Um Al Khair in the South Hebron Hills

I begin my blog with the story of the village of Um Al Khair in the hills South of Hebron. We visited Um Al Khair  on the third day of our time in Hebron. A young man,  Tariq Hathaleen,  spoke to us in excellent English about the history and current situation of the village.

Um Al Khair is on the side of one of the dry and stony South Hebron  hills. The village  consists of a few small cement block houses, shanties of tin and plastic, and a great deal of rubble from demolished homes. About 100 people live in the village.  The Israeli settlement of Carmel is at the top of the hill and right next to the upper border of the village. A razor wire fence is all that separates the two communities. Carmel is like an American suburb with two story, brightly painted  houses, wide paved streets, gardens and trees.  Israel provides electricity and water to Carmel but not to Um Al Khair.  Um Al Khair has intermittent electricity from solar panels and water from a source that is one kilometer away.

The people of Um Al Khair were originally bedouins  in the South of what is now Israel,  a region called the Negev. When Israel conquered the Negev in 1948, the bedouins there were given two choices. they could stay, in which case they would have to join the army, or they could leave for the nearby West Bank, a region governed by Jordan before the 1967 war and by Israel after the war.  50% of the Bedouin chose to stay and 40 % chose to leave. Three percent resisted both choices and were killed. I don't know what happened to the other 7%. The bedouin of Um Al Khair sometimes encounter Arabic speaking Israeli soldiers who were also bedouin and  from the same culture as themselves.

The people of Um Al Khair moved to their present location in the West Bank, about 20 miles to the East of their original home.  Although they hoped to go back, they finally decided to settle down. They sold their 100 camels and used the money to buy land from people in a nearby town.  Life was OK for them then. They had over a 1000 sheep and goats and enough land for the animals to graze on.

Things changed  in the early 1980s when  Israel built a road to the region. Israel told them the road would be for their benefit but in fact it was used to build settlements. Carmel was one of the settlements and was built on land confiscated from the village.  Additional land was also confiscated for  the settlement's chicken farm. There was not enough land now for grazing and their herd shrunk from over a thousand to somewhat over a 100.

They are under constant stress from the settlers and the Israeli military who want them to leave. The first demolition orders began in 1995. All homes are under demolition orders and may remain under such orders for years. When an order is executed people  are given only minutes to clear the house of people and belongings. Sometimes that occurs in the Winter when it can be cold in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers shoot holes in the village's water tanks. Tariq said he would not start a family under the conditions in which he must live.

Village elder Suleiman with water tank destroyed by settlers.

When we drove up the dirt road to the village we saw a man. He was  possibly in his middle thirties. He walked around aimlessly, stared at us but never spoke. He was Tariq's older brother, Mohamed. Several years ago, Mohamed was taking the family goats to graze and was passing along the edge of the settlement. A security guard of the settlement shot at him. Mohammed escaped and ran back to the village. Soldiers and settlers followed him  to the village, found him and beat him with their rifles,  leaving  him almost  dead. He was in a coma for 10 days but suffered extreme brain damage. He cannot care for himself now and does not interact with anyone. Tariq described his brother as a "body walking."

Tariq told us the story of the village oven. Up until a few years ago the village baked their bread at an outdoor oven about 40 yards down the slope from the razor wire fence at the edge of the settlement.  A settler whose house was on the other side of fence complained repeatedly to the Israeli military authority that governs Area C about the smoke from the oven. Area C makes up about 60% of the West Bank and is where the settlements are located. Finally, an officer came to the village  and said let's solve this peacefully, what can I do? Suleiman, an elder of the village suggested three possibilities: 1) You can bring us bread like you do to the settlement then we will not need to bake, but the officer said no, I can't do that; 2) You can give us electricity so we can build an electric oven that does not smoke, but the officer said no, I can't provide electricity to an 'illegal' village; 3) You can build a building for us where we bake bread and and reduce smoke, but the officer said no, I cannot authorize a building in an 'illegal' settlement.  "Well then", said the elder," let  the settler get off our land and move away from the oven. He came here took our land and built his house on it right next to our oven." The next day the Israeli authorities destroyed the oven along with three nearby buildings.  I do not know how the village bakes its bread now.

CPT delegation at Um Al Khair with village elder Suleiman.

The destroyed village oven is at the left in the foreground, Carmel settlement is in

the background.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote an op ed about Um Al Khair in 2010  and described what Israel does there as 'morally repugnant' - https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/opinion/01kristof.html?_r=2 .
Ben Ehrenreich wrote quite a bit about Um Al Khair in his well-praised book "To the Spring: Life and death in Palestine."