Bethlehem Governorate Areas B, C حوسان Husan
Husan is a small Palestinian town located about 6 km (4 miles) west of Bethlehem and 10 km (6 miles) southwest of Jerusalem. At an altitude of 800m above sea level, Husan has a mean annual rainfall of 688mm, an average annual temperature of 16°C, and average annual humidity of 61%.1 Husan has a population of close to 6,0002 people, about half of which are children, and an area of 7,400 dunams (1,800 acres), 87% of which are classified as Area C,3 administered solely by Israel. The remaining area is classified as Area B, jointly administered by both Palestinian Authority and Israel.4 Husan is bordered from the south by the ultra-Orthodox Constant threat to children: Minefield in midst of residential area Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit (population: 40,000), built between 1985 and 1998 on close to half of Husan's municipal area, and from the west by the 1949 Armistice "Green Line". Between 1949 and 1967, a Jordanian police station surrounded by a minefield overlooked the Jordanian-Israeli border from a hill within Husan. In 19935, when a bypass road (no. 375) was paved through the minefield to connect Beitar Illit with Jerusalem, it split the minefield into three parts (see aerial below): the largest part (SHA #3), south of road 375, is fenced and signposted and consists of about 30 dunams (7.5 acres) of grazing and agricultural land; The other two parts, north of road 375, are split by a narrow local road, with one part (SHA #2) with an area of 4 dunams (1 acre) surrounded by a barb wire fence; while the other (SHA #1) 6 dunams (1.5 acres) are unfenced and surrounded on three sides by a built-up area, posing a constant threat to residents, especially children, who pass through it daily across a narrow footpath.6 Over the years, several mine incidents have occurred in Husan, resulting in loss of lives and limbs.
Injury type Year Husan Resident's Name Loss of leg 1968 Abed Shaker Hamamra Death 1979 Walid Mustafa Shushah Death 1983 Muhammad Mustafa Subeih Death 1983 Muhammad Ibrahim Muhammad Hamamra Loss of leg 1983 Mujahed Mustafa Muhammad Mustafa Death ----- Ali Mustafa Ibrahim Shaker Abed Hamamra hosting fellow survivor * Partial data, based on Husan Council Head's recollection Jerry White at his home by the minefield
Landowners have repeatedly appealed to Israeli authorities and to local and international NGOs requesting the minefield to be cleared, and several attempts at partially demining the site have been made in the past twenty years. In August 2000, British demining NGO Mines Advisory Group (MAG) completed a technical assessment of the Husan minefields for the Canadian Landmine Foundation7 and was planning to conduct a 12-week clearance plan, which was put on hold due to the outbreak of the Second Intifada the following month. In June 2001, during the Intifada, the Israeli military bulldozed over two small sections of SHA#3 in order to erect a watch tower on a hilltop overlooking Husan and road 375. Additionally, the military shoveled mine- contaminated earth onto SHA#1 in order to erect a metal fence between Husan and road 375 to protect cars from stone-throwers.8
1Husan Village Profile, Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ), Bethlehem, 2010. 2General Census of Population and Housing 2007, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah, August 2008. 3According to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Washington, D.C., September 28, 1995. 4See footnote 1. 5Husan: A Palestinian Village Undergoes the Segregation Wall, ARIJ and LRC, Bethlehem, April 5, 2004: www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=355 6According to an interview with Husan council members on November 18, 2010, fences and signs have not been maintained for many years, and the municipality is forbidden from fencing the field because it falls within Area C. 7Rachel Jones, West Bank Assessment Mission Report – Husan, MAG, September 2000. 8See footnote 5.
Husan Aerial with approximate outlines of Suspected Hazardous Areas (SHA) Aerial Source: Google Earth
In 2002, at the urging of the Bethlehem office of Christian relief NGO World Vision and Palestinian charity Health Work Committees (HWC), MAG attempted to conduct demining in Husan,9 but failed to secure the approval of the Israeli authorities. Once the Intifada subsided, the Israeli courts granted permission to the owners of the contaminated land, who reside along the edge of the northern minefield, to clear the landmines on their property. The Israeli military insisted that demining could only be conducted by a designated army- approved private Israeli firm, and local residents would have to bear the cost, which was well above their means.10 Then in 2010, Israeli advocacy group Yesh Din approached private Israeli demining firms on behalf of Husan landowners in an attempt to negotiate a low-cost demining contract. Even though Yesh Din acquired a military-approved firm to demine Husan, this firm could not offer a reasonable cost estimate and required landowners to sign a “No-Shop Agreement,” prohibiting them from obtaining a more competitive offer.11
Currently, the northern and southern minefields remain unsafe, and landowners are unable to effectively use their land. Once the northern minefield is cleared, the land can be returned to its original agricultural and residential use. The landowners, members of the Hamamra family, plan to apply for building permits on the land as their families have grown considerably in the past decades without sufficient space to live.12 Ideas to establish a kindergarten or an interfaith center on the demined field have been raised in the past by Husan residents and were viewed favorably by the landowners.13 Clearing the southern minefield would also help the local economy, which has been experiencing high rates of unemployment, and the cleared area can potentially be used to replant hundreds of lost fruit trees and for safely grazing goats and sheep.
Following its successful campaign to make Israel and the Palestinian Authority adopt mine action policies in 2011, Roots of Peace, an international nonprofit, has received the support of both Israeli and Palestinian authorities to demine SHA#1 in 2012 as an unprecedented pilot project, which will serve as a model for humanitarian demining in the West Bank and a confidence building measure between the two peoples.
9Email from Tim Carstairs, Director for Policy, Mines Advisory Group, to the Landmine Monitor, July 19, 2002. 10Interview with Muhammad Abd el-Rahman (Abu Bilal) Hamamra, Husan, April 27, 2009. 11Interview with landowner Abdallah Hamamra, Husan, January 25, 2011. 12Interview with landowner Daoud Hamamra, Husan, January 25, 2011. 13Interview with Ziad Sabatin, Husan, October 24, 2011.