“This is not an occupation anymore. This is revenge.”

JVL Introduction

Erella writes from the South Hebron Hills in a Villages Group newletter:

“You are right, Jaber, this is not an occupation anymore. This is revenge, ethnic cleansing, greed, ignorance, stupidity, evil, for a long time now words fail me. This time too.”

After a visit to Khalet a-Dabe’…

September 13, 2022

Dear friends,

We visit Khalet a-Dabe’ (the hyena’s habitat area in Arabic) quite often. Nearly every Tuesday. One time because Jaber’s home had been demolished, another time because his brother’s home had been demolished, and then because other villagers’ homes had been demolished, and then because Jaber’s home was demolished again, and so on and on.

Jaber’s home has been demolished five times. After the fifth time, he decided to delay rebuilding his 6^th home and pitched a tent above the cave in which he lives with his wife and children. We continue to visit him, in spite of the large concrete cube that has been placed recently on the way to the village with the inscription “firing zone”.

We drove up the rocky dirt road, climbing the hill to Khalet a-Dabe’. The landscape is gradually revealed. Masafer Yatta unfolds before our eyes, with its hills and valleys. We know it well, this scenery that takes our breath away and surprises us time and again. Only this time we stop every few meters and keep taking photos of the village that gradually appears at the top of the hill. We photograph and sigh, as if we received news of an imminent natural calamity that is about to destroy the village. But no, it is not a natural calamity that will soon demolish the village. It is the occupation army that will destroy it. Earlier this week demolition orders to all the village houses were ratified.

Twenty-seven homes of seventy adults and children can be demolished at any time starting from September 29, 2022, by court order. Two days after the Jewish New Year, on days meant to be days of soul searching prior to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We entered Jaber’s tent. In his typical sensitivity he realizes that we already know and he says: “This is not an occupation anymore. This is revenge.” And I add, “This is evil.” He nods in agreement and smiles his enchanting smile, exposing the pain of the strong.

In the past, there were four caves in Khalet a-Dabe’ . Now only a few homes stand next to a cave. We asked what would happen to people who don’t have a cave. “No one will move away when demolitions take place,” Jaber answered in his modest unassuming determination, and continued to chat with us.

The twins, Hamade and Thiam, born to Jaber and his wife three months ago, moved back this week from their grandmother’s home in the town of Yatta to their renovated cave. I spent some time with them, forcefully pushing away demolition scenes that kept presenting themselves to me just because I was rocking three-month old babies in my arms.

We reached Khalet a-Dabe’ at noon from the village of a-Tuwani whose residents had experienced a settler/military shock less than 24 hours earlier. A man and his son were grazing their flock in their own field, close to home, when five masked settlers came and started beating up the field owner. When he defended himself and hurt one of his assailants, the Israeli media reported that a Jewish shepherd was attacked by a Palestinian and was seriously injured in the face. This event was already described in detail [in an article in +972 here].

Coming from beaten a-Tuwani to Khalet a-Dabe’, I thought I am going out of my mind. The little sanity left in me was wondering what tale would the occupier make up this time. After all, Khalet a-Dabe’ is quite remote, with neither settlements or an army base nor Palestinian villages nearby. Perhaps the spirit of the hyenas (dabe’) that once roamed there threatens the security of the Jewish State.

You are right, Jaber, this is not an occupation anymore. This is revenge, ethnic cleansing, greed, ignorance, stupidity, evil, for a long time now words fail me. This time too. I have no words for the turmoil in my soul in face of the imminent demolition that can happen during the coming days of atonement, and yet, this time too, I wrote …

Erella
On behalf of the Villages Group