forced evictions, and land expropriation, exacerbated by settler violence and the economic effects of movement restrictions, have left Palestinian communities struggling to make a living. Palestinians live in constant fear of displacement and dispersion, while Israel secures its domination and control.

The demolition of Palestinian homes is politically motivated and strategically informed. The goal is to confine the 4 million residents of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza to small enclaves, thus effectively foreclosing any viable Palestinian state and ensuring Israeli control, and to allow for the expropriation of land, the ethnic displacement of Palestinians, and the Judaization of the Occupied West Bank.

Download “The Judaization of Palestine: 2011 Displacement Trends”

The operation began early in the morning of one of winter’s stormiest days. A large police force took over the Abu Eid family compound and the Israeli Lands authority began a campaign of destruction. The compound consisted of seven homes in which 70 people lived, including 51 children. The police forces were evacuating the premises when the Abu Eid children were returning from school; the demolition was over by noon.

The family was not offered any alternative housing after the demolition, and they were forced to put up tents along side the remains of their houses. Israel issued hundreds of demolition orders to Arab families in Lod. Long-standing discrimination in land planning and allocation of housing resources forces these families build without permits.

Fasayil Al Wusta is home to a small community of Bedouin, many of whom travelled to the area from Bethlehem during the late 1980s and 90s following harassment by the army. As small communities living in area C in the Jordan Vally, Fasayil inhabitants are denied basic necessities such as water and electricity. At the same time the village is surrounded on either side by two illegal settlements (Tomer and El’Fasail ) which enjoy water and electricity with a 75 % subsidy from the Israeli state.

Because of the restrictive zoning and planning regime implement by the Israeli authorities in Area C, Bedouin communities face the near-constant threat of demolitions. At the beginning of March 2011, nine demolition orders issued by the Israeli military court, demanding that the families vacate their homes by the 9th and 10th of April. On June 14, 2011, After two months of living under the daily fear, the demolition took place. Some 21 structures, including 18 residential structures and three animal shelters were demolished, leaving 103 Palestinians homeless, including 18 families and 64 children. Most of the families re-built their homes; some of them left to Hebron area.

On December 19, 2011, Civil Administration arrived and ordered the whole community to evacuate the area or they will demolish every structure. When they arrived, the morning after, with soldiers and bulldozers, all families in the community quickly started removing everything salvageable from their homes in expectation of demolition. The Israeli army demolished 14 structures, 6 of them residential. Three families were displaced while 6 other families were affected by the demolition. With their tents destroyed, they move a little further across the land and rebuild again.

As its name suggests, Beit Arabiya belongs to Arabiya Shawamreh, her husband Salim, and their seven children — a Palestinian family whose home has been demolished four times by the Israeli authorities and rebuilt each time by ICAHD’s Palestinian, Israeli, and international peace activists before being demolished again last night.

At around 11p.m. Monday, a bulldozer accompanied by a contingent of heavily armed Israeli soldiers appeared on the Anata hills to promptly demolish Beit Arabiya, along with residential and agricultural structures in the nearby Jahalin Bedouin compound. Three family homes were demolished along with numerous animal pens; 20 people including young children were displaced, left exposed to the harsh desert environment. While standing in solidarity with Palestinians, ICAHD staff and activists were repeatedly threatened by Israeli soldiers. ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain was beaten and sustained minor injuries.

Beit Arabiya was issued a demolition order by Israeli authorities back in 1994, following Israel’s refusal to grant a building permit. It has since been demolished four times and rebuilt by ICAHD activists four times. Last night’s fifth demolition came following a reissue of the demolition order last Thursday. ICAHD Director Dr. Jeff Halper, standing astride the ruins, vowed to support Salim and Arabiya in rebuilding their home. “We shall rebuild, we must rebuild as an act of political defiance of the occupation and protracted oppression of Palestinians,” said Halper.

Beit Arabiya has become a symbol of resistance to the Judaization of the Occupied West Bank and Israeli demolition policy. “ICAHD is as determined as always to rebuild [Beit Arabiya] and [persevere] in its struggle to bring about justice and peace,” added Halper.
Salim and Arabiya, along with their neighbors and friends, stood last night and watched as this tragedy unfolded once again. Arabiya and Salim have dedicated their home as a center for peace in memory of Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan, two women (an American and a Palestinian) who died resisting home demolitions in Gaza. In the past decade ICAHD has hosted numerous visitors at Beit Arabiya and based its annual rebuilding camp at the house, rebuilding 185 demolished Palestinian homes.

Earlier this month, ICAHD extended an invitation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing to visit Beit Arabiya during her country visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territory scheduled for later in the month. “It is our hope that while we cannot extend the same hospitality to the Special Raportueor, Prof. Raquel Rolnik will visit the ruins of Beit Arabiya and report on the utter cruelty and illegality of Israeli policies and practices, and that members of the international community will follow in her footsteps,” said ICAHD Co-Director Itay Epshtain.

For more information and coordination of visits to Beit Arabiya, please contact Itay Epshtain at itay@icahd.org or +972-54-2623306

Slider Photo Credit: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/MCC

The construction of the Abu Omar family home, long waited since the 2005 demolition by Israel, was completed on  July 24th 2011, exactly six months ago. The keys to the home were handed over to the family in a celebratory dedication ceremony marking the end of a two week rebuild. Volunteers were joined by members of the larger Anata community, civil society activists and Palestinian Authority high ranking officials, as family members began life in their rebuilt home. ICAHD staff visited with the family shortly after the demolition of their home took place to find them somber, traumatized, and grief stricken. ICAHD has vowed to support the family in rebuilding their home, once more. This is the second ICAHD rebuilt home demolished within 24 hours, in what seems like a concerted, yet futile, effort to discourage ICAHD from rebuilding demolished Palestinian homes.

The Abu Omar family home, rebuilt by ICAHD in 2011

ICAHD Summer Camp volunteers outside the newly rebuilt home in July, 2011

The remains of the Abu Omar family home, January 24, 2012

The remains of the D Family home.

Mr. D is the patriarch of an extended family living near Hebron. The clan has resided in the Hebron area for over 1,000 years and now numbers over 19,000 people in the Hebron district. Over 34 dunams (8.5 acres) of Mr. D’s land was confiscated for an illegal Israeli settlement which now enjoys the harvest of plums and olives that were stolen from his family.

In 2003 the Israeli military accompanied by bulldozers came to demolish an addition that Mr. D had built to accommodate his growing family. The soldiers surrounded the home and removed all the occupants, dragging Mr D from the house, beating him and breaking his leg. “All I want is to be left in peace with my family”, said Mr, D. “I don’t hate the Jews. Why do they hate us so much that they destroy everything we have?”

The rubble of Family K's old house surrounds their rebuilt one.

Mr. K is a high school mathematics teacher who lives with his family in the village of Shukba in the central West Bank. One day his wife called him at work to say that the Israeli army has arrived and was about to demolish their home. By the time he arrived more than 100 soldiers had closed off the village and were destroying six houses. The only reason given was that the houses had been built without permits. The village is situated in Area ‘B’ under Palestinian Authority control. However all the land surrounding the village is in Area ‘C’, owned by the villagers but under Israeli control.

Israel refused to allow the village to undergo natural expansion as families grow, and results in the policy of home demolitions. One of the arguments the Israeli government has made against a settlement freeze is that it would restrict “natural growth” within Israeli settlements.