Haaretz - Settlers Destroyed Their West Bank Village, Israel Forbids Them From Rebuilding It
"... As furious protesters take to the streets, Netanyahu may well have reached his political dead-end"
A Palestinian community abandoned its ancestral village in the South Hebron Hills at the start of the war for fear of settler attacks. An Israeli court decision allowed them to return, but settlers have already destroyed most of their homes. Now the military government won't let them rebuild
The destroyed school in Zanuta, in the South Hebron Hills, this week. Even through the ruins, the effort that was made to cultivate it is recognizable in the floor tiles, the stylized walls, the scattered equipment. Credit: Moti Milrod
Gideon Levy Sep 6, 2024
They abandoned their ancestral village in the South Hebron Hills at the start of the war, for fear of the settlers. A court decision allowed their return – but in the meantime settlers destroyed most of their homes. Now the military government won't let them rebuild
It's a heartrending sight. The school was relatively new, dating from 2014, and even through the ruins, the effort that was made to cultivate it is recognizable in the floor tiles, the stylized walls, the scattered equipment. Now it looks as if it's been bombed. The ceilings are ruptured, the walls shattered, a water fountain was ripped out, the toilets smashed.
This small school, with just five classrooms, was devastated by perpetrators of evil, human scum. They wreaked destruction for its own sake. The letters of the Arabic alphabet are visible on the remnants of a bulletin board in one of the classrooms, a paper train is hanging from the wall of one half-destroyed classroom, each car standing for one of the days of the week – the Tuesday car has been ripped from the wall. "They stole Tuesday," says Nasser Nawaj'ah, a field researcher for the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.
The school in Zanuta, this week.Credit: Moti Milrod
A large dose of evil is needed to lay waste to a school that was built with so much toil by the residents. An even larger dose of lawlessness is needed to make possible a situation in which armed civilians can ransack a village and no one stops them – or even brings them to justice afterward. It could happen only here, in the South Hebron Hills, a zone of apartheid and anarchy .. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-01/ty-article-magazine/.premium/a-lens-on-the-life-of-palestinians-in-the-hebron-hills/0000018e-9947-d764-adff-9fcffc3c0000 , where might makes right and where the military government's Civil Administration unit, together with the IDF and the Israel Police, are no more than subordinates to the violent settlers.
The Havat Meitarim outpost, the Meitarim industrial zone and the building of the settler-run South Hebron Hills Regional Council are all on the opposite hill; to the north is the city of Dahariya. Zanuta is now a collection of mangled huts – not one roof remains in place – the remnants of stone homes hundreds of years old interspersed with newer structures, half-wrecked animal pens and dozens of tires scattered all around, dislodged from the roofs they were meant to support.
Sheepdogs sniff through the ruins, also scrounging for a slice of shade in the desert sun; villagers are resting under a cluster of trees that weren't uprooted. On Sunday this week, Civil Administration personnel, who are generally also settlers, showed up again, and confiscated the fence of the animal pens.
Faiz Haderath, 45, father of six, head of Zanuta's village council, who was born in a cave here and is a shepherd like the others, is also sprawled under a tree – the only escape from the broiling sun. Last weekend, Haderath lost one of his goats, which, he says, was trampled by a horse ridden by a settler whom he can identify by name. Haderath invokes the word "murder" to describe the goat's death.
The entire population of Zanuta – 36 families, living on both sides of Highway 60 – fled last November 17, some five weeks after the war erupted. They had reached the conclusion that the danger posed by the attacks to the lives of the children – and the sheep – was too acute, leaving them no recourse but to abandon their homes. So overwhelming was the dread that no one stayed, not even to guard their property. Nawaj'ah, the field researcher, notes that settler violence has led to the abandonment of six villages in the South Hebron Hills during the war.
Zanuta's disasters started in 2021, with the establishment of Havat Meitarim, which the villagers called Havat Yinon Levi – Yinon Levi's Farm – named for its founder, against whom the U.S. administration issued sanctions .. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-18/ty-article/.premium/company-of-sanctioned-israeli-settler-registered-under-his-brother-amid-restrictions/0000018d-bc42-dc8c-a3df-fe7719280000 .. in February because of his violence. In the first stage, the outpost's residents seized control of most of the village's grazing lands and cisterns. Council head Haderath speaks of assaults against shepherds, uprooting of trees, dogs sicced on the flocks, sheep run over by all-terrain vehicles and trampled by horses, and more. Still, somehow, they learned to live with the situation.
But then the war came and the brutality intensified in frequency and force. The settlers began to arrive with rifles, usually accompanied by soldiers in uniform, from emergency squads or territorial defense units, throwing stones by day and by night at the huts, wreaking destruction, implanting fear. There were at least 10 particularly serious attacks, Haderath says, and these led finally to the decision to leave. The settlers' goal was achieved, at least temporarily.
Ruins in Zanuta,this week. Credit: Moti Milrod
Their self-exile lasted almost 10 months, as they scattered in the area, finding provisional havens – for them and for their animals – near Dahariya, the district town. "We thought things would be calmer," the council head says. But the settlers persecuted them in their new abodes, too. There's a settler outpost close to every temporary shelter the villagers found – Havat Mor, Tene Omarim, Havat Yehuda – and their residents continued to make the Palestinians' lives a misery in their temporary diaspora. Those who hunkered down next to the Meitar Checkpoint endured relentless harassment at the hands of soldiers as well, at all hours.
Occasionally they gazed at their abandoned village from the road. But they didn't dare approach it. At one point the settlers tried to fence off the village in order to block access to the homes and property, but the villagers obtained a court order to remove the new obstacle. Gradually, though, they saw their village being destroyed.
It began in December, when about half the structures, some 30 in number, were vandalized. The final stage actually took place just in the past few weeks, after the High Court of Justice accepted the villagers' petition in part and ruled that the state must allow them to return to their homes and protect them and their property. That was at the end of July.
The ruins of the school in Zanuta, this week. Credit: Moti Milrod
The state requested a delay in implementing the order, and in the weeks between then and the start of the return, the demolition was completed almost fully. Haderath estimates that about 90 percent of the village's structures were destroyed. Those few weeks in August also saw the wrecking of the solar-powered lighting poles in the village, which has no electric power, and the destruction of the last 40 olive trees.
Still, the villagers were appalled at the scale of the devastation when they returned two and a half weeks ago, on August 21. In the meantime, only the men have come back, with the sheep; they aren't yet daring to bring back the women and the children, as well as some of the livestock. "There is no way that women and children will be here – only men and sheep," Haderath asserts. It wasn't clear this week whether the children will go to school in Dahariya or be bused to the ruins of their school in the village.
And the settlers haven't let up, as the killing of the goat shows. They come to the village every day to intimidate, harass, curse and threaten. On Monday this week we saw their drone hovering above the village; at first I thought it was a bird of prey. The drones frighten the sheep and goats, the animals break into a run to try to escape. In the past, the villagers filed complaints with the police, but haven't done so since returning, having lost hope that the authorities will take action.
However, last week the residents' lawyer, Dr. Quamar Mishirqi-Assad, from the NGO Haqel: In Defense of Human Rights, sent an urgent letter to the IDF and the Israel Police, stating that despite the ruling by the High Court of Justice that the state must ensure the villagers' security and prevent the entry of the settlers, the latter are persisting in their daily provocations. Listing a litany of offenses, Mishirqi-Assad demands that a police force be assigned to the village in light of the explicit threats made to the shepherds that if they return and remain, they will be killed. No response has been received to the letter, and it's unlikely there will be one.
A house in the village of Zanuta, this week. Settlers come daily and photograph every change the villagers dare to make; immediately afterward Civil Administration personnel arrive to confiscate and demolish Credit: Moti Milrod
But the villagers' ordeals don't end there. Since their return, the Civil Administration has refused to allow them to rebuild their homes. Go back, yes, but to ruins. Even stretching a sheet of fabric over the debris, to take the place of a roof and provide protection from the sun, is prohibited. The settlers come every day and photograph every change the villagers dare to make; immediately afterward personnel of the Civil Administration arrive to confiscate and demolish.
That was the fate, for example, of the fence erected by Mohammed Thal, a goatherd: It was ripped out and confiscated by the Israeli military authorities about an hour after the settlers' visit in late August. A large number of soldiers were brought in to deal with the fence. "What is this force? To take six iron poles and a net? More than 30 soldiers for six poles and netting?" The villagers are too frightened even to pick up objects that are lying on the ground: The estimable law-enforcing settlers will show up, take pictures, inform on them, and then their fellow settlers from the Civil Administration will roll in and wreak destruction. That's how it is in the South Hebron Hills.
The spokesperson of the Civil Administration gave the following statement to Haaretz this week: "As the local authorities declared, the area in question is not a closed military zone, and the return of its residents there is not forbidden. In the wake of the hearings in the Court and its ruling, the Palestinians returned to Hirbet Zanuta.... During the course of their return, IDF officers and in particular Civil Administration officers were deployed to guarantee security and public order in the zone. It should be noted that the Palestinians erected a number of illegal building structures, and with regard to them, enforcement measures were taken, in accordance with the law. "
"We will emphasize that, since their return to the site, we have not received any complaints regarding Israelis causing damage there, and thus, that claim is not known. The IDF acts in order to make possible a safe life for all residents of the area."
B'Tselem field researcher Nawaj'ah: "The court said the residents should return home. How is it that the court orders their return and the Civil Administration says they can't place one stone on another? The state didn't protect the homes and now it's not allowing their reconstruction. The state is effectively saying: Go back to the village and die under the sun."
We spoke to Thal, the goatherd, whose flock numbers 300 animals, on the differences between goats and sheep. "Goat milk is better than sheep milk, and the cheese is also better. But goats are more problematic." To which council head Haderath added, "Goats are like the settlers. The sheep don't make a mess, the goats do. But I received goats from my father, who received them from my grandfather, so I can't deal with sheep, only with goats."
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
