On Sunday, 16 July 2023, members of the Widady a -Tahta community were forced to abandon their place of residence in fear for their lives due to state-backed settler violence and other abuses carried out by the Israeli authorities.
Residents of the community – who belong to the extended Abu ‘Awad family and number 20 people in total, including 12 minors – loaded all their belongings onto trucks and left the family’s compound, where they lived for 50 years.
Khirbet Widady consisted of two communities until now, Khirbet Widady a-Tahta and Khirbet Widaday a-Foqa, where five families numbering 22 people in total, including 13 minors, remain. These communities – like all the communities Israel is working to expel – have never been connected to the water and electricity grids. They have relied on water stored in cisterns and, in recent years, acquired solar panels that provide limited electricity.
Approximately two years ago, Israeli settlers built an outpost roughly 500 meters away from the Abu-‘Awad family homes in Widady a-Tahta, and ever since – with the help of Israeli soldiers – have tried to prevent them from grazing their flock in the pasturelands surrounding their homes, by way of – among other things – flying drones that scare the sheep and disperse them.
At the end of 2022, B’Tselem documented two settler attacks on the family’s homes (24 December 2022; 31 December 2022).
In March 2023, B’Tselem documented two more attacks, one in the presence of an Israeli soldier (4 March 2023; 11 March 2023).
Additionally, about a year ago, the Civil Administration issued demolition orders for all structures in the compound, which consist of three homes and one livestock enclosure.
On Tuesday, 27 June 2023, at approximately 4:00 P.M., two Israeli settlers arrived at the community and threatened Salah Abu ‘Awad (27) with handguns while he was grazing his flock near his home. Abu ‘Awad fled, leaving the flock behind, and watched from a distance as the settlers led his sheep toward Route 60. He called other family members for help, and when the settlers saw them, they left the flock and went toward their outpost. The family brought the flock back to their community. When Abu ‘Awad reported the incident to the police, the officers claimed they could not assist him because the community was living on leased land that did not belong to its residents.
Immediately following the incident and in the wake of the police’s response, the Abu ‘Awad family decided that remaining at the site put their lives at risk and began preparations to leave.
On 10 July 2023, Salah Abu-‘Awad (27), gave the following account to B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari:
I was born in Khirbet Widady a-Tahta, East a-Samu’, and I’ve lived here since I was born. My father leased 500 dunam [1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters] of land here 50 years ago from a resident of a-Samu’, and my family has lived here ever since. Five years ago, my father, God rest his soul, passed away. His wife Zeinab (48), their three young daughters, my brother Radwan, and I have stayed here with our families. There are 10 people in my nuclear family and five in my brother’s. I have about 150 sheep, and my brother has 50. We make butter and cheese to provide for our families.
We used to grow wheat and barley for ourselves and our flock on the land we lease and another type of fodder for the flock. In 2021, Israeli settlers built an outpost next to the Meitarim industrial zone, 500 meters away from our homes. Ever since, they’ve been harassing and driving us out of the pasturelands in front of soldiers. We’ve repeatedly called the police, but all they tell us is to file a complaint at the station, and then they do nothing about those complaints.
Since the new Israeli government came to power, the settlers’ attacks have become more violent. They attack us inside our homes together with soldiers and let their flock graze on our lands, sometimes with soldiers accompanying them. The police accept the settlers’ claims that the land belongs to them and that we have no rights over it.
The settlers also fly a drone over the herd on a daily basis, causing panic among the sheep. They start running, banging into each other, and sometimes sheep have miscarried because of it.
On Tuesday, 27 June 2023, around 4:00 P.M., while I was grazing my sheep, two settlers armed with handguns approached me. I was afraid they might shoot me, so I ran away and left the sheep there. I called my relatives to come help me. Meanwhile, I saw the settlers leading the flock towards Route 60. When my family arrived, the settlers left the sheep and returned to their outpost. We then brought the flock back to our community. I called the police and told them what happened, but they said they didn’t need to protect us if we didn’t have the deeds for the land.
Even without the settlers, living conditions here are very difficult. There are no medical clinics or schools. The children study in a-Samu’, and during the week, they mostly stay with my brother, who lives there. They only come back to our community on weekends and holidays. When my wife was pregnant, she had contractions while traveling on the dirt road to the hospital in Yatta, so after giving birth, she preferred to stay with her family for some time due to the difficult roads and the fear of settler violence.
We’ve lived in these conditions for decades, and we’ve coped, but the settler harassment – breaking into our homes and destroying our dairy products, which are our source of income – have made us realize that this place is no longer safe.
We have lots of expenses. We support my father’s wife – who is sick and needs costly treatments – and her three daughters. I also help my mother, who is also sick and no longer lives here. Because the settlers prevent us from grazing our sheep and accessing our water cisterns, we have to buy feed and water for the flock.
The soldiers and the police support the settlers and their actions. The situation here is very dangerous. I’m afraid the settlers will burn down our homes, just like they did recently in Huwarah and Turmusaya. That’s why we’ve all decided to leave our homes here and try to build new lives, despite all the difficulties. If we stay here, we’re putting our lives at risk.
Zeinab Abu-‘Awad said:
Eighteen years ago, I married Mahmoud Abu ‘Awad – God rest his soul – who passed away five years ago. I’ve lived here since. I have three daughters, Rima, who’s 14, and Rimas and Shaimaa, 13-year-old twins. We live next to my husband’s sons, Salah and Radwan, and their families, and we help them make dairy products.
Life is hard here. There are no medical clinics or schools, and my daughters study in a-Samu’ and stay over at their older brother’s house during the week, except for Fridays, Saturdays and holidays. Ever since the settlers built an outpost close to our homes two years ago, life has become unbearable. The settlers took over the lands my husband leased 50 years ago, when Salah and Radwan were still growing barley and wheat and grazing their sheep on them, and attack them when they go graze their sheep.
After the last attack, we realized that we couldn’t continue living here. We’ve started packing our belongings and will move to a safer place.
Photo Gallery: Life in Widady a-Tahta just before its forced eviction, by Faiz Abu Rmeleh, B'Tselem, 8 July 2023
