CPTnet
9 September 2011
SOUTH HEBRON HILLS: Israeli army threatens village of Umm Al Kheer with demolitions

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal.  Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma'on (Hill 833), are also considered illegal under Israeli law.]

During the night of 4 September, the Israeli army delivered a demolition order for a small taboun oven to the inhabitants of the Bedouin village of Umm Al Kheer.  A lawyer representing the village obtained a two-day stop-demolition order from the Israeli High Court, temporarily delaying the demolition.

In addition to the taboun oven, where the villagers bake their bread, the Israeli military has slated eleven other structures in the village, and residents of the village fear that the military may destroy those structures, and possibly others during the demolition of the oven.  “The army has come to our village twice before to demolish houses,” said a resident of Umm al Kheer who wished to be identified only as Suleiman.  “Whenever they come, they destroy five or six buildings.  They won’t come and destroy just an oven, and then leave.”

The Israeli army delivered the demolition order on the oven in 2010, after Israeli settlers from the nearby settlement of Karmel complained about smoke.  “When you start this oven, there is about five minutes of smoke, and then it burns for two weeks without making any smoke,” said Suleiman.

According to Suleiman, the Israeli army initially offered to provide a gas oven for the village to use, but then retracted the offer.  The army will not allow the village to build a structure around the oven to contain the smoke.  

Umm Al Kheer is a Bedouin village in C area (under Israeli civil and military administration) and is close to the Israeli settlement of Karmel, which is considered illegal under international law.  The demolition order is part of a clear strategy to push the Bedouins away from the area around the settlement.  In October 2008, the Israeli army demolished ten house-tents in order to clear the area for expansion of the Karmel settlement.  The demolitions left sixty people homeless.  In July 2009, some toilets were destroyed too, because the Israeli Civil Administration designated them as “illegal.”

For background on Um Al-Kheer and its taboun, see this 2010 blog entry by a member of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron