Wadi Ejheish by Basel Adra

Wadi Ejheish

It was midnight when I got the first call from a resident about the attack.

On September 27, 2022, settlers from the illegal settlement of Susiya stormed the village of Wadi Ejheish. I drove there with other activists immediately when I got the call, and when we arrived, we found the family standing outside and shivering. Ibrahim told us that there were at least 20 settlers. Just 50 meters away from Ibrahim's house, next to another family's tent, we saw them.

We watched for half an hour as they sang and celebrated around the fire they had set. Then, the settlers attacked the tent and started to destroy it. We were not able to photograph them in the dark so we just stood and watched. We called the police several times during the attack and, each time, their answer was that the settlers were not doing anything there, they were just celebrating. At about 1:30am, the settlers left the site. We went over to where they had been and saw the tent lying on the ground, destroyed.

We sat with the family for another hour because no one could sleep after the attack. The 20 settlers could return at any time.

A few days later, on the morning of October 2nd, Ibrahim called us and said there were at least 50 settlers on a hill near his house. “I expect they will attack us,” he said. “Come quickly.” When we arrived fifteen minutes later, we saw a police car waiting there. The car followed us to the entrance of the village, where it stopped while we continued on.

We saw dozens of settlers dismantling a tent and throwing tools on the ground. The Palestinians, who were standing a few meters away, tried to stop them but soldiers pushed back any Palestinian who approached them and threatened to arrest him. Everyone was screaming as they watched this scene of injustice unfold.

The settlers ran to another tent located in the valley of the village. The owner of the house ran with her children there, and the soldiers also ran. The settlers began to smash the tent and the soldiers prevented the owner of the house and her children from approaching. 

The settlers went to a third tent and began to destroy it. When they finished, one of the settlers said: “Let’s go demolish  another tent.” Another settler replied, “We will come again.” 

The police, who the family had been calling repeatedly since the beginning of the incident, arrived only after the settlers had finished their crime.

The police officer said that, according to the army, the construction was illegal. The Palestinians asked him: “Are the settlers authorized to demolish illegal construction? Are they the ones who enforce the law?” The policeman had no answer except for the routine response that the police give to Palestinians: “Go to the police station and file a complaint.” The policeman did not take the identity cards of any settlers and did not stop them as they left the scene.

The families received tents from the Palestinian Red Crescent following the attack. But the next morning,  three border patrol officers arrived, without the army and the Civil Administration, and they began to destroy the tents without presenting a demolition order or any other papers. When the solidarity activists arrived, they were detained and their cameras and phones were confiscated in order to prevent them from documenting as well. As one Palestinian tried to approach, one of the officers told his family: “If you try to stop us from demolishing the tent, we will arrest him, and if you let us demolish it, we will release him the moment we finish destroying it.”

These are not accidents or random acts of violence. These settler attacks happen as part of efforts to colonize our land and with support from the state.

The soldiers argue that they cannot stop the settlers’ violence while they are committing pogroms  against us, but rather they have to support the settlers. The police come hours after the attacks and do nothing., According to Yesh Din, more than 94% of the Palestinians’ complaints against settler violence are not investigated by the police and the majority of cases that are opened for investigation are closed without charges made against settlers. There is full cooperation between the occupation army and settlers to destroy homes in the village of Wadi Ejheish.

Demolitions of Palestinian property are carried out almost every week, and the Civil Adminsitration rejects more than 98% of Palestinian permit requests for building. I, myself, have witnessed and documented hundreds of demolitions against my people. In contrast,  I have not seen the Civil Administration demolish one house inside the outposts in my life.  All the outposts have water networks, electricity and paved roads with the support of the state, despite the fact that the state acknowledges these outposts are illegal. In fact, we know that the demolition of our home is in order to deport us and the continued expansion of settlements in order to control the land.