Umm-Al-Kheir is in the northeast corner of Masafer Yatta, near Carmel – the region’s first Israeli settlement established on expropriated Umm-Al-Kheir’s lands. A larger map of Massafer Yatta can be found here. To see the broader surroundings, go to B’Tselem’s interactive map and zoom towards the very south of the West Bank.
Our friends all,
Wednesday June 26 was a difficult and traumatic day for the residents of Umm Al-Kheir and for all of us. The Israeli military’s deceptively-named “Civil Administration” [it is deceptively named because this bureaucracy is 100% part of the military; there’s nothing civil about it in essence and behavior. The fraudulent name was invented in the 1980s by Ariel Sharon, in order to deceive people in Israel and abroad, and hide the fact that Israel controls civilian Palestinian life via unprofessional, draconian and racist military rule] – that fraudulent arm of “government” which does nothing to serve the Palestinian residents under its control and everything to destroy their society and drive them off their land, carried out a massive demolition at Umm Al Kheir with little notice. The demolition was egregious enough to reach The Guardian’s front page. The demolitions included the village’s community-center tent and renewable-energy installations, cutting off power.
Below are the same-day reports from Erella and Ya’ir, weaved together.
When we visited Umm al-Kheir a week ago, we asked Tareq whether the settlers from Carmel continue their daily harassment of the villagers. Tareq said that non-violent resistance has its benefits – there have been no harassment by Carmel’s “emergency squad” for about a month now. They used to infiltrate the private space of the neighbors and do as they pleased there, while armed and wearing military garb. [Since October, the government has mobilized these squads as rogue reserve soldiers, presumably paying them salaries the entire time, and allowing them to continue and escalate criminal activity while wearing official army uniform.]
Wednesday morning, at 8:27, Eid sent a message on Whatsapp: two bulldozers and a convoy of military vehicles are standing near Umm al-Kheir, and I answered: as usual, demolition is coming. We just don’t know where, yet. What stress.
At 9:11, Tareq sent a vocal message with his trembling voice, saying they are demolishing the tent of the community center that has had a demolition order since 2008 but was not destroyed for the past 16 years.
9:18 [Ya’ir]: there are also demolition orders for 10 homes at Khilet-Al-Dab’e and Mufaqra inside the “firing zone”. The enable demolition within 96, and together with the weekend in between it is impossible to stop them via the courts. At the same time, in recent month dozens of unauthorized Israeli settler outposts have been built all across the West Bank, with tens of km of new roads paved with no official planning – with the military’s “Civil Administration” turning a blind eye, and with soldiers and police actually protecting these new rogue outposts.
At 9:48 he reported they were demolishing the electricity control center of the village as well as the solar panels, and that the bulldozers were already standing next to Eid’s house.
10:34 [Ya’ir]: They are demolishing Eid’s home. Eid our dear and noble friend, a talented artist whose work was presented at galleries, who speaks fluent Hebrew and has so many Israeli friends. His wife Ne’me is a history teacher and school principal, a superb educator.
Their eldest daughter witnessed 8 years ago, the demolition of her grandmother’s home. From the trauma, the child stopped talking and required lengthy treatment to restore her mental balance. What will happen now to Ne’me and Eid’s five daughters – the youngest only 3 months old?
Then they proceed to demolish another five houses in the compound belonging to Yasser, Eid’s uncle. During this entire horrible time, we could not enter Umm al-Kheir, in spite of our proximity. The army had closed it off from every possible direction.
At 14:30 the demolition convoy left the village after this surprise attack. 30 men, women and children, babies and the elderly were left homeless. It’s a very hot day. Not a scrap of shade in this desert.
14:35 – a tent is rapidly put up to give a bit of shade.
At 15:00 we reached Umm al-Kheir. I hugged Tareq. Then I met Eid. For a long moment we cried on each other’s neck. Then Eid said he was tired. I told him I was too. The we just looked into each other’s eyes and I said I was helpless, and Eid said he was, too. And I said we have only our friendship and no bulldozer could demolish that. Eid this was so true. And again, we shed a polite tear.
Irene wrapped us with love, Ya’ir spoke with Tareq, and Noga took photos of the house that had collapsed, burying an entire life underneath.
Then I met Mu’atasem, Eid’s brother, who is also a close friend of ours. He said they – the forces – are not human. I said that the worst thing is that they ARE human. Mu’atasem understood exactly what I meant and gave me his wise, beautiful smile. Then I hugged Ne’me (Eid’s wife) and cried again. Then we parted and were on our way home.
At 17:05, army-garbed armed settlers entered and confiscated the tent that was put up hurriedly in order to give some shade, and arrested Mu’atasem who had tried to put up another small tent for the same purpose.
At the same time, Umm al-Kheir was declared a “closed military zone” in order to prevent the entrance of any kind of aid.
At 18:10 the army announced that Mu’atasem was released in Susya [10km away], but was without a phone – for many hours no one had heard anything from him and his whereabouts were unknown. Only at 20:30 did we finally hear that he had returned home, and there are as yet no more details.
18:41 [Ya’ir] the military declared the village “Closed Military Zone”, in order to prevent outsiders from coming in and bringing assistance, tends, generators, etc. The settler-soldiers also grabbed our friend’s camera and deleted all the visual documentation of the demolition crimes today.
I write this in a blurry state, as my mind is exhausted.
Erella, On behalf of the Villages Group
The Villages Group: Cooperation in Israel-Palestine 
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