B’Tselem: Killings, pogroms, expulsion: Israel dispossesses Palestinians of their lands using settler violence
Terrorized by settlers, a fourth Palestinian community is forced to leave in the past three months
After repeated attacks and threats by settlers and having been left with no other choice, the Bedouin community of al-Qabun, located east of Ramallah, abandoned its homes this week. Most members of the community, numbering 12 families and a total of 86 people, including 26 minors, have left already, and the rest are currently packing up and getting ready to follow suit. The community has lived at the current site since 1996. In February of this year, settlers took up residence near it. Al-Qabun residents say that recently, settlers have been coming into the community, walking around their homes, arriving on horseback and in tractors late at night to provoke and intimidate the families. The settlers have also taken over the community’s farm fields and prevented them from grazing their flock on their land.
Al-Qabun is the fourth community in the area that has had to flee due to Israeli policies, which force impossible conditions on local residents in order to push them to leave, thus clearing the way for it to take over their lands and transfer them to Jewish hands. These policies include banning residential and infrastructure construction, including water, electricity and roads; establishing and financially supporting settlements on Palestinian lands; and violent attacks by settlers on an almost daily basis. All of these are aimed at upholding, preserving and empowering Jewish supremacy.