As the siege on Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra continues for a second week, Israeli settlers feel confident they will face no consequences for their terrorist activities. Inaction from the Netanyahu government and the international community has given these colonists a growing sense of confidence. It has also encouraged them, and given them the green light to use the same tactics elsewhere.
Israeli settlers cut off electricity supply
On 18 August, settlers broke an electricity pole, which provided power to the home of brothers Ayman and Musab Sufan, and their families. The long-suffering Sufans live in the West Bank village of Burin, south of Nablus.
Soon after their home lost its power supply, the ‘Israeli’ military used bulldozers to block the only road leading to the Sufans’ home, completely cutting off the already isolated and exposed house, and its 10 residents, from the rest of the village.
There were fears a situation may result similar to that in Qusra, but luckily this has not been the case. Some makeshift DIY from the family has ensured the electricity is back on, while the roadblock has also now been removed.
Roadblocks usually occur as part of the military’s cooperation with the Israeli settlers. But it is not known for certain if this was the case here, or why the road was reopened.
What we do know is that in June, Haaretz reported a military legal adviser had warned top IOF officials that the military had not been following the required legal procedures for imposing movement restrictions, and that barriers often lack official orders, proper documentation, and publication. This adviser warned that continuing this could lead the Supreme Court to cancel the roadblocks altogether. So he urged the military to stop the practice and establish proper oversight.
The occupation’s soldiers and settlers making their lives hell
Although the roadblock to their home has now gone, difficulties faced by the Sufans are far from over. Jonathan Pollak, a human rights defender and activist, has known the family for many years. He tells us:
The outpost has been there for a while, and is a source of constant intimidation, sabotage and attacks. Although the family can now cross to the village, they are still facing regular harassment by settlers and soldiers.
Pollak explains the attacks against the family are constant. Power has been cut more than once to their home, and their olive groves have been set alight.
He says:
They have basically been forced to barricade themselves inside their home. In the most literal meaning- putting up tall walls and fences, iron gates and CCTV cameras.
Israeli settlers carry out ‘Israeli state’s’ ethnic cleansing
The Sufans’ home is below the Yitzhar settlement, which was established in 1983. Since then the settlement has continued expanding over the lands of Burin, Hawara, Einabus, Urif, Asira Al Qibliya and Madama. The settlers currently intimidating the family are residing in an outpost of Yitzhar, just 150 metres from the Sufan’s home.
There has been a long campaign by the Israeli occupation to try and forcibly displace the Sufans from their home. So far it has been unsuccessful, only because of the steadfastness and resilience of these Palestinians. But the systematic attacks continue unabated, due to the geostrategic position of the house. Pollak says:
The Sufan home is the only permanent Palestinian presence in the entire area between Huwwara to the East, Yitzhar to the South, Madama to the West, and Route 60 and Burin to the North. Driving the family away would enable an Israeli takeover of the farmland in that entire area. This is a story about two families who have been suffering for over two decades, not at the hands of so-called extremist settlers, but as part of the overarching Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing.
Human rights abuses documented for almost 25 years
The Centre for Protection and Assistance to Asylum Seekers (APC/CZA) is a Serbian organisation. It has documented settler violence towards the Sufan family as far back as 2003. In 2010, in a piece titled Life in Constant Fear, the human rights organisation wrote about Hanan Sufan. Her husband died of a stroke in 2003, soon after watching settlers pour petrol around their home and set fire to it with the family inside.
Hanan Sufan told APC/CZA that government officials, human rights organisations, activists and journalists had all promised to help the family. But that help has never arrived.
According to APC/CZA, even in 2010, conditions were so dangerous for them that:
Iron bars are on all the windows, placed to prevent stones and Molotov cocktails from flying into the house. Barbed wire is placed on top of the fence to prevent attackers from breaking in, and there’s a bed on the roof of the house. Sufan says it’s her son’s bed, who stays outside at night to listen for intruders.
In 2012, the UN also reported that their sheep had been poisoned, and a horse stolen, while cars and solar panels had been destroyed by settlers.
Our governments are accomplices to the crimes of the Israeli occupation
The pressure on the Sufan family to leave is continuing right now, as their home remains in the way of settlement expansion- and all the crimes that go with it. Even though their situation has been documented for decades, there has been no help or justice coming their way. They have been left to protect themselves from a relentless campaign of violence. Why has no effective protection been provided, or those responsible not been held accountable, when officials have been aware of the situation for so long?
There is very little hope that the Israeli occupation will hold those responsible to account. The UK, US and European states have influence over ‘Israel’, so have a responsibility to act. They have so far only relied on meaningless statements of concern. They must use this influence through diplomatic pressure, sanctions, and a review of all military and trade ties, instead of continuing with political cover and business as usual.
Those who claim to support human rights and international law must take immediate action, to ensure the Sufan family are not forced out of their home in Burin. If they continue to do nothing, foreign governments will not only be bystanders to the Sufans’ forced removal but will be accomplices to it.
Featured image showing Sufan home and the settlement on the hill, via Land Research Centre
By Charlie Jaay
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