Such trends can be seen in Area C, where settler herder outposts have managed to seize up to 7% of land by 2022, according to a study by Israeli NGO Kerem Navot.
According to the NGO’s preliminary estimates, this figure has likely multiplied in the last two years alone, with thousands of additional dunums (hundreds of acres or hectares) seized by these herdsmen since October 2023, s appropriating land formerly used by the Bedouins.
“They’re not just herders, they’re literally trying to live the Bedouin life,” Tariq said of the settlers. “They build tents, they raise donkeys, horses, camels, goats and sheep. They even dress like us Bedouins. They speak and sing Bedouin songs.
Tariq laughs. “You know, it’s really funny because these people really don’t know how to do things. They just imitate.”
As each tense day unfolds in Umm al-Khair, the children stay busy.
Outside at the community center, an eight-year-old boy named Arafat pushes an empty stroller, “selling vegetables.”
“Potatoes! Watermelon! Cucumbers!” » shouts Arafat.
He is a precocious young child, lively and never shy with strangers after years of solidarity activists coming to the village.
He gave a price for his imaginary goods: “Five shekels ($1.37) per kilo,” and carried out the “transaction” while reporting how the business went. “This week has gone well,” said the small shopkeeper casually.
Earlier in the day, settlers had come to Umm al-Khair, confronting and insulting villagers. Arafat had his own run-ins with the settlers.
“The other week they came and attacked my house and pepper sprayed my dad and he went to the hospital,” he said, dropping his shopkeeper persona and ignoring the jarring transition between his game and the reality of the settler attacks.
Arafat was referring to June 29, when the teenage settlers entered the family home. When the family tried to evict them, they said, the teens attacked several family members with pepper spray.
Arafat’s father, Muhammad, had to be taken to hospital.
But immediately after discussing the recent trauma, Arafat turned to a 20-shekel bill lying on the ground nearby and picked it up.
“Is this yours?” » he asked, brandishing the bill, running towards everyone he saw in the village. “Is it yours?” Is this yours?
Mixing imaginary “affairs” with real-life “trauma” presents itself perfectly for Arafat and the other children in the community.
Yet in recent weeks, parents in the village have reported that their children are waking up at night with nightmares of being attacked and shot at by settlers.
Preferential treatment for chickens
The neighboring settlement of al-Karmil, which clusters Umm al-Khair on the same hill, was established in 1980 – and largely on land that village elders began buying in the 1950s, the residents said. villagers.
The first orders to demolish their homes were issued in 1995, they say, and the first demolitions took place in 2007.
Since then, periodic demolitions have taken place – almost the entire village is under demolition order – but hostility and violence from neighboring settlers have intensified since October 7, when Hamas attacked southern Israel and Israel has started its war against Gaza.
In one incident, village leaders, including Tariq and Eid Hathaleen, were held at gunpoint by neighboring settlers they knew personally.
These threats and attacks have intensified since June 26. That day, the ICA demolished 11 structures in the village, leaving 28 people homeless, including 20 children.
Eid Hathaleen, a 40-year-old father of five daughters, has spent years documenting such demolitions in the South Hebron Hills. But seeing his own home of 18 years demolished that day was still difficult to comprehend.
“I thought, ‘Am I dreaming? Or is this the truth?'” recalls Eid, a calm, soft-spoken man wearing his trademark cowboy hat.
“But when I closed my eyes and opened them, I realized, through the sound of the bulldozer and the screams and cries of my community around me, that it was real. It’s happening.”