Al-Zwaidin…a Palestinian village being suffocated by settlers in order to deport its residents | policy

Hebron- Neither the ownership papers nor the historical presence of the residents of the Palestinian village of Zuwaidin in the southern West Bank were of any use in the battle to repel the settlers’ attacks and their ambitions against them and their property, if the settlement, with official protection, began to eat away at its edges and suffocate it little by little.

The population’s suffering has doubled with the increase in settler attacks on West Bank Palestinians over the past two years, coinciding with the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. These attacks led to the displacement of 33 Palestinian Bedouin communities consisting of 455 families, including 2,853 individuals, according to the Palestinian Wall Resistance Authority.

The residents of the village of Al-Zwaidin, who number about 700 people, are deprived of exploiting thousands of dunams of their privately owned lands, whether for agriculture or grazing livestock. During the two years of war, the settler Shimon Attiya became a tool of the settlement project in intimidating, persecuting, and besieging the residents, according to the village’s resident, activist and researcher in the Israeli B’Tselem organization, Adi Tamiyat, in his interview with Al Jazeera Net.

Shimon’s story

Taimat says that about 3 years ago, the Israeli settler established a settlement outpost next to the homes of Palestinian citizens, and with the army’s protection and support, he began to impose his authority and dominance in the vicinity of the outpost to the point of preventing the Palestinians from exploiting about two thousand dunams of their land.

After imposing his control over the land, the settler began storming the village, raiding its neighborhoods, and attacking the residents, including an attempt to steal a herd of sheep weeks ago, but the citizens’ outburst thwarted the attempt, while the settlers from nearby settlement outposts descended to attack the Palestinians, injuring one of them with bullets and others with bruises and wounds, and the army completed the mission by storming and searching the homes of the Palestinians. Its contents were destroyed and 19 of its residents were arrested for preventing settler attacks.

Taimat points out that more settlement outposts were deployed in the vicinity of the village during the war of extermination, including an outpost inhabited by a settler called Moshe on the northern side. He monitors any movement in the village and informs the army and settlement associations, including restoration and construction work, as equipment was confiscated more than once. A school with an area of ​​about 150 square meters was even notified of demolition.

He pointed out that the settlers extended an open plastic water network between two settlement outposts, crossing the village lands. The settlers monitored the movement of vehicles and prevented them from passing over the network, which led to complete paralysis in the village.

Pressure to deport

Taimat spoke about repeated incidents and attacks, including attacking vehicles, smashing their windows, shutting off water, cutting down olive trees, damaging water tanks, assaulting foreign activists, and objecting to school students. He explained that all residents’ complaints to the Israeli police are ignored and not taken seriously, unlike the way settlers’ complaints are dealt with.

He pointed out that part of the village’s population used to work inside Israel, while the rest worked in agriculture and livestock, but today they are trapped without work.

On the health front, he stated that services are completely non-existent, as not even an emergency clinic is available to residents, and there is difficulty in transporting patients to hospitals due to the pursuit of residents’ vehicles, explaining that the problem is compounded with pregnant women and children who need regular care and vaccinations.

He concluded that the goal of harassment and repeated attacks is to paralyze livelihoods, make life impossible, and then force residents to leave and emigrate, to provide the opportunity for further settlement expansion and linking settlement outposts to each other, but he stresses, “We have been here for centuries, we were born here, we die here, and we will not leave, no matter the cost.”

The biggest attack

The village of Al-Zwaidin is attributed to its residents from the “Zwaidin,” who are part of the Al-Kaabneh clan. It is located within the desert of southern Hebron, which consists of 8 Bedouin village communities extending from the village of Bani Naim in the north to the 1948 borders in the south. It is on the slopes of the Hebron Mountains adjacent to the Dead Sea, according to Muhammad Al-Kaabneh, a resident of the village.

He told Al-Jazeera Net that the suffering of the villages began with the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, and is represented by “killing, arrest, displacement, confiscation of lands, prevention of access to pastures and water wells, confiscation of livestock, and the destruction of vegetation through military training, bombing, bombing, and bulldozing operations through the establishment of a training camp, and completely distorting the face of the earth, in addition to the intensification of the policy of demolishing homes, either under the pretext of their presence in a firing zone or Area C (under full Israeli control) or near settlements, etc.

Regarding the details of the largest attack on the village on October 4, he explains that settlers from the “Shimoun” outpost attempted to seize a herd of sheep from the “Al-Atemeen” family, tended by minor children, 150 meters away from the residents’ homes, in an area considered private land according to Jordanian and Turkish documents, not confiscated or military, and no presence there is prohibited.

He added that the settlers “threw stones at the sheep and citizens, and the herd was pursued to steal it and attack its owners. The settlers even entered between the houses. The attack continued with extreme violence, including shooting, in which my brother Yahya was injured by a bullet in the left thigh and severely wounded in the head with a stone and a stick.”

Al-Kaabneh said that Yahya was exposed to direct fire by the settler and remained in intensive care for 4 days. After that attack, the army stormed the village several times, during which it abused the citizens under threat and intimidation if the settlers were “again attacked (obstructed).”

He pointed out that many young men were injured with varying degrees and more than 19 young men were arrested. “They were abused after being tied up, blindfolded and taken to a police station in the city of Hebron, where the investigation continued until the dawn hours and they were subsequently released.”

He explained that the attacks escalated with the establishment of the “Shamoon” outpost, and included “escalating attacks on citizens, their property, and fields, destruction of agricultural crops, prevention of grazing, assault on residents, and obstruction of their path.”