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DEMOLITIONS IN A WEST BANK VILLAGE SHOW HOW FAR ISRAELI SETTLER
VIOLENCE WILL GO  
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Sam Stein
August 1, 2024
The Progressive Magazine
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_ Until last month, the internationally supported community of Umm
al-Kheir widely avoided destruction. Since October 7, a new precedent
has emerged of the U.S. government sanctioning violent settlers. More
pressure is needed. _

A woman walks in Umm al-Kheir. Behind her is the Israeli settlement
of Karmel., Photo: Peter Biro/ECHO (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) // The
Progressive Magazine

 

On June 26, after fourteen years of avoiding destruction, the Israeli
military entered the village of Umm al-Kheir and demolished
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homes, the village council tent, and the solar electricity room,
leaving one-third of the town’s population homeless. 

Umm al-Kheir is a Bedouin community of roughly 200 people, all members
of the Hathleen tribe, located in the South Hebron Hills in the
southern West Bank. As per the Oslo Accords, it is located in Area C
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which places it under full Israeli civil and military control. Home
demolitions are common for Palestinians in Area C, where Israeli
officials deny 95 percent
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Palestinian building permit requests, then demolish the homes on the
grounds that they were built illegally.

A visit through Umm al-Kheir reveals a variety of tributes to people
around the world: a sign thanking a British politician for donating
money to build a basketball court, murals painted by an artist and
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) activist based in Pittsburgh, and
pictures in the local community center featuring international
activists, to name a few. Perhaps it is due to this support
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Umm al-Kheir, where almost every building is under an active
demolition order, has dodged destruction for over a decade. But the
transfer of the village’s jurisdiction from the Israeli Civil
Administration
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hands of far-right
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National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been catastrophic for
the community.  
 
Murals in Umm al-Kheir made by a Jewish Voice for Peace activist.
 (Photo: Sam Stein/The Progressive Magazine)
During the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, the nongovernmental
organization Ta’ayush [[link removed]] began
documenting settler violence in Umm al-Kheir and the rest of the South
Hebron Hills. Members of the organization have accompanied local
Palestinians as they graze sheep and work on agricultural land. While
doing so, Ta’ayush records violence and oppression from the Israeli
military—including any arrests of Palestinian villagers and
restrictions of Palestinian access to their land.

Since Ta’ayush’s arrival in the South Hebron Hills, the community
of Umm al-Kheir has received support
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international Jewish and non-Jewish activist groups, such as If Not
Now [[link removed]], JVP
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the International Solidarity Movement
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These groups and others have engaged in volunteer work similar to that
of Ta’ayush in the village, and awareness campaigns focused on
settler violence and home demolitions in the region. 

Eid Hathleen, a photographer and activist from Umm al-Kheir,
tells _The Progressive_ that the soldiers seen at the recent
demolitions were not from the Civil Administration. Instead, all of
the forces at the scene were from the Israeli Border Police, a
quasi-militarized branch of the Israeli police that is particularly
present in East Jerusalem and Area C, leading many to believe Ben-Gvir
ordered these demolitions himself. 

Since June 26, Umm al-Kheir—along with the entire South Hebron
Hills—has turned into a war zone. Within the last month, residents
and activists throughout the region have documented settlers beating
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residents, Israeli soldiers opening fire on local Palestinians
and carrying out
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demolitions, and other acts of violence
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Reporter Sam Stein and an American Jewish activist film settlers who
were accompanied by soldiers grazing their sheep on land that is part
of Umm al-Kheir.  (Photo:  Cole Martin / The Progressive Magazine)
In Umm al-Kheir, settlers stormed
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attacked Palestinian residents and activists with tear gas and wooden
sticks, and opened fire on residents, ultimately injuring and
hospitalizing four women, a five-year-old girl, and a
seventeen-year-old boy. One of the settlers present at the attack was
a man named Shimon Atia
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who runs a nearby illegal outpost called Shorashim Farm. Settler youth
from the outpost cut
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al-Kheir’s water pipe. The villagers were able to repair the pipe,
but the settlers returned and cut it again shortly after. 

In the middle of the night on July 24, soldiers entered Umm al-Kheir
and dismantled [[link removed]] a
temporary tent intended for upcoming weddings. Tariq Hathleen, an
English teacher and activist, says that the village had permission to
build the tent from the Civil Administration. The soldiers refused to
identify themselves, and Tariq suspects they were settlers in uniform.
Due to the uptick in civilians serving reserve duty in the Israeli
military since October 7, it has become common for settlers to carry
out violence
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Palestinians in military uniform while not acting on any military
order. 

 
Armed settlers and soldiers in Umm al-Kheir.  (Photo: Awdah Hathleen
/ The Progressive Magazine)
Perhaps nearby settlers saw a moment of weakness after the June 26
demolitions. Perhaps there was some other impetus for this recent
campaign of violence. What is clear, however, is that, like all
settler violence, this is not random, but rather a concerted effort to
kick the Palestinian people of Umm al-Kheir, and the South Hebron
Hills region, off of their own land—forcing
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flee.

Since October 7, a new precedent has emerged of the U.S.
government sanctioning violent settlers
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including Issachar Mann
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seen in Umm al-Kheir grazing his sheep on private Palestinian land.
With American ties to the small village already strong, recent events
could lead to a strong push to pressure the U.S. government to place
sanctions on Atia. As the orchestrator of much of the violence against
Umm al-Kheir, he is a prime target for an American government that is
beginning to show interest in distancing itself from Ben-Gvir and the
Israeli settler movement.

_[SAM STEIN is a Jewish-American activist based in Jerusalem. For
more, follow him on Instagram and Twitter @sam_avraham
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* West Bank
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* settlers
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* Settler violence
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* Occupied Territories
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* IDF
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* Israeli military
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* Palestine
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* Israel
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* war crimes
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