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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Palestinian village fights to
survive as Israel sends in bulldozers</h1>
<div class="field-author">
<a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/patrick-o-strickland"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Patrick O. Strickland</a><b><small><small><small> </small></small></small></b></div>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-village-fights-survive-israel-sends-bulldozers/14498">http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-village-fights-survive-israel-sends-bulldozers/14498</a></small></small></small></b>
<div class="field-publication-date">
<span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-05-06T19:28:00+00:00">6
May 2015</span> </div>
<div class="field-body">
<p>When hundreds of Israeli police and border patrol officers
arrived in the village of Dahmash at 3am on 15 April, they
sealed off the homes and forbade local residents from venturing
outside. Within two hours, their bulldozers had torn through
homes.</p>
<p>Eighteen members of the Assaf family, including several
children, were left homeless. In total, five apartments in three
different buildings were flattened.</p>
<p>A <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juCH-A_RmYg&feature=youtu.be">video</a>
of the demolition has since been posted on YouTube.</p>
<p>“It was very scary for the kids,” Miada Assaf, who lived one of
the buildings, told a group of activists and journalists
visiting the village on 2 May. “It’s very difficult for us when
they come and destroy homes.”</p>
<p>Residents told The Electronic Intifada that police arrived in
heavy riot gear and fired gas bombs in the area before bringing
in the bulldozers.</p>
<p>Home to 700 Palestinians, Dahmash is tucked between Ramle and <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/lydd">Lydd</a>, two
cities in present-day Israel. Although its residents carry
Israeli citizenship and have in many cases lived in Dahmash for
decades, the government claims it was built illegally and has
slated the entire village for demolition.</p>
<p>Residents of Dahmash have filed an appeal against the planned
demolition in a district court. But the Israeli police carried
out the demolition without waiting for the court’s ruling.</p>
<p>Because the village is not recognized by Israel, the government
does not provide it with basic services like electricity,
running <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/water">water</a>,
sewage treatment, transportation and <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/education">education</a>.</p>
<p>Children have to travel to Lydd and Ramle to attend school.</p>
<h2>“Not a democracy”</h2>
<p>“We cannot afford to buy homes elsewhere,” Assaf said, adding
that nearby Palestinian communities in Lydd and Ramle are
already suffering from overcrowding and that residency
restrictions, such as acceptance committees, effectively ban
Palestinians from living in many of the neighboring Jewish
areas.</p>
<p>“There is a war on us here,” said Arafat Ismail, president of
Dahmash’s Popular Committee, a group that represents the
village.</p>
<p>After the most recent bulldozing, there are 16 demolition
orders still pending in the village.</p>
<p>Throughout the last two decades, Ismail explained, the village
has repeatedly sought remedy in the Israeli court system, but to
no avail.</p>
<p>“Why can [Israel] build new Jewish neighborhoods all around
us,” asked Ismail, “but they cannot recognize our village?
Dahmash is the clearest evidence that Israel is not a democracy
with equality.”</p>
<p>Residents nonetheless maintain that they will stay on their
land and continue to rebuild their homes.</p>
<h2>“Difficult conditions”</h2>
<p>“Israel puts <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/settlers">settlers</a>
in beautiful homes on other people’s land,” said Shireen Assaf,
whose home was demolished two weeks ago. “But we live in
difficult conditions on our own land.”</p>
<p>An estimated 240 <em>dunams</em> (60 acres) of Dahmash’s
farmland is completely off limits to local residents, most of
whom rely on agricultural work to make ends meet.</p>
<p>Ismail noted that Israel’s “policy of forced displacement has
continued from 1948 until today.”</p>
<p>Dahmash is not an isolated case. According to Ismail, there are
16,000 pending demolition orders on homes in Palestinian
communities across present-day Israel, not including the dozens
of <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrecognized-villages">unrecognized
communities</a> in the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/negev-naqab">Naqab
(Negev)</a> region.</p>
<p>In the Naqab desert area, more than 50,000 Palestinian <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bedouins">Bedouin</a>
citizens of Israel live in approximately 40 unrecognized
communities where home demolitions are frequent.</p>
<p>A five minutes’ drive down the road from Dahmash, al-Rabat
neighborhood, which sits on the outskirts of Ramle, faces a
similar fate. “We’ve been living here since the days of the
British occupation,” said Sheikh Masood Abu Muammar, referring
to the period between 1917 and 1948.</p>
<p>Israel has placed demolition orders on the homes of 13 families
in al-Rabat and the entire neighborhood is considered “illegal”
by the government.</p>
<p>Sheikh Muammar’s home is among those scheduled to be bulldozed.
“I tried to get a permit,” he told The Electronic Intifada. “I
filled out all the forms and went to the municipality [in
Ramle]. Eventually they told me there is no hope.”</p>
<p>Much like in Dahmash, al-Rabat’s residents are deprived of
basic services, although they pay taxes to the
Israeli-controlled municipality in Ramle.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/galilee">Galilee</a>
region of present-day Israel, police <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/palestinians-israel-strike-home-demolitions-150427125914298.html">flattened</a>
a Palestinian home in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/kufr-kana">Kufr Kana</a>
village last month.</p>
<p>And on 20 April, bulldozers <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=760585">plowed
through</a> <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-araqib">al-Araqib</a>,
an unrecognized Palestinian village in the Naqab. The village
has been destroyed 83 times since 2010.</p>
<p>An estimated 1.7 million Palestinians carry Israeli
citizenship. According to the Haifa-based Adalah Legal Center
for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, they face dozens of <a
href="http://www.adalah.org/en/law/index">discriminatory laws</a>
that stifle their political expression and limit their access to
state resources, particularly land.</p>
<h2>“We want to escalate our struggle”</h2>
<p>In response to the recent uptick in home demolitions,
Palestinians in Israel have pushed back by launching strikes and
holding protests. On 28 April, the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/high-follow-committee-arab-citizens-israel">High
Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel</a> held a <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/palestinians-israel-strike-home-demolitions-150427125914298.html">general
strike</a>.</p>
<p>That same night, thousands assembled in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/tel-aviv">Tel Aviv</a>
to <a
href="http://972mag.com/photos-thousands-protest-policy-of-home-demolitions-in-tel-aviv/106055/">protest</a>
home demolitions.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/wadi-ara">Wadi
Ara</a>, a Palestinian village in the Galilee, protesters came
out on 25 April and called for Israel to stop demolishing
Palestinian homes, the Arabic-language website <em>Arab48</em>
<a href="http://www.arab48.com/?mod=articles&ID=1156570">reported</a>
at the time.</p>
<p>That same day in Qalansaweh and Taybeh, villages in the central
Triangle region, dozens <a
href="http://www.arab48.com/?mod=articles&ID=1156570">demonstrated</a>
and decried Israel’s policy of home demolitions and land
confiscation.</p>
<p>Newly re-elected Prime Minister <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu</a> is <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-signs-coalition-deals-with-Kulanu-UTJ-Kahlon-promises-reforms-400607">expected</a>
to finalize agreements to form a right-wing coalition in
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, this week.</p>
<p><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/basel-ghattas">Basel
Ghattas</a>, a Knesset member from <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/balad">Balad</a>,
which belongs to the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/joint-list">Joint
List</a> of mainly Arab political parties, expects the coming
government to continue to target Palestinian citizens of Israel
with new discriminatory legislation.</p>
<p>“This government is even more radical than the previous one,”
he told The Electronic Intifada, “and we don’t see any checks
and balances within the Knesset that can put the brakes on the
racist laws.”</p>
<p>Explaining that home demolitions will further anger
Palestinians in Israel, Ghattas said, “It was clear during the
last demonstration in Tel Aviv that we want to escalate our
struggle against any further home demolitions.”</p>
<p>Back in Dahmash, Arafat Ismail called for people across Israel
to fight the destruction of Palestinian homes. “If Dahmash
survives, it could set a precedent for other areas going through
the same struggle,” he said.</p>
<p><em>Patrick O. Strickland is an independent journalist and
regular contributor to The Electronic Intifada. His website is
<a href="http://www.postrickland.com">www.postrickland.com</a>.
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/P_Strickland_">@P_Strickland_</a>.</em></p>
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