Tuesday, August 25, 2020
The war for Palestinian survival rages on.
commondreams.org/views/2020/08/25/people-cave-palestinians-take-their-fight-justice-mountains
Palestinians are not going anywhere. This is the gist of seven decades of Palestinian struggle against Zionist colonialism. The proof? The story of Ahmed Amarneh.
Amarneh, a
30-year-old civil engineer from the northern West Bank village of Farasin, lives with
his family in a cave. For many years, the Amarneh family has attempted to build
a proper home, but their request has been denied by the Israeli military every
time.
In many
ways, the struggle of the Amarnehs is a microcosm of the collective struggle of
Farasin; in fact, of most Palestinians.
Those who
are unfortunate enough to be living in areas of the West Bank, designated by
the Oslo II Accord of 1995 as Area C, were left in a perpetual limbo.
Area C constitutes nearly
60% of the overall size of the West Bank. It is rich with resources—mostly
arable land, water and ample minerals—yet, relatively sparsely populated. It
should not be surprising why right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu, wants to
annex this region. More land, with fewer Palestinians, has been the guiding
principle for Zionist colonialism from the outset.
True,
Netanyahu’s annexation plan, at least the de jure element of it, has been
postponed. In practice, however, de facto annexation has been taking place for
many years, and, lately, it has accelerated. Last June, for example, Israel
demolished 30 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, mostly in Area C, rendering
over 100 Palestinians homeless.
Additionally,
according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), Israeli army bulldozers destroyed 33
non-residential structures as well. This is “the same number (of homes)
demolished throughout the entire first five months of 2020,” OCHA
reported.
Unfortunately,
Farasin, like numerous other Palestinian villages and communities across Area
C, has been singled
out for complete destruction. A small population of
approximately 200 people has been subjected to Israeli army harassment for
years. While Israel is keen on implanting Jewish communities in the heart of
the occupied West Bank, it is equally keen on disrupting the natural growth of
Palestinian communities, the indigenous people of the land, in Area C.
On July 29,
Israeli forces invaded Farasin, terrorizing the residents, and handed
over 36 demolition orders, according to the head of the Farasin
village council. Namely, this is the onset of ethnic cleansing of the entire
population of the village by Israel.
Ahmed
Amarneh and his family also received a demolition order, although they do not
live in a concrete house, but, rather, in a mountain cave. “I didn't make
the cave. It has existed since antiquity,” he told reporters.
“I don't understand how they can prevent me from living in a cave. Animals live
in caves and are not thrown out. So let them treat me like an animal and let me
live in the cave.”
Amarneh’s
emotional outburst is not misleading. In a recent report, the Israeli rights
group B’tselem, has listed some
of Israel’s deceptive methods used to forcefully remove Palestinians from their
homes in Area C or to block any development whatsoever within these Palestinian
communities.
“Israel has
blocked Palestinian development by designating large swathes of land as state
land, survey land, firing zones, nature reserves and national parks,” according
to B’tselem. Judging by the systematic destruction of the Palestinian
environment in the West Bank, Israel is hardly interested in
the preservation of animals, either. The ultimate goal is the allocation of
“land to settlements and their regional councils,” B’tselem argues.
Therefore,
it should not come as a surprise that, for example, as of November 2017, only
16 of the 180 Palestinian communities in Area C have been approved for
development. The rest are strictly prohibited.
Between 2016
and 2018, of the 1,485 Palestinian applications for construction and
development in these areas, only 21 permits have been
approved.
These
unrealistic and draconian measures leave Palestinian families with no option
but to build without a permit, eventually making them targets for Israeli
military bulldozers.
Hundreds of
families, like that of Ahmed Amarneh, have opted for alternative solutions.
Failing to obtain a permit and wary of the imminent demolition if they build
without one, they simply move to mountain caves.
This
phenomenon is particularly
manifest in the Hebron and Nablus regions.
In the
mountainous wasteland located on the outskirts of Nablus, the wreckage of
abandoned homes—some demolished, some unfinished—is a testimony of an ongoing
war between the Israeli military, on the one hand, and the Palestinian people,
on the other. Once they lose the battle and are left with no other option, many
Palestinian families take their belongings and head to the caves in search of a
home.
Quite often,
the fight does not end there, as Palestinian communities, especially in the Hebron
hills region, find themselves target to more eviction orders.
The war for Palestinian survival rages on.
The case of
Ahmed Amarneh, however, is particularly unique, for rarely, if ever, Israel
issues a military order to demolish a cave. When the cave is demolished, where
else can the Amarneh family go?
This
dilemma, symptomatic of the larger Palestinian quandary, reminds one of Mahmoud
Darwish’s seminal poem,
“The Earth is Closing on Us”:
Where should
we go after the last frontiers?
Where should
the birds fly after the last sky?
Where should
the plants sleep after the last breath of air?
However
depressing the reality may be, the metaphor is undeniably powerful, that of
savage colonialism that knows no bounds and Palestinian steadfastness (sumoud)
that is perennial.
Often buried within the technical details of oppression—Area C,
home demolition, ethnic cleansing and so on—is the tenacity of the human
spirit, that of the Amarneh family and hundreds of other Palestinian families,
who have turned caves into loving homes. It is this unmatched perseverance that
makes the quest for justice in Palestine, despite the innumerable odds,
possible.
Ramzy Baroud is
a jouranlist and the Editor of the Palestine Chronicle. He
is the author of five books. His latest is These Chains
Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons (Clarity
Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at
the Center for Islam and Global Affairs
(CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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