Middle East Monitor / February 4, 2021
The Israeli occupation army has demolished a gathering of Palestinian residential structures in the occupied Jordan Valley, rights group B’Tselem has revealed.
“On Monday, 1 February, Israeli forces confiscated most of the residential structures and livestock pens in the community of Khirbet Humsah,” said B’Tselem in a press release. “The community was already demolished on 3 November 2020, while the world was focused on the US election.”
The Israeli occupation forces confiscated “13 tents that were home to 11 families, numbering 74 members, including 41 minors; two of the families had relocated temporarily to the Furush Beit Dajan area after their homes were demolished in November 2020.”
In addition to the tents, the Israeli army confiscated, “five shacks, one not yet built, and eight tents, all used for livestock.”
The residents were apparently told that they could get their belongings back if they undertook to relocate to a designated site. After they refused to comply, equipment was confiscated and put in Civil Administration storage.
In order “to cover up the forcible transfer,” said B’Tselem, Israel military spokesmen “tried to create the impression that the residents had ‘voluntarily agreed’ to leave the area after ‘dialogue’.”
B’Tselem pointed out that when one side – Israel – has all the power and can threaten defenceless Palestinians with demolition orders, bulldozers and weapons, consent is not on the cards. “Rather, it is an act of coercion and violence by Israel’s apartheid regime, which advances the principle of Jewish supremacy by geographically and demographically engineering space.”
