29 Dec. '11: Settler violence against Palestinians and Palestinian property, December 2011

29 December 2011

In December, B'Tselem documented ten cases in which Israeli settlers harmed Palestinians or Palestinian property in the West Bank.

On 3 December, settlers threw stones at a taxi, in which several Palestinian women were riding, as it drove near the Gilad Farm settlement outpost. One of the stones hit the roof, but nobody was injured. The taxi driver complained to soldiers who were a few hundred meters away, but they refused to intervene or take any action. The driver did not file a complaint.

On the morning of 7 December, residents of the Palestinian village of Brukin, near Salfit, realized that, during the night, an attempt had been made to torch the village’s mosque, and that Hebrew slogans had been sprayed on a wall near the door to the mosque. Motor vehicles and a tractor in the village were also set aflame. The graffiti on the wall included the name of the head of the Jewish section in the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), and the censor prohibited its publication. Ha’aretz reported that the police’s International and Serious Crimes Unit was investigating.

Photo: Atef Abu a-Rub, B'Tselem

On 12 December, after midnight, settlers entered ‘Asira al-Qibliya, a Palestinian village near Nablus. They threw stones and broke windowpanes in six houses. The settlers also smashed the windows of a taxi and poured petrol on the vehicle. A container with the remains of the petrol was found inside the taxi. Soldiers arrived about fifteen minutes after the attack began, but they took action against the Palestinians who had gathered outside their homes, firing stun grenades. The taxi owner filed a complaint with the Israeli coordination and liaison office (DCL).

Photo: Salma a-Deb'i, B'Tselem

The same day, at about 9:00 P.M., a settler threw a stone at a Palestinian family's car as it drove near the Karnei Shomron settlement. The stone shattered the windshield. The mother of the family had an anxiety attack as a result, and her infant daughter was scratched in the face. The family filed a complaint with the police, which opened an investigation.

Photo: Atef Abu a-Rub, B'Tselem

On 14 December, motor vehicles were torched and slogans in Hebrew were sprayed in three Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank: Duma, Yasuf, and Hares.

In Duma, which is near the Esh Kodesh [Holy Fire] settlement outpost, two trucks were torched and the slogan “Mizpe Yizhar – mutual responsibility” was sprayed on a sidewalk.

Photo: Salma a-Deb'i, B'Tselem

In Yasuf, a car parked next to a house was torched and the slogan “price tag” was sprayed on a nearby fence. Police officers and officials from the Israeli DCL came to the scene, but the car’s owner did not file a complaint.

Photo: Atef Abu a-Rub, B'Tselem

In Hares, a car was torched and “price tag” was sprayed on a nearby wall. The car’s owner filed a complaint with the Israeli DCL.

Photo: Atef Abu a-Rub, B'Tselem

On 15 December , in the early hours of the morning, a mosque in the Palestinian village of Burka, near the Migron outpost, was torched. “War” and “Mizpe Yizhar” [a settlement outpost where two structures were demolished the night before] were sprayed in the village. The incident took place shortly after Israel security forces demolished two structures in Mizpe Yizhar. At 10:55 A.M., when soldiers and police arrived to examine the scene of the incident, the Palestinian residents threw stones at them. In response, the security forces fired tear gas and shot into the air, and left the village about ten minutes after they arrived.

Photo: Iyad Hadad, B'Tselem

The mosque that was torched in Burka was the eighth mosque that had been torched since 2008. As far as B'Tselem knows, nobody has been prosecuted for these actions.

On 19 December, residents of Bani Na’im, a Palestinian village east of Hebron, found “Price Tag,” “Yizhar,” and a slogan against the prophet Muhammad sprayed on one of the fences encircling the mosque. B'Tselem does not know if the police has opened an investigation.

Photo: Manal Jaabari, B'Tselem

On 21 December, residents of Khirbet Shuweika, a Palestinian community in the southern Hebron hills, found that unknown persons had broken branches of thirty olive trees that are about twenty years old. “Price Tag” and “Yizhar” were sprayed in the area. A complaint was filed with Israel’s Hebron police department.

Photo: Nasser Nawaj'ah, B'Tselem

The recent wave of violence is part of an ongoing phenomenon. One contributing factor is Israel’s longstanding policy of not enforcing the law on settlers and other Israelis who harm Palestinians and Palestinian property. The law-enforcement authorities must investigate, gather evidence, and prosecute persons suspected of committing these offenses, including the torching of mosques and other actions given the euphemism “price tag.” Some of the persons harmed in the aforementioned incidents did not file complaints with the Israeli authorities because they have lost faith in Israel’s criminal-justice system.

Background

Acts of violence by settlers against Palestinians and Palestinian property is a well-known and extensive phenomenon. In some cases, these acts are referred to as “price tag” actions, the contention being that they are carried out in reaction to acts by the Israeli authorities that are perceived as harming the settlement enterprise. For example, some of the cases occurred after the Civil Administration distributed orders to demolish settlement structures that were built unlawfully, and some after the structures were demolished. In other cases, the violence took place after Palestinians harmed settlers.

B'Tselem’s documentation indicates that security forces present at the scene of settler violence often do not intervene to stop the violence. In fact, sometimes they take an active part in the violence. From September 2000 to November 2011, B'Tselem sent fifty-five complaints to the Military Advocate General’s Corps regarding cases that raised the suspicion that security forces did not intervene to stop settler violence. In only five cases was an investigation opened; two of the five were closed without any measures being taken against the soldiers involved. In eighteen cases, no investigation was opened and in twenty-one cases, B'Tselem was informed the matter was being handled. In eleven cases, B'Tselem received no response.

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Settler Violence = State Violence

Israel using Gaza war to forcibly transfer Palestinians from South Hebron Hills

Since the war in Gaza began, Israel has greatly increased its efforts to drive Palestinian shepherding communities out of their homes and land in the South Hebron Hills, including in the area designated Firing Zone 918. The communities are being subjected to unusually extreme violence on a daily level, carried out by settlers with state backing and military and police support. The attacks have been virtually incessant, with little relief. By night and by day, armed settlers have entered residents’ homes, assaulted them and overturned their belongings, taking away their mobile phones to prevent documentation. They have destroyed solar power systems and water containers, stolen livestock and in some communities, as in Khirbet Susiya, threatened to kill residents if they do not leave within a short period. For many years, Israel has sought to take control of this area by making the Palestinian residents’ lives so unbearable, they abandon their homes and land seemingly of their own accord. This strategy is two-pronged: officially, the authorities impose extreme restrictions on construction and development in these communities, and forbid them from hooking up to power and water grids; unofficially, settlers carry out systematic violence against the communities, driving shepherds away, restricting access to water sources and encroaching on pastureland. In May 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the state had the authority to declare much of the South Hebron Hills a firing zone and expel some 1,000 Palestinian residents, who have lived there for generations, long before Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967. The court’s decision was given 22 years after the initial petition was filed. During that time, Israel put the residents’ lives on hold and prevented them from building homes and public structures or developing basic infrastructure such as water, electricity and roads. Since the court handed down its decision, and especially since the Netanyahu government was formed in early 2023, Israel has intensified both official and unofficial efforts. The military has added draconian measures to the existing restrictions on freedom of movement, set up new checkpoints, blocked roads with concrete cubes and dirt mounds, and confiscated vehicles from residents or people working in the area. It has also sent troops to train in the area, carrying out maneuvers that include live fire, very close to homes. Meanwhile, settlers have stepped up violent attacks aimed at damaging the residents’ livelihoods. The settlers’ attacks are carried out in the open, with state backing. The military is not only aware of them but often chooses not to intervene. Soldiers sometimes escort the settlers, providing them protection and at times even participating in the violence. Some of the settlers involved in these incidents have been enlisted for reserve military duty during the war, and are carrying them out as part of their military service. The police, as always, refrains from investigating the incidents and the harm caused to the residents, often threatening the Palestinian complainants instead. To date, the police has not arrested anyone responsible for the violent incidents, although some are well-known in the area and some incidents were documented. This reality is not new. It is a direct continuation of Israel's longstanding policy to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the area in order to gain control of the land for its own uses. Now, cynically exploiting the fact that public attention is focused on the war in Gaza, Israel has decided to escalate its efforts and appears to be succeeding. Since 7 October 2023, five communities in the South Hebron Hills have already been forcibly transferred: Khirbet a-Radhem, Khirbet Zanutah, ‘Enizan, ‘Atiriyah, and Maktal Msalam. In some cases, the residents fled without all their belongings, which were then looted and destroyed by settlers. These communities left behind their source of livelihood – pastureland and fields they cultivated to feed their livestock – in addition to wells and water cisterns that served the communities, agricultural equipment, tents, solar panels and mobile phones. The community of al-Widady was forcibly transferred before 7 October. Other area communities, including Khirbet Susiya, Maghayir al-‘Abid, al-Mufaqarah, a-Rakeez, Um al-Kheir, Sadet a-Tha’leh, Khirbet a-Tuba, Khirbet a-Safai al-Tahta, Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe’, Khirbet Jenbah, Khirbet Lasefar, Qawawis, and Khirbet Sarurah, are at risk of similar transfer. The Palestinians have no one left to defend them. Residents’ attempts at self-defense are met with more violence, arrests and even gunfire. The military and police are also trying to remove Israeli and international activists, who stay in the area to help the residents and have extensive documentation of the settlers’ actions In these circumstances, it seems only a matter of time before Israel succeeds in taking over the entire area. Apparently, it has abandoned any pretense of trying to protect Palestinian residents in the South Hebron Hills, and has decided to carry out the war crime of forcibly transferring them.

13 November 2023

The community school destroyed by settlers. Photo: Omri Eran Vardi, 16 Dec. 2023

The South Hebron Hills

Expulsion of Khirbet Zanutah community

In October 2023, the community was home to 27 families, numbering 250 people in total, including some 100 minors. After the war broke out on 7 October 2023, the residents suffered threats and harassment by armed settlers, and sometimes by soldiers who ordered them to leave. Armed settlers repeatedly arrived in cars or ATVs and threatened to hurt residents unless they left. On 12 October, 10 armed settlers arrived in two cars at three homes in the community, hit residents, including with firearms, threatened them, smashed solar panels, destroyed a car door and then left. On 23 October, two settlers arrived at the Samamrah family’s home, pushed the mother, Hanaa Abu al-Kabash, drained two water tanks and left. On 24 October, settlers arrived again, attacked residents with stones, smashed solar panels and windows in one home, and drained water tanks. On 25 October, some of the residents left the community. On 27 October, four settlers arrived in a car, harassed residents who were sitting outside their home, ordered them to stop filming the incident and threw a stun grenade at them. The residents were forced to go back inside. Following this attack, the rest of the residents decided to leave and by the end of October, no one was left. On 4 December 2023, an Israeli activist arrived at the site where the community lived with foreign journalists. They discovered settlers had destroyed 10 residential structures, an agricultural structure and the school. BackgroundThe residents of Khirbet Zanutah, a community that lay in the southwestern Hebron Hills, made their living as shepherds. For several generations, they lived in naturally formed caves to which they added stone entrances. During the 1980s they began building stone houses and temporary structures. There is an archeological site in the village and an ancient mosque that have been marked as such during the British mandate era. In 2007 the Civil Administration issued demolition orders for most of the village structures for having been built without permits. However, no master plan was ever drawn up for this village, so there was no plan on which building permits could be sought. The Civil Administration justified the absence of a plan, arguing that the village was too small to have a master plan prepared for it – and that the distance from the village to the nearest town, a-Dhahiriya, is too great.In November 2007, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of the villagers, submitting the villagers’ objections to the demolition orders issued by the Civil Administration for 22 structures in the village, which include residences, sheep pens and a donkey shed. The court issued an interim injunction prohibiting implementation of the demolition orders. In May 2012, at the request of ACRI, the interim injunction was expanded to include other demolition orders issued to six residences, three cisterns and two sheep-pens in the village.Palestinian women, Khirbet Zanutah, South Hebron Hills, 3 May 2012. Photo: B'Tselem.On 30 July 2012 the petition was heard. The justices instructed the state representatives to present an alternative solution for the village residents and to advise the court within 30 days whether the state intends to submit a plan that would enable and regulate construction in the village.In its response, finally filed in late 2013, the state proposed that the petitioners submit a plan to relocate the village to Area A, near the town of a-Dhahiriya. From 2014 to 2017, the court held several hearings in which the state repeatedly emphasized that it has no intention of allowing the village to remain in its current location. In a hearing held in early 2017, the state announced that it is willing, at present, to hold back from implementing the demolition orders issued for the structures covered by the petition, as it is formulating new planning criteria that may also affect the village. The state asked the court to strike the residents’ petition and, despite the petitioners’ objections, the court granted the motion and dismissed the petition. The judges stated that the existing demolition orders for Khirbet Zanutah would not be carried out until the state finishes formulating its criteria. The court prohibited the villagers from erecting any new structures and ordered the state to give the petitioners 30 days notice, should it decide to implement any demolition orders in the future. As Khirbet Zanutah does not receive educational services, the villagers have had to build a primary school with financing by a humanitarian aid organization, despite the court order against new construction. The school was completed on 25 March 2018. On 9 April, the Civil Administration demolished the school, which had 33 students ranging from first to sixth grade.

1 January 2013

Residents of Khirbet al-Markez in Masafer Yatta. Photo by Oren Ziv, activestills

The South Hebron Hills

Masafer Yatta communities Israel is trying to drive out

In the early 1980s, the Israeli military declared an area of about 30,000 dunams [3,000 hectares] in the South Hebron Hills known as Masafer Yatta a restricted military zone, and dubbed it 'Firing Zone 918'. At the time, dozens of Palestinian families had been living in the area for years, since before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. They lived in 12 small villages, in natural or man-made caves, some all year round and others only seasonally, and made a living as farmers and shepherds. After their home was declared a closed military zone, the families continued to lead their lives mostly undisturbed. Although the military reached various arrangements with them that ostensibly limited their access to the land, these arrangements were barely implemented. The residents continued to work their land and graze their flocks without any major interference. However, in October and November 1999, the military expelled all 700 or so residents of these communities on the official grounds that they were “illegally living in a firing zone”. This flimsy argument blatantly ignored the fact that the families had been living in the area for many years, with the full knowledge of Israeli authorities. Following the expulsion, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Attorney Shlomo Lecker filed petitions to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) on behalf of 200 families from Masafer Yatta. In March 2000, the HCJ issued an interim injunction permitting the villagers to return to their homes and cultivate their land pending a ruling in the case. The court encouraged the parties to hold an arbitration process, which was led by the former head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General (res.) Dov Zadka. During the arbitration, Israel offered to move the villagers to a different, far smaller area south of the town of Yatta. The villagers rejected the offer and the process ended in early 2005. The villagers’ petitions remained open for years and it was only on 19 July 2012, after repeatedly requesting deferrals, that Israel submitted its updated position to the HCJ. In its statement, the state announced its intention to demolish eight of the 12 communities inside the firing zone, which were home to more than 1,000 people at the time (Khirbet al-Fakhit, hirbet al-Halawah, Khirbet al-Majaz, Khirbet al-Markez, Khirbet a-Safai al-Foqa, Khirbet a-Safai a-Tahta, Khirbet a-Taban, Khirbet Jenbah, Khirbet Khilet a-Dabe'). The state declared that it would allow the residents to continue working their land inside the firing zone on weekends, on Jewish holidays and in two non-consecutive months a year. In view of that statement, the HCJ dismissed the petitions, yet allowed the families to file new petitions to address the state's position. In January 2013, ACRI and Att. Lecker filed new petitions on behalf of the residents. Again, the HCJ issued an interim injunction forbidding the state to expel the residents. In the last hearing in these petitions, on 10 August 2020, the state repeated the claim it had made over the years, that the petitioners had not been permanent residents of the area when it was declared a “firing zone”, and therefore had no right to continue living in their homes. It further argued that the communities were taking advantage of the interim injunction: people not included in the injunction were moving into the area and residents were building without permits. The state again proposed a “compromise” that would allow residents to live in their homes for two months a year with prior coordination, or on weekends and Jewish holidays when the military does not train in the area. The petitioners rejected the proposal. While the interim injunction, which remained in place over the years, prohibited Israel from expelling the residents, the lengthy proceedings effectively put their lives on hold for more than 20 years. They continued to dwell in their homes and work their land, while living under constant threat of demolition, expulsion and dispossession. At the same time, Israel denied them any possibility of construction or development. Faced with no other choice, residents built homes without permits, as well as infrastructure to serve their daily needs, such as power and water systems. The Civil Administration responded by issuing demolition orders and in some cases, demolished the structures and confiscated the infrastructure. Since 2006, B'Tselem has documented the demolition of 66 residential structures in these communities, which were home to 553 people, 175 of them minors. It has also documented the demolition of 32 non-residential structures in these communities since early 2012. In early May 2022, the HCJ rejected the petitions, after accepting each and every one of the state’s arguments. Cherry-picking facts and relying on an absurd legal interpretation, the court made it clear there was no crime it would not find a way to sanction. The justices held that the petitions must be rejected outright, as they were filed many years after the firing zone was declared and as the petitioners came to court “with absolutely unclean hands”, having built structures without permits over the years. The justices also held that regarding the matter itself, the petition should be rejected as, in their opinion, the military commander has the power to declare closed military zones in the occupied territory that supersedes the provisions of international law. Finally, the justices held that the petitioners were not “permanent residents” of the area before it was declared a firing zone and rejected the petition. In doing so, they allowed the state to immediately expel the residents and destroy their communities. The State of Israel cites formal arguments such as “living in a firing zone” and “violating planning and building laws” to justify its policy in Masafer Yatta. These are false claims, meant to conceal Israel’s aspirations to take over the land for its own purposes and use it to benefit the Jewish population only.

1 January 2013