CASE STUDY OF KHIRBET KHAMIS OF KHIRBETKHAMIS THE CASE Dislocated Communities majority ofPalestinians intheannexed to Israel.However, unlikethevast boundary andunilaterallyannexed newly-expanded Jerusalemmunicipal communities, was incorporatedintothe with dozensofotherPalestinian 1967 war, KhirbetKhamis,together 24 children.Immediatelyafterthe to approximately 60 people, including community north of , home Khirbet Khamis is a Palestinian The Barrier hasphysically cutoffKhirbetKhamis from theBethlehemurbanarea, whichserves United P. O. Box 38712EastJerusalem 91386 ltel+972 (0)25829962 lfax+972 (0)[email protected]

Nations undisturbed andtoaccesssurrounding residents were abletolive intheirhomes Despite theiralleged“illegality”, own homes. considered “illegalresidents”intheir dramatic: underIsraelilaw,theyare obscure, theconsequenceshave been ID cards.Whilethereasonsarestill issued ,instead ofJerusalem, areas, KhirbetKhamis’residentswere

Office for theCoordination ofHumanitarian Affairsoccupied Palestinian territory as its main service center as itsmainservice Coordination Saves Lives www.ochaopt.org until 1993. At thattime,Israelimposed areas inEastJerusalemandBethlehem land from the rest of the West Bank Palestinian communities and farming ,intheprocess separating the West Bank,ratherthanonthe however, hasbeenplacedwithin The vast majority of the Barrier’s route, attacks. such preventing of aim building aBarrierwiththestated civilians, the Israeli authorities began Israeli against by attacks In 2002,followingawave ofdeadly nearby checkpoint. walk between theircommunityandthe few metersfromtheirhomesandto them tostayonlywithinaradiusof the permitsissuedsince2009allow in anypartofEastJerusalemorIsrael, 1994 theywere abletoaccessandstay their freedomofmovement: whilein permits, whichincrementallyreduced have beenissuedvarious typesofsuch most ofKhirbetKhamis’residents East JerusalemandIsrael.Sincethen, the accessofWest BankID holdersinto introduced apermitsystemtocontrol a closureregimeontheWest Bankand permit. At present,thereare16 on foot,providedthey have avalid only throughaBarriercheckpoint (), to andfromthatareahasbeenpossible social center.Sincethen,theirmovement the residents’mainservice,livelihood and Bethlehem urban area, which has served as the from community the off cut physically In thecaseofKhirbetKhamis,Barrier land intheJerusalemperiphery. and ruralcommunitiesseparatedfromtheir from eachotherandtheurbancentre, suburbs andfamilieshave beendivided social lifeofPalestinians. Neighbourhoods, transformed thegeography,economyand the oPt.InEastJerusalem,Barrierhas and contributingtothefragmentationof and social. financial psychological, pressure,enormous we are under complicated, and have becomeso Our lives NOVEMBER 2013

Fuad Jado

oPt other communities with a combined on friends from to buy things have taken only three minutes for an Israeli population of at least 3,870 people, the for us or risk going to Jerusalem markets ambulance to reach us from Gilo, so maybe Salameh’s family was majority of whom, like the residents of ourselves. she could have been saved. forced to self- demolish Khirbet Khamis, hold West Bank IDs this makeshift tent on 8th but find themselves on the ‘Jerusalem’ Of particular concern to the community, The inability of people to build on September 2013 after side of the Barrier, and therefore face access to emergency service providers, their land in order to provide housing receiving a final demolition similar access restrictions. including ambulances and fire for younger generations is a source of order in August 2013 and brigades, has been impaired. On several additional hardship. Like hundreds paying a 6,000-NIS fine Khirbet Khamis has become an “open occasions, the inability to timely access of Palestinian homes, Khirbet Khamis air prison” for its residents, says Fuad emergency health service had had is not covered by a planning scheme Jado, a 55-year-old father of five: tragic consequences; Fuad Jado recalls that has been approved by the Israeli for a building permit, but our request was one incident in 2005: authorities. As a result, residents are rejected; they only thing they told us is that Our lives have become so complicated, unable to obtain building permits and construction in this area is prohibited. and we are under enormous pressure, I lost my 70-year-old mother because the any structure that has been built in psychological, financial and social. We are ambulance couldn’t reach us after she the community since the early 1990’s, not allowed to work in Israel although our suffered a severe stroke. I called the Red including extensions to existing houses, community has been illegally annexed and Crescent in Bethlehem, but they said they is at risk of demolition. we are now cut off from the rest of the West had to coordinate first with the Israeli Civil Bank on the Jerusalem side of the Wall. This Administration to get permission to get an Salameh Abu Tarbush, 50-years-old has changed all our lives. Our children, for ambulance into Khirbet Khamis through and father of seven, lives in Khirbet example, have to cross checkpoints daily the checkpoint, which may have taken up to Khamis, and operates a kiosk selling to get to their school. While there are no an hour. So I called an Israeli ambulance in refreshments, located between his shops in the community we are limited in Jerusalem, but they told me they couldn’t home and the Gilo checkpoint: the quantity of food we can bring in from come because we live in a boundary area that Bethlehem, especially dairy products. is not within their coverage. I had no choice In 2004, the Israeli authorities demolished Sometimes the soldiers throw them away but to carry my mother with the help of my a kitchen and a bathroom that I had added if they think the quantities exceed our nephew. We walked for nearly a kilometre to our old house in 2000 to make more room daily consumption; other times we do it until we found a gap in the Barrier. We for my family. We had no choice but to make ourselves to avoid waiting for permission left my mother there and went to look for a shed to use as a kitchen outside. Recently, I received two new demolition orders: one to enter. What are we supposed to do? a taxi to take her to Bethlehem. When we The makeshift kitchen which Salameh’s They don’t allow us to shop in Jerusalem, came back she had died. At the hospital they for the kiosk, from which I earn my living, family has constructed outside to so we sometimes have no choice but to rely told us that we had arrived too late. It would and the other is for a cattle shed. We applied replace the one demolished.

2 THE CASE OF KHIRBET KHAMIS - NOVEMBER 2013 us to wait outside in the cold and rain for checkpoint back home because I didn’t have four hours before they put us all in a jeep a permit. Sometimes I would stay over at and dropped us on the Bethlehem side of my grandmother’s house in Bethlehem and the Barrier. We managed to return home frequently, I would just not go to school and the next morning through a very long miss my classes, just to avoid the hassle at detour, but they did the same thing several the checkpoint. As a result, I failed a few times after that. We are at the mercy of the subjects in the high school matriculation soldiers at the checkpoint since none of us exam, the “Tawjihi”, and I couldn’t go on has a permit to commute between home and to university. Bethlehem. We approached the Israeli Civil Administration for permits many times, The pressure on Khirbet Khamis is such but each time we have been rejected. They that Fuad Jado fears for the future of the keep telling us to go solve our problems community: ourselves….” On 28 October 2013 the Israeli authorities demolished a residential building on the grounds of Our sons and daughters face difficulties lack of building permit Rula Abu Tarbush, daughter of in finding spouses. Palestinians from East Salameh, is a 17-year-old student from Jerusalem won’t marry us because they are In October 2013, following the issuance reportedly due to reasons related to their Khirbet Khamis who attended a school worried about the future of their children’s of demolition orders and to avoid inability to provide land ownership in Bethlehem between 2001 and 2012: residency status and the inability to build the payment of fines, Abu Tarbush documents. While the family members their homes. At the same time, it’s hard to dismantled the kiosk he built and have generally been allowed to cross to I was only able to commute between home marry a West Bank resident because they another resident demolished a horse their home via Gilo checkpoint despite and school through Gilo checkpoint. The feared being isolated and relying on permits. stable he owned. Prior to that, Israeli their lack of permits, they have been main difficulty was on the way back home. My daughter is married in Bethlehem, and officials visited Khirbet Khamis, took subjected to multiple attempts of forced Sometimes I had to wait for hours before I each time she wants to visit us, she has to measurements of all construction in eviction. Salameh explains: was allowed to cross the checkpoint, other come on her own without her children. Our the community built after 1967 and times my parents were called to collect relatives and friends can’t visit us without demolished one house that was built “Ever since the Barrier was completed, me, or I would be sent back to Bethlehem, permits, which are difficult to obtain, All I before 1967, displacing 12 people. we have been under the constant threat of in which case I used to take a long detour am asking for is to live in dignity, and to deportation. The first time this happened that took three hours of walking to get be sure that my children will be secure and Unlike other residents of Khirbet was in 2004, on Christmas Eve. The Israeli home. The situation got worse when I have a normal life after me. I want to be able Khamis, members of the Abu Tarbush Border Police invaded our house in the became 16 and got a West Bank ID; I to move freely, nothing more than that…” family were never provided with middle of the night, evacuated all of us, was completely banned from crossing the permits by the Israeli authorities, including my wife and children, and forced

THE CASE OF KHIRBET KHAMIS - NOVEMBER 2013 3 Surkhi Qunbar

Jabal al Mukabbir

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs KHIRBET KHAMIS A community dislocated by the barrier East Talpiyyot AUGUST 2013 60 Tunnel/Underpass Observation Tower Israeli declared Jerusalem Boundary Sharafat Green Line As Sawahira Palestinian Built-up Area al Gharbiya built-up , outer limit and Ash Sheikh Sa'd municipal areas Gi'vat Sur Baher WEST BANK BARRIER HaMatos Constructed Under Construction Planned Route

Gilo Umm Tuba Al Walaja

60 Khirbet Khamis Gilo Har Homa Bir Onah Checkpoint Khallet Hammameh Um al-'Asafir 'Ayda Camp Al 'Azza Ramallah Khallet Al Khas Camp an Nu'mJearicnho Jerusalem An Nu'man Al Hujeila

Kh. Khamis Bethlehem Bethlehem Tunnels a Beit Sahure S Hebron 0 0.25 0.5 1 Kilometers d 'Ayda a e Camp 0 5 10 20 Kilometers D

4 Tunnels THE CASE OF KHIRBET KHAMIS - NOVEMBER 2013 Fakht al Jul Al Khadr Ad Duheisha Camp Wadi Umm Hindaza Qal'a Dhahrat an Nada