While Gaza Crumbles, Settlers Push West Bank Demolitions

Until last month, the internationally supported community of Umm al-Kheir widely avoided destruction.

On June 26, after fourteen years of avoiding destruction, the Israeli military entered the village of Umm al-Kheir and demolished eleven homes, the village council tent, and the solar electricity room, leaving one-third of the town’s population homeless.

Umm al-Kheir is a Bedouin community of roughly 200 people, all members of the Hathleen tribe, located in the South Hebron Hills in the southern West Bank. As per the Oslo Accords, it is located in Area C, which places it under full Israeli civil and military control. Home demolitions are common for Palestinians in Area C, where Israeli officials deny 95 percent of Palestinian building permit requests, then demolish the homes on the grounds that they were built illegally.

A visit through Umm al-Kheir reveals a variety of tributes to people around the world: a sign thanking a British politician for donating money to build a basketball court, murals painted by an artist and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) activist based in Pittsburgh, and pictures in the local community center featuring international activists, to name a few. Perhaps it is due to this support that Umm al-Kheir, where almost every building is under an active demolition order, has dodged destruction for over a decade. But the transfer of the village’s jurisdiction from the Israeli Civil Administration into the hands of far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been catastrophic for the community.