Israeli forces on Wednesday morning demolished illegal homes donated by the European Union in Khashm al-Daraj, a.k.a. the South Hebron Hills, Ma’an reported. The Arab news agency quoted Mohammed Shanan, a resident of the area, who said that large forces, accompanied by bulldozers and workers, demolished two houses that were owned by Mustafa Salem Ahmed Awad and Musa Ahmed Awad.
Ma’an also quoted Coordinator and Spokesman coordinator of the National Committees And Popular Resistance to the Wall and Settlements in the South of the West Bank Rateb Al-Habour, who reported that “the occupation forces with their vehicles and bulldozers are now near Umm al-Khair east of the city of Yatta, and are preparing to demolish the property of citizens, and are headed towards Zwaidin area to demolish some of the ponds.”
As revealed earlier this year by the international director for Regavim Josh Hasten, the 2009 Fayyad Plan (conceived by then PA prime minister Salam Fayyad), in the absence of substantial progress towards implementing a two-state solution, the PA must eliminate Israeli control over Area C, the Israeli-owned portion of Judea and Samaria, by creating substantial facts on the ground in what would otherwise could remain part of Israel under a peace treaty.
According to Regavim, the EU has been enlisted to both finance and carry out – without Israeli permits – the construction of more than 1,000 illegal structures, including homes, bathrooms, and storage spaces throughout Area C in Judea and Samaria, under the EU flag. The EU also lends its political protection to these illegal structures, in an attempt to prevent their demolition by Israel, under the false claim that the structures are being erected for “humanitarian purposes,” to support the Bedouin in these areas – mostly in the South Hebron Hills.
Regavim pointed out that, ironically enough, no such EU structures bearing the EU flag can be found in areas A or B, nor anywhere else in Bedouin communities throughout the Middle East.
Back in April, Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned the EU’s Deputy Head of Mission Mark Gallagher to demand the EU stop its “obsessive” support for illegal Palestinian building in Area C. “We asked him to stop being about obsessive about it,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon, adding, “There are 32 humanitarian crises in the world, but [the EU] has chosen to disproportionately deal with what is happening in Area C, that without a doubt is not a humanitarian crisis.”
As to Yatta, located some 5 miles south of Hebron, with a population of 64,277 (according to PA stats), it has been a nest of terrorist activities ever since the 1967 liberation, including 7 locals who were killed in the second intifada; a Hamas member who murdered an IDF soldier but was freed in the Gilad Shalit swap (the deal that keeps on giving); and, most recently, in June 2016, two terrorists from Yatta were captured after firing on Israelis in a Tel-Aviv café, killing four and injuring 16 (see: Terrorists’ Village of Yatta Sealed Off).
Find more about the so-called indigenous Bedouins of the south Hebron hills in David Bedein’s Arab Susya and its Specious Historic Connection.
