How Israel pays settlers to report Palestinian construction
Salfit, occupied West Bank – Assem Khater wants nothing more than to build a fence around his garden to prevent his three children from falling 4 meters into the adjacent valley while playing.
But if he does, the 36-year-old risks the demolition of his entire two-story house by the Israeli army in the village of Bruqin, west of the town of Salfit in the north of the occupied West Bank.
For the past 17 years, Israeli authorities occupying the West Bank have banned Khater from making any changes or additions to the house he completed at the age of 21, on private land he inherited with documentation bearing the name of the father of his deceased grandfather.
Khater points to the illegal Israeli settlement of Bruchin, about 400 meters up the hill opposite them.
“People can own and build in all countries of the world. But here, she [Israelis] are allowed and have the right to do so, while we – the owners of the land – do not,” Khater said.
“They come here and colonize. They are settlers and not settlers, this is what we continue to teach our children,” he told Al Jazeera.
When Khater moved into his home with his bride, Duaa, in 2007, the Israeli army showed up with an order to stop working — a ban on making any changes to their home.
Under the pretext that his home was built without an Israeli military-issued permit in “Area C,” the 60 percent of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli military control, Israeli authorities kept Khater’s home and the surrounding area under Israeli surveillance for 17 years. holes with constant patrols and surveillance drones. All construction tools were confiscated and all new structures were demolished.
Not only the authorities kept an eye on him, Israeli settlers from nearby illegal settlements were also given the authority to keep an eye on him.
The Israeli government gives its settlers in the West Bank some 20 million shekels ($5.5 million) a year to monitor, report and limit Palestinian construction in Area C. The money is used to hire inspectors and buy drones, aerial cameras, tablets and vehicles among other things.
On April 4, the Israeli authorities asked for that amount in the state budget to be doubled to 40 million shekels ($11.1 million).
“You can’t add anything to your house,” Khater said. “Even tools belonging to the Palestinian government are confiscated.”
“Recently, employees of the Bruqin municipality came with a tractor to repair the underground water pipes in the area. They were working on the main road, only 8 meters [26 feet] to zone C and the army confiscated the municipality’s tractor for three months,” he continued.
In June 2022, 17 years after they moved in, the pair were shocked to see the Israeli army return with a demolition order and a three-day extension to petition Israel’s Supreme Court.
While Khater filed the petition and awaits a response, his house could be demolished by the Israeli army at any time.
“Home should be the safest place for a person, but we’re constantly afraid of waking up and finding them here,” Khater said.
“We sleep at 3 a.m. every day and wake up before 6 a.m. because we expect them to come late at night or early hours. This is how we live,” he continued.
Area C
The Khater family is one of tens of thousands in Area C of the West Bank who are in constant fear of being driven from their homes and land by Israel.
Israeli forces have already been forcibly driven out 218 Palestinians according to United Nations (UN) figures, more than a third of the 594 Palestinians there throughout 2022 were displaced from their destroyed homes in Area C in the first three months of 2023.
The Israeli army did not respond to a request for comment from Al Jazeera.
The new far-right Israeli government, sworn in at the end of December, has also pushed through previous plans for the forcible displacement of thousands of Palestinians in the areas of Masafer Yatta and Khan al-Ahmar in Area C, as well as increased demolition of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem. .
Nearly 12 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank currently lives in Area C, about 375,000 people. While at least 46 percent of Area C is privately owned Palestinian land, less than 1 percent is open to Palestinian construction, and most of it has already been built on.
Area C is largely rural and includes the only land left for Palestinian expansion and development. It is also the only contiguous part of the West Bank.
The presence of Israel’s illegal settlements, the separation wall and hundreds of military checkpoints and bases have turned the West Bank into 165 disconnected Palestinian “enclaves” (pdf) suffering from severe developmental and movement limitations.
Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of Area C, about 44 percent of the West Bank, is used for illegal Israeli settlements and military firing zones, among other things.
The Israeli government has attempted to formally annex the area after building hundreds of illegal settlements and outposts since 1967, most of which were built partly or wholly on private Palestinian land and are now home to about 700,000 Israeli settlers.
The settlements are a violation of international law and serve to block any potential Palestinian state formed in the 1967-occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
During the three Israeli elections in 2019 and 2020, the two largest Israeli political parties at the time – Likud and Blue and White – pledged to annex the West Bank.
The new government has been even more blunt than the previous one about its intention to annex the West Bank and to maintain Jewish dominance on both sides of what is referred to as the “Green Line,” which separated Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in 1949. separates. truce lines.
70 homes at risk
Bordering Bruqin to the southwest is the village of Kufr al-Dik where, Palestinian authorities told Al Jazeera, at least 70 homes in Area C have been halted or demolished.
At least 15 of the 70 homes are threatened with imminent demolition. In the past five months, Israeli forces have demolished three houses in the village.
Kufr al-Dik is sandwiched between several illegal settlements and industrial areas of settlements, severely limiting its ability to expand. More than 85 percent of the village is classified as area C, with the rest being area B, which has already been built on.
“There are 35 houses in Kufr al-Dik that were built on land bought from Bruqin because there is no room to expand,” Mohammad Naji Odeh, head of the municipality of Kufr al-Dik, told Al Jazeera.
“People have no alternative. There is no more land in area B – so the Palestinians take the risk and build houses in area C, close to the existing built-up area,” explains Odeh.
On Jan. 10, Israeli forces demolished the two-story home that Odeh and his 26-year-old son Ibrahim own shortly after they moved in, after four years of construction.
When the family signed a petition against the demolition order, Israeli troops destroyed the house within days.
In 2018, the Israeli military issued new military orders allowing it to demolish any Palestinian home or other buildings deemed “new” within 96 hours of issuing a demolition notice. New structures are defined as having been built within the past six months, or occupied for less than 30 days prior to the demolition notice.
“I don’t wish this moment on anyone,” Odeh told Al Jazeera. “You feel such humiliation and contempt. Watching our years of effort and work, our house being demolished, while you are stuck in a car with your hands handcuffed.”
“They were fascists, terrorists, in every sense of the word,” he said.
Atmosphere of paranoia
The new Israeli government, Odeh said, has noticeably stepped up enforcement of demolition orders in Area C, causing residents to panic.
In January, the Israeli army showed up at the front door of the Ahmad family in Kufr al-Dik and handed them a work halt, three years after they completed construction and moved into residence.
“We bought this piece of land and built our house with our blood, sweat and tears. We still have 60,000 shekels [about $17,000] to pay off, and now they want to demolish it? said Fatima Ali Ahmad, a 32-year-old school teacher who lives in the house with her husband and four children.
“We have no one to defend us. This is systematic Israeli policy. Only God can stand in their way,” she told Al Jazeera.
On the land in front of their home, a resident of a nearby village in Salfit built a small café out of aluminum panels late last year and paid rent to the Ahmad family. The Israeli army showed up within a week and forced him to demolish it.
But the Israeli army is not the only party harassing the Palestinians in Area C.
“Months ago, a settler came up to my husband while standing outside and told him, ‘You’re stealing, this isn’t your land.'”
“Could you imagine?” said Ahmad. “The Zionists have taken our land and now they claim we are stealing our own! This is the pinnacle of our suffering.”
In recent years, the Israeli military has opened a hotline it calls “War Room C,” where settlers can call and report Palestinian construction in Area C.
For the Palestinians, the general atmosphere of paranoia among residents has only made matters worse.
“Last week I took out the carpets to clean the house. People started calling me and asking if the army is coming to demolish,” she said.
Her 65-year-old father, Fathi, agreed: “Everyone in Kufr al-Dik has their hands on their hearts – everyone is worried about their homes.”
“She [Israel] Wanting to force Palestinians into the smallest possible piece of land and drive them out of their own land. That is it.”