Um Fagara is in area C, under both Israeli military and administrative control. It has been subject to a range of evacuations, abuse and demolitions by the Israeli military in recent years. On 24 November, 2011, the Israeli army demolished two houses, a mosque, a barn and a structure containing the village’s generator. Two Palestinian girls were also arrested. They were released several days later.

Despite the close ‘supervision’ of the Israeli police from a hilltop above, most of the walls of the house were finished. The house was paid for by ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) together with the Humanitarian Relief Fund (HRF), managed by UN OCHA.

Around 6pm, village elders from Um Fagara and members of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee detailed their personal experiences of life in Um Fagara under Israeli occupation. They also thanked the activists for their help.
ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) together with the Humanitarian Relief Fund (HRF), managed by UN OCHA, have also funded the construction of a new mosque in Um Fagara and acquired several mobile caravans for the town. They are all under demolition orders from the Israeli military.

Jabal Al-Sandab is near the Hagai settlement. Some of the people who live in this settlement moved directly there from Gaza when the settlements there were dismantled in 2005. We fully expected our farming activity to be interrupted by settlers or soldiers, but fortunately our planting continued in peace and with a lot of national and international press.

Once we were done planting, we succeeded in toppling a concrete piece of wall weighing nearly 2 tons that was on Al-Jamal’s land. This wall is planned to be built near Hebron to confiscate Palestinian land, and if such a wall is built, people like Yusri Al-Jamal will lose their land.

For video, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LfbqKtwieg&list=UUpKXxYTHG80BLPckf_YMHtw&index=1&feature=plcp

At around 12 a.m. two bulldozers and three vehicles of DCO (Disctrict Coordination Office) raided in the village of Saadet Tha’lah, escorted by four jeeps of IDF (Israeli Defense Force). One house, two water tanks and two stables for the flocks were demolished. The inhabitants said they have not been allowed to make their animals safe. Five lambs died under the rubble. The owners declared their buildings were under demolition order since 2004.

After the demolitions in Saadet Tha’lah, the army vehicles and the bulldozers reached the near Palestinian village of Ar Rakeez, where they demolished one water tank under construction and uprooted 20 olive trees and 30 almond trees planted less than one year ago.

The Palestinian villages of Saadet Tha’lah and of Ar Rakeez are situated in the South Hebron Hills area, respectively near Karmel Israeli settlement and near Avigayl outpost, which are constantly expanding without any kind of restriction by the Israeli authorities, despite the outpost is considered illegal even according to the Israeli law.

Both the villages are located in Area C, under Israeli civil and military administration. In this area every construction must be approved by the Israeli civil administration. According to OCHA oPt, the 70% of Area C is off-limits to Palestinian construction, the 29% is heavily restricted and less than 1% has been assigned by the Israeli Civil Administration for Palestinian development. Since 2011 Operation Dove registered an increase in the area of demolitions, in particular against electricity and water services.

This policy of restrictions, closure, demolition, evacuation and abuse, combined with continuing violence by settlers in the area, denies the human rights of Palestinians, hindering the possibility to live in their villages and cultivate their lands by preventing development of local communities.

Nevertheless, the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills are strongly involved in affirming their rights and resist to the Israeli occupation choosing the non-violent way.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

The demonstrators began to remove the fence from the road and by 11am the road was clear for cars to pass. The Israeli military did not intervene during this successful direct action, though a Palestinian man transporting food on his donkey passing near the settlement outpost was beaten by Israeli settlers. International solidarity activists witnessed the event and tried to intervene, but were prevented from doing so by Israeli soldiers.

On 24 November Israeli occupation forces demolished two homes, a mosque and a barn, killing livestock, and arrested two young women in the village of Umm Fagarah, in the South Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank.

The incident was caught on video by Operation Dove, an Italian organization that has maintained a presence in the area since 2004.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILiVe1WPafA

The description of the video states:

At 10 am two bulldozers arrived in the village, escorted by five military vehicles. Without showing any demolition order, the army demolished two houses, a mosque, a barn and a structure containing the generator.

Forced to kneel

During the video, two young Palestinian women can be seen being forced to kneel on the ground by Israeli occupation forces. The heavily-armed soldiers then take the women away in an armored vehicle as observers attempt to question the soldiers. The soldiers respond by demanding to see the observers’ passports and warning other observers to back away.

The description adds that people from neighboring villages rushed to the scene and,

Ignoring the request of the Palestinians to be able to rescue the rabbits, the Israeli army tore down the barn injuring and killing the animals. After the demolitions, the army took away the two girls without providing any explanation on the charges.

The Bedouin village of Umm Fagarah is near the village of al-Tuwani in the area of Hebron, an area where Palestinians, especially schoolchildren, face routine violent attacks by Israeli settlers.

Ethnic cleansing under pretext of lack of “building permits”

As elsewhere in the occupied territories, such as in Beit Hanina north of Jerusalem on the very same day, Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian homes on the pretext that they are built “without permits.” Israel rarely grants such permits to Palestinians to build on their own land. Israel’s home demolitions are crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Meanwhile, as part of its colonization policy, Israel routinely grants retroactive permission for Jewish-only settlements built on occupied land in violation of international law.

27,000 Bedouins in West Bank a target of Israeli ethnic cleansing

The latest demolitions in Umm Fagarah are part of a longstanding effort by Israel to rid the area of its indigenous population. Earlier this month, Israel destroyed the electricity network in the area, as also documented by Operation Dove.

Umm Fagarah is in “Area C” – most of the West Bank – which under the 1993 Oslo Accords remains under full Israeli military control with no role for the Palestinian Authority. Some 27,000 Palestinian Bedouins in Area C are currently targets of forced removal.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/video-israeli-occupation-forces-demolish-homes-and-mosque-arrest-girls-near-hebron#.TtReXGfCuqA

Beit Ula 14.th October 2011: For the Friday prayer a large number of people gathered by the demolished house and fields of Abdul Jabar Ahtal.
After the prayer the crowd walked about and looked at the damage.

A military jeep appeared on the patrol road connected to the apartheid fence built on Beit Ula land. After some time more jeeps turned up and soldiers appeared in the distance on foot.

The soldiers started to shoot tear gas, and the whole situation escalated. The main part of the crowd withdrew and left in cars and by foot. The soldiers followed all the way back to the cars.

59-year-old Mohammad Ali Abu Safiyya was hit in the chest and is in critical condition in a Hebron hospital. 32-year-old Eyad Bassem Za’qiq was shot in his right thigh. The settler who shot the two men was not arrested.

Israeli Forces arrived on the scene and used sound bombs and tear gas to disperse the gathered crowd as medical teams evacuated the wounded. Several international human rights activists, as well as members of the Palestine Solidarity Project, a Palestinian group which organizes against the occupation in Beit Ommar, were on hand to witness these events.

The attack came hours after Mahmoud Ibrahim Ali Awad was stabbed in the chest by settlers from Ma’on, south of the city of Hebron. His wounds were considered moderate.