Posted on May 15, 2020, by & filed under House Demolitions, News, Personal Experiences.


Atta Jaber and his Family

On Wednesday, 21 st February 2018, the bulldozers of Israel’s “Civil” Administration (which it calls its military government over 7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza) destroyed the farm of the Jaber family in the Baka Valley, near Hebron. Normally this would not be a notable event. Every day dozens of actions are taking against Palestinians, from demolishing their homes (52,000 homes and structures demolished in the Occupied Palestine Territory since 1967, the Jabar family’s home itself demolished twice and rebuilt by ICAHD) to uprooting olive orchards and fields to cutting irrigation and destroying wells to detaining children and, virtually every day, shooting a young person who dares to protest. Read more...


Fhadat Family

In two weeks this summer, between July 19-August 3rd, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) built a beautiful, four-room home for the Fhadat family of the West Bank town of Anata, complete with a stone fence and garden! Much of the funding for the home was raised by Jeff Halper's month-long tour of Canada last February, when he traveled to 15 cities between Halifax and Newfoundland in the east to Vancouver and Vancouver Island in the west, sponsored by the United Church of Canada’s United Network For A Just Peace In Palestine And Israel (UNJPPI) and Independent Jewish Voices (IJV). CUPE, it should be noted, also donated $2000 towards the camp. Read more...


Awdah Hathaleen

Awdah Hathaleen is 24 years old and a collective member from Um al-Khair. He is an English teacher in his village, having studied English teaching methods at Hebron University. Awdah and his mother currently live in a house with a pending demolition order. Already, their house has been demolished twice before. Awdah has been a peace activist for three years, and is part of the Good Shepherd Collective because he believes that the principles of the organization will help improve the situation of the village and its people by uplifting their voices, concerns, and needs. Read more...


Erella

Erella, an Israeli from the Villages Group: Cooperation in Israel-Palestine, recounts witnessing a day of demolitions in the South Hebron Hills that took place on 25th November 2020.

For sixteen years I have walked at Nasser’s side. He was 20-years old when we first met. His youthful dream was to become a vet. Luckily that didn’t work out, otherwise – how could he have grown to become the one to document as a researcher of B’Tselem of the everyday injustices incurred in his area, and still manage to remain connected to himself?

Early last week we had our usual “how are you?” phone call. Nasser told me that he had had a week filled with demolitions at various locations within his charge. After a moment’s silence he said: “The most frightening thing about it is to become used to it”. We arrange to meet at his Susya home on Wednesday, at 9 a.m. (hoping there will be no demolitions then), in order to think together about experiencing ongoing injustice and not “getting used to it”.. Read more...


Joudi and Zayed

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, ICAHD’s plans for its 200th rebuilding project needed to be altered. The original proposal was to hold a rebuilding camp for internationals in November 2020. Participants would join with Palestinians and Israelis who refused to be enemies in this act of political non-violent resistance to Israel’s occupation policies. The Good Shepherd Collective, which represents Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills, had been identified as partners for this rebuilding project.

With the outbreak of the pandemic, the rebuilding camp was cancelled. We moved to Plan B which was to proceed with the rebuilding done by local Israeli activists working alongside Palestinians for the construction, again demonstrating joint commitment to justice. Sadly, with another lockdown put into place, even that had to be cancelled. We then had to move to plan C. Funds that had been donated to ICAHD UK were transferred to the Good Shepherd Collective. Two families were identified to receive funds. Each reside in areas that are highly contested by Israeli authorities and where extreme religious Jewish settlers harass Palestinians. Thus for their security, we are not stating the exact details of these two families except to say that Joudi’s family lives near Kiryat Araba and Zayed’s is in Um al-Khair.

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