An entire Palestinian community fled their tiny West Bank village last fall after repeated threats from Israeli settlers with a history of violence. Then, in a rare endorsement of Palestinian land rights, IsraelB次元官网网址檚 highest court ruled this summer the displaced residents of Khirbet Zanuta were entitled to return under the protection of Israeli forces.
But their homecoming has been bittersweet. In the intervening months, nearly all the houses in the village, a health clinic and a school were destroyed B次元官网网址� along with the communityB次元官网网址檚 sense of security in the remote desert land where they have farmed and herded sheep for decades.
Roughly 40% of former residents have so far chosen not to return. The 150 or so that have come back are sleeping outside the ruins of their old homes. They say they are determined to rebuild B次元官网网址� and to stay B次元官网网址� even as settlers once again try to intimidate them into leaving and a court order prevents them from any new construction.
B次元官网网址淭here is joy, but there are some drawbacks,B次元官网网址� said Fayez Suliman Tel, the head of the village council and one of the first to come back to see the ransacked village B次元官网网址� roofs seemingly blown off buildings, walls defaced by graffiti.
B次元官网网址淭he situation is extremely miserable,B次元官网网址� Tel said, B次元官网网址渂ut despite that, we are steadfast and staying in our land, and God willing, this displacement will not be repeated.B次元官网网址�
The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank said in a statement to The Associated Press it had not received any claims of Israeli vandalism of the village, and that it was taking measures to B次元官网网址渆nsure security and public orderB次元官网网址� during the villagersB次元官网网址� return.
B次元官网网址淭he Palestinians erected a number of structural components illegally at the place, and in that regard enforcement proceedings were undertaken in accordance with law,B次元官网网址� the statement said.
The villagers of Khirbet Zanuta had long faced harassment and violence from settlers. But after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that launched the war in Gaza, they said they received explicit death threats from Israelis living in an unauthorized outpost up the hill called Meitarim Farm. The outpost is run by Yinon Levi, who has been sanctioned by the U.S., UK, EU and Canada for menacing his Palestinian neighbors.
The villagers say they reported the threats and attacks to Israeli police, but said they got little help. Fearing for their lives, at the end of October, they packed up whatever they could carry and left.
Though settler violence had been rising even before the war under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it has been turbocharged ever since Oct. 7. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence since then, according to the United Nations, and very few have returned home.
Khirbet Zanuta stands as a rare example. It is unclear if any other displaced community has been granted a courtB次元官网网址檚 permission to return since the start of the war.
Even though residents have legal protection IsraelB次元官网网址檚 highest court, they still have to contend with Levi and other young men from the Meitarim Farm outpost trying to intimidate them.
Shepherd Fayez Fares Al Samareh, 57, said he returned to Khirbet Zanuta two weeks ago to find that his house had been bulldozed by settlers. The men of his family have joined him in bringing their flocks back home, he said, but conditions in the village are grave.
B次元官网网址淭he children have not returned and the women as well. Where will they stay? Under the sun?B次元官网网址� he said.
Settler surveillance continues: Al Samareh said that every Friday and Saturday, settlers arrive to the village, photographing residents.
B次元官网网址s taken by human rights activists and obtained by The Associated Press show settlers roaming around Khirbet Zanuta last month, taking pictures of residents as Israeli police look on.
By displacing small villages, rights groups say West Bank settlers like Levi are able to accumulate vast swaths of land, reshaping the map of the occupied territory that Palestinians hope to include in their homeland as part of any two-state solution.
The plight of Khirbet Zanuta is also an example of the limited effectiveness of international sanctions as a means of reducing settler violence in the West Bank. The U.S. recently targeted Hashomer Yosh, a government-funded group that sends volunteers to work on West Bank farms, both legal and illegal, with sanctions. Hashomer Yosh sent volunteers to LeviB次元官网网址檚 outpost, a Nov. 13 Facebook post said.
B次元官网网址淎fter all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta were forced to leave, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning,B次元官网网址� a U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said last week.
Neither Hashomer Yosh nor Levi responded to a request for comment on intrusions into the village since residents returned. But Levi claimed in a June interview with AP that the land was his, and admitted to taking part in clearing it of Palestinians, though he denied doing so violently.
B次元官网网址淟ittle by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,B次元官网网址� he said at the time. B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.B次元官网网址�
The legal rights guaranteed to Khirbet ZanutaB次元官网网址檚 residents only go so far. Under the terms of the court ruling that allowed them to return, they are forbidden from building new structures across the roughly 1 square kilometer village. The land, the court ruled, is part of an archaeological zone, so any new structures are at risk of demolition.
Distraught but not deterred, the villagers are repairing badly damaged homes, the health clinic and the EU-funded school B次元官网网址� by whom, they do not know for sure.
B次元官网网址淲e will renovate these buildings so that they are qualified to receive students before winter sets in,B次元官网网址� Khaled Doudin, the governor of the Hebron region that includes Khirbet Zanuta, said as he stood in the bulldozed school.
B次元官网网址淎nd after that we will continue to rehabilitate it,B次元官网网址� he said, B次元官网网址渟o that we do not give the occupation the opportunity to demolish it again.B次元官网网址�
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Jalal Bwaitel And Julia Frankel, The Associated Press
