Eyes Wide Open | Photo Blog
An entire community quietly demolished
The convoy of bulldozers arrived at Khirbet Humsah with clear orders: demolish as much as possible.
It was 3 November 2020, the eve of the US elections. As the world looked to the west, Israel demolished 18 tents and shacks that were home to 11 families, nine tents that served as kitchens, three storage sheds, 10 portable toilets, solar panels, 23 water containers, 29 tents and shacks that served as livestock enclosures, 10 livestock pens, and feeding and watering troughs. More than 30 tons of fodder and water for the animals were thrown onto the cold ground. To round off the rampage, the forces confiscated vehicles and two tractors belonging to three residents.
Many Palestinian shepherding communities in the West Bank live on land that Israel seeks to take over. As the state cannot simply load the residents onto trucks and drive them away – an act the international community would frown upon – it has decided to make their lives so unbearable that they will leave,…
Israel’s regime of occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end the occupation, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.