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Military Forces 7 Palestinian Communities In Jordan Valley To Evacuate Homes For Maneuvers

A family evacuating their home, near al-Malih, northern Jordan Valley. Photo: 'Aref Daraghmeh, B'Tselem, 3 May 2015
A fam­i­ly evac­u­at­ing their home, near al-Malih, north­ern Jordan Valley. Photo: ‘Aref Daraghmeh, B’Tselem, 3 May 2015

Evacuations and mil­i­tary train­ing great­ly harmed live­stock and res­i­dents’ farmland

B’Tselem’s research indi­cates that on 29 and 30 April 2015 rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Civil Administration (CA) served tem­po­rary evac­u­a­tion orders to some six­ty fam­i­lies, num­ber­ing some 410 peo­ple includ­ing approx­i­mate­ly 120 minors, in sev­en Palestinian com­mu­ni­ties in the north­ern Jordan Valley. The orders required some fam­i­lies to leave their homes and prop­er­ty for peri­ods of three to twelve hours. Other fam­i­lies were required to evac­u­ate their homes for sev­er­al hours a day, for sev­er­al days run­ning. The evac­u­a­tion was ordered for a mil­i­tary maneu­ver in the area.

The fam­i­lies were giv­en only a few days to pre­pare for the evac­u­a­tion. Some of the res­i­dents received writ­ten orders from the CA, while oth­ers were noti­fied of the evac­u­a­tion only through the Tubas District of the Palestinian Authority. The com­mu­ni­ties required to evac­u­ate: Ibziq, Khirbet Humsah, Khirbet a‑Ras al-Ahmar, Zra’ ‘Awad, al-Burj, ‘Ein al-Meyteh and Khirbet al-Malih. Residents were required to stay out of their homes for part of the day, some­times allowed to return home only in the evening. The evac­u­a­tion process began on 3 May 2015 and con­tin­ued in some com­mu­ni­ties through 9 May. The com­mu­ni­ty of Khirbet Humsah was par­tic­u­lar­ly hard hit, as some sev­en­ty of its res­i­dents had to leave their homes for sev­er­al hours a day for a full week. The 110 or so res­i­dents of Khirbet a‑Ras al-Ahmar and Zra’ ‘Awad had to evac­u­ate their homes one day for sev­er­al hours. The 230 or so res­i­dents of Ibziq, al-Burj, ‘Ein al-Meyteh and Khirbet al-Malih had to do so for sev­er­al hours on two days.

Military training near the community of a-Ras al-Ahmar. Photo: 'Aref Daraghmeh, B'Tselem, 5 May 2015
Military train­ing near the com­mu­ni­ty of a‑Ras al-Ahmar. Photo: ‘Aref Daraghmeh, B’Tselem, 5 May 2015

It is extreme­ly dif­fi­cult for whole fam­i­lies, includ­ing chil­dren, to be evac­u­at­ed on such short notice. With no prop­er­ly arranged place to stay, they must find a way to ensure shel­ter, food and drink away from home in the intense, gru­el­ing heat of the Jordan Valley.

Heijar Abu Zahu, 59, of al-Ibziq, relat­ed the fol­low­ing to B’Tselem researcher ‘Aref Daraghmeh on 12 May 2015:

We went through a few rough hours when we were evac­u­at­ed from our home. We could take almost noth­ing with us, nei­ther tents nor any­thing else. The place they told us to go to was far away and we had no shel­ter, no tent or any­thing, only the shade of the trac­tors and a few carts. We had almost no water and food. We took only a few things with us and they ran out. There was noth­ing near­by. It was awk­ward, because I and the oth­er women and girls couldn’t go to the toi­let, because there was noth­ing we could use to screen or con­ceal us. I have high blood pres­sure and res­pi­ra­to­ry prob­lems. I took my med­ica­tion in the morn­ing, but I for­got it at home and couldn’t go back for it.

Fire in a pasture during military training near al-Malih. Photo: 'Aref Daraghmeh, B'Tselem, 4 May 2015
Fire in a pas­ture dur­ing mil­i­tary train­ing near al-Malih. Photo: ‘Aref Daraghmeh, B’Tselem, 4 May 2015

The evac­u­at­ed com­mu­ni­ties live sole­ly off farm­ing and shep­herd­ing. Evacuating them and hold­ing mil­i­tary maneu­vers on their land and in the vicin­i­ty is high­ly detri­men­tal to their liveli­hood. During the evac­u­a­tions, the res­i­dents had to leave their live­stock behind, and the ani­mals remained untend­ed in the extreme heat. B’Tselem’s research has found that over the course of the mil­i­tary maneu­ver, ten sheep and goats died in the evac­u­at­ed com­mu­ni­ties. In addi­tion, ammu­ni­tion rem­nants from the mil­i­tary train­ing caused fires. Reports from the local coun­cils of the Jordan Valley com­mu­ni­ties stat­ed that dozens of hectares of pas­ture and cul­ti­vat­ed agri­cul­tur­al went up in flames. The maneu­vers also includ­ed troops cross­ing farm­land, and cul­ti­vat­ed plots in Ibziq and a‑Ras al-Ahmar were trampled.

Amineh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Abu Kabash, 66, of Khirbet Humsah, told B’Tselem researcher ‘Aref Daraghmeh on 4 May 2015:

We left everything behind and took only a few things with us and a little food and drink. We left our livestock and belongings behind. I live in constant fear because of what’s going on in our area. We’ve already been evacuated several times before, and when we got back we found the lambs and kids hungry and thirsty. Some had died. They also burn everything when they do their training. At the beginning of the season, we had good news in the form of rain and a lot of vegetation on the hills. Now, even though we put our trust in God, the training burned everything and destroyed our hopes. All around us everything is charred. All the pastureland has burned up and what’s left is areas off limits to us by military order.
We left every­thing behind and took only a few things with us and a lit­tle food and drink. We left our live­stock and belong­ings behind. I live in con­stant fear because of what’s going on in our area. We’ve already been evac­u­at­ed sev­er­al times before, and when we got back we found the lambs and kids hun­gry and thirsty. Some had died. They also burn every­thing when they do their train­ing.
At the begin­ning of the sea­son, we had good news in the form of rain and a lot of veg­e­ta­tion on the hills. Now, even though we put our trust in God, the train­ing burned every­thing and destroyed our hopes. All around us every­thing is charred. All the pas­ture­land has burned up and what’s left is areas off lim­its to us by mil­i­tary order.

The mil­i­tary has been train­ing more fre­quent­ly in the Jordan Valley over the last three years. The increased fre­quen­cy fol­lows an offi­cial pol­i­cy one of whose declared goals is to pre­vent Palestinians from liv­ing on land declared by Israel as fir­ing zones. These parcels of land cov­er rough­ly 46% of the Jordan Valley (see map). Declaring areas as fir­ing zones is one of sev­er­al meth­ods that Israel employs to pre­vent Palestinians from access­ing land in the Jordan Valley.

Military vehicles in the Jordan Valley during training. Photo: 'Aref Daraghmeh, B'Tselem, 4 May 2015
Military vehi­cles in the Jordan Valley dur­ing train­ing. Photo: ‘Aref Daraghmeh, B’Tselem, 4 May 2015

The min­utes of a meet­ing of the Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, held on 27 April 2014 and pub­lished by Israeli dai­ly Ha’aretz, clear­ly show that one goal of the mil­i­tary maneu­vers held in the area is to remove Palestinians from land there. Colonel Einav Shalev, an Operations Branch Officer at Central Command, said in the meet­ing: “I think that one of the good steps that could fall between the cracks is restor­ing fir­ing zones in places where they are meant to be and still are not. [That is] one of the main rea­sons that we, as a mil­i­tary sys­tem, send a lot of the train­ing maneu­vers to the Jordan Valley… When the troops march, peo­ple moved aside, and I’m mak­ing no dis­tinc­tion between Jews and Palestinians here, I’m speak­ing gen­er­al­ly… There are some places [where] we sig­nif­i­cant­ly less­ened the amount of train­ing, and weeds cropped up”.

Under inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law, an occu­py­ing state is per­mit­ted to oper­ate with­in the occu­pied ter­ri­to­ry for two rea­sons only: the ben­e­fit of the local pop­u­la­tion and imme­di­ate mil­i­tary con­cerns relat­ing to the military’s actions in the occu­pied ter­ri­to­ry. As an occu­py­ing pow­er in the West Bank, Israel is not allowed to use land there for gen­er­al mil­i­tary pur­pos­es such as train­ing for war­fare, tvs pow­er semi­con­duc­tor and gen­er­al maneu­vers. It cer­tain­ly is not allowed to use such a pre­text to harm the liveli­hood of pro­tect­ed per­sons, nor take steps to expel them from their homes.

Israel must imme­di­ate­ly stop the tem­po­rary evac­u­a­tion of Palestinian com­mu­ni­ties in the West Bank for the pur­pose of mil­i­tary train­ing, and must cease all oth­er actions tak­en in an attempt to force Palestinians out of the area. Israel is duty-bound to enable local res­i­dents to live their lives, includ­ing allow­ing them to build their homes legal­ly and use local water sources.
Military forces 7 Palestinian com­mu­ni­ties in Jordan Valley to evac­u­ate homes for maneuvers