Israel's destruction of Umm al-Hiran: A Palestinian village erased

After decades of struggle, the native Palestinian village has been destroyed and its residents expelled.

Last week, the people of Umm al-Hiran were expelled from their homes, but unlike most demolitions, everything proceeded without event. Residents of the Palestinian village in southern Israel’s Negev (Naqab) desert demolished their own houses, hoping to salvage some building materials, household belongings and animals. In 2017, things had been quite different. Then, a previous round of demolitions resulted in the fatal shooting of a 47-year-old schoolteacher, Yaqoub Abu al-Qia’an, by police. The incident created a media firestorm. This time round, there was little coverage, and residents had no way to protest or resist. Fearing violent eviction or being fined, they instead tore down their own houses, despite in many cases having nowhere else to go. They will be replaced by Jewish settlers. According to a lawyer acting for the village’s residents, in September a long meeting was held with the Israeli government’s Bedouin Authority “with the aim of reaching agreements”. After this meeting, the authority stopped responding. This year, three villages have already been emptied and razed in the Negev, including Wadi al-Khalil, and the village of Ras Jrabah is also in immediate danger. That the residents evacuated and destroyed their own houses was not enough for state authorities. They had left their mosque intact. And so, hundreds of special police, with helicopters hovering overhead, swarmed the village on Thursday morning. The residents were gone. No houses remained standing. Fewer than 20 activists, journalists and now-former-residents were present when the police destroyed the village mosque, having first posted a notice of a fine due for the costs of demolition since the residents had failed to raze it themselves. “We are God-fearing people,” one expelled resident explained to a policeman. After that, engineering equipment cleared the ruins of the village, ensuring that not a wall or door was left standing. Before destroying the mosque, Israeli police arrested one of the leaders of the local struggle, Raad Abu Al-Qia’an, and two members of his family, to prevent them from being present for the last act of the evacuation. Only a few cats remained.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-umm-al-hiran-destruction-village-erased

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