Holy Land: Ethnic cleansing in areas C of West Bank in full gear

Area C

Toine van Teeffelen, from the Arab Educational Institute - Pax Christi, in Bethlehem, writes:

"False and slanderous," the Israeli government called last week a statement by the Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation, Caroline Gennez, that the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is becoming "unsustainable" and that this area is therefore one of the points of attention for Belgian development aid. "Entire villages are being wiped off the map by the Israelis." The last phrase prompted the summoning of the Belgian ambassador in Tel Aviv to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

What are the facts? The reports from OCHA, a UN agency working in Palestine, as well as those from journalists from +972, an Israeli digital newspaper, paint a concrete picture of the situation east of Ramallah and north-west of Jericho in the West Bank.

In May 2019, the 200 residents of Ein Samia dismantled their own homes and fled. In July 2022, the 100-member community of Ras a-Tin followed suit. In early August, the 88 residents of nearby Al-Qaboun were forced to leave their homes. This phenomenon is now beginning to spread to other Palestinian communities in neighboring areas. According to data collected by OCHA and the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, 35 residents of the nearby village of Wadi a-Seeq recently took their belongings and fled.

In the village of al-Baqa'a, 43 residents - the majority of the community - fled in July after the establishment of a new settler outpost and an arson attack on a house in the village. The same happened in the southern hills of Hebron where the inhabitants of the hamlet of Bir al-Idd, located near an Israeli outpost, were forced to abandon their lands.

A few days ago there was a detailed article in Haaretz by an Israeli peace activist who spent two years on the ground monitoring the situation in "Areas C" - the more than 60% of the occupied West Bank under direct Israeli military and civilian control. He listed the mechanisms used to expel the communities.

The Israeli settlers, often from so-called outposts that are even known as illegal in Israel, graze their sheep in the relevant Palestinian villages between the houses or in the fields, so that the Palestinian shepherds have less and less land to graze their sheep, and therefore are forced to buy feed for their animals.

After the settler-shepherds have been daily with their flocks in the fields of the neighboring villages for a few months, the fields there become a wasteland. Crops grown by the Palestinians, such as barley, are eaten. Part of the bare fields are plowed again by the settlers, but now for their own crops.

One of the settlers' leisure activities is chasing the sheep of the Palestinian herdsmen. This is done, for example, by driving a car roughly into a field with sheep or by sending out loud alarm signals with a drone that scare the sheep away. Sometimes the settlers themselves determine that a certain area is simply no longer accessible to the Palestinian herdsmen. Roads leading to the villages are blocked with heaps of stones.

When the Israeli army is called in, for example by peace activists, the first thing that is asked is the property documents of the landowners, who are usually not on site. In general, the army supports the settlers, especially under the current far-right Israeli government. The activist settlers are effectively the shock troops of Police Secretary Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Smotrich.

The settlers have also taken control of the scarce water wells and springs, so that the Palestinian herders now suddenly have to buy water. The economic crisis means that they sometimes have no choice but to sell part of their herd.

Violence and far-reaching harassment and vandalism by the settlers do the rest. When people resist, groups of young people are called up by the settlers for reinforcements. They are armed with sticks or even firearms. IDs and car keys are stolen or broken, people are beaten up. In a few cases, people have been killed in raids by settlers on Palestinian towns and cities in recent years.

In recent months, settlers from the outpost Malakhei Hashalom ("Angels of Peace") came almost every Shabbath to terrorize the population of the hamlet of Al-Qaboun. They broke into houses with guns, sometimes in uniform, to conduct "searches". During one night, a drone with "air-raid sirens" circled above the houses of the village; at another time sheep carcasses were thrown in front of the village school. Cell phones were stolen when someone was suspected of filming the raids.

In yet another place, poisoned sausages were scattered between the houses, five dogs lay dead in the street the next morning. Someone managed to stop a toddler from eating the sausages. When a village defends itself, a house is set on fire, or a few cars.

In short: the gradual ethnic cleansing of areas C is in full gear.