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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/25/people-of-the-cave-palestinians-take-their-fight-for-justice-to-the-mountains/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/25/people-of-the-cave-palestinians-take-their-fight-for-justice-to-the-mountains/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">‘People of the Cave’: Palestinians Take
Their Fight for Justice to the Mountains<br>
</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a> - August 25, 2020</span> </div>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In many ways, the struggle of the Amarnehs is a
microcosm of the collective struggle of Farasin; in
fact, of most Palestinians.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Between 2016 and 2018, of the 1,485 Palestinian
applications for construction and development in these
areas, only 21 permits have been approved.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This phenomenon is particularly manifest in the Hebron
and Nablus regions.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>This dilemma, symptomatic of the larger Palestinian
quandary, reminds one of Mahmoud Darwish’s seminal poem,
“The Earth is Closing on Us”:</p>
<p>“Where should we go after the last frontiers?</p>
<p>Where should the birds fly after the last sky?</p>
<p>Where should the plants sleep after the last breath of
air?”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</div>
<p> <em>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The
Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His
latest is “</em><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These
Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>: 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 </em><a
href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em>www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a>
</p>
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