Israel destroys Palestinian Bedouin village
A small Palestinian boy next to a tent in Homsa al-Baqia, West Bank, November 5, 2020, two days after the destruction of a Bedouin village by the Israeli army.
Raneen Sawafta / Reuters
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
It is, according to the UN, the largest demolition operation carried out by Israel in the occupied West Bank in more than four years.
About 70 structures belonging to a Palestinian Bedouin community living in Homsa al-Baqia, in the Jordan Valley, were destroyed on Tuesday (November 3) by the Israeli army.
According to the UN humanitarian agency, this type of destruction increased in 2020 compared to previous years.
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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,
Guilhem Delteil
The operation left more than 70 people, including 41 children, without fixed homes.
A population marked by this large-scale operation, believes Isabella Tion.
She is responsible for mental health within the organization Médecins du Monde France, which helps this community.
“
There is a first trauma, which is that of having witnessed this violence.
And then there is a trauma which is linked to the uncertainty for the future.
There is great fear that this will happen again.
We have collected a lot of testimonies where people told us
"even if we rebuild now, we are almost sure that there will be a new destruction", "she explains.
► See also: The West Bank, between occupation and annexation
"
Israel has a panoply of excuses for carrying out this policy
"
For the Israeli army, this community was installed in a shooting zone, and its presence there was therefore illegal.
Contacted by RFI, she justifies her operation by "
operational considerations
" that she refuses to detail.
But the argument is only a pretext, says Hagaï El Ad, of the human rights organization B'Tselem.
For him, there is a state policy aimed at displacing Palestinians living in Area C, the part of the West Bank still under complete Israeli control.
“
Israel has a panoply of excuses for carrying out this policy of forcible transfer, which is a war crime.
One of them is to declare the place a firing zone, another is to declare it a nature reserve or public land.
In fact, the reasoning is reversed.
Show me the Palestinians you want to expel from Area C and Israel will tailor the excuse to justify this action,
”he says.
► See also: 2020, a record year for colonization in the West Bank
The UN, for its part, evokes a "
discriminatory policy
" of Israel in the allocation of building permits in the West Bank.
And she is worried about an increase in the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure in 2020: she has identified 689, a record since 2016.
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