By Al-Hareth al-Hossni
JORDAN VALLEY, October 4, 2017 (WAFA) – Palestinian residents of the northern Jordan Valley are today living in uncertainty after the Israeli Supreme Court has rejected their petition to get building permits for their homes, which means the residences and habitats they have been living in could be demolished at any time.
The Israeli military, which rules in the occupied Jordan Valley, a rich area of the West Bank bordering Jordan to the east, refuses to grant Palestinians in the Jordan Valley permits to build or to develop their lands, forcing them to build homes or set up mere tents for shelter without permit.
The residents sought recourse from the Supreme Court after their requests for building permits were rejected by the so-called Israeli Civil Administration, an arm of the military government. But even this did not bring them the serenity of life in their own homes they have been seeking for decades.
A total of 27 families living in three locales – Humsa, Khillet Makhoul and Farisieh - are currently under threat of losing their homes and livestock sheds following the Supreme Court’s rejection of their appeal.
“We live in total uncertainty today,” said Salah Daraghmeh, a resident of Farisieh. “They want to demolish our homes to kick us out of this area to that they can take it over and build settlements.”
“Our days and nights have become one,” said Yousef Bsharat, one of those who appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court against the demolition. “We are waiting the arrival of the bulldozers at any time.”
Bsharat said they had lived a similar experience in 2013 and were left without shelter for two months.
He said the military seized on Tuesday building material he had brought to build a new home for him and his family.
According to Mutaz Bsharat, in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement activities in the northern Jordan Valley, 120 structures that include homes, tents, and animal sheds are currently under threat of demolition, 75 of them are in Farisieh alone.
He said 17 families had lived in Khillet Makhoul four years ago, but today only five families are left after the rest have been pushed out by the Israeli military one way or another.
The army, he explained, declare a certain area a closed military or training zone to prevent families from building or staying in their land.
He said 160 residents of the northern Jordan Valley are under threat of losing their homes and lands now that the Supreme Court had paved the way for the military government to go ahead with the demolitions.
M.K.
