A few benches sat around the coals of a fire within the rectangular outline of an earlier house.
The large delegation of European ambassadors arrived last week in a convoy of SUVs along a dirt road through the nearby Jewish agricultural settlement of Ro’I.
They park a discreet distance from the Israeli troops looking from the eastern sides of a homestead. The diplomats crossed their path through the twisted remnants of corrugated iron roof panels, torn tents and a solitary refrigerator.
They rushed away to drive home their outrage over Israel’s continued displacement of Arabs from West Bank and in general over the continued expansion of Jewish settlements to the territories that Israel had captured in 1967.
Aysha Abu Awaad walks with great difficulty double bent. She watches the arrival of the diplomats sitting on a pillow under an improvised canopy, and flies away from the face of one of her grandchildren slumbering in a crib.
She says the last time the Israeli forces came, “they told us to leave and that the land belonged to them and that they should train the army here.”
Israel has declared the area a “closed military zone”.
Military officials make this statement regularly when they try to clear areas of people who they believe are ‘squatters’.
Similarly, Palestinians who had lived in parts of southern Hebron Hills for years were forced out of the town of Jenbah when the area was declared a ‘training ground’, part of a shooting range, last week.
When they left, the Israeli armor was filmed by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which built caves over crops and the roofs of houses.
Donald Trump’s administration has broken decades of US policy, saying that Jewish settlements in the West Bank do not violate international law. It is out of step with the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom and most common interpretations of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting land seizures and construction in occupied territories.
President Joe Biden has historically been a devoted friend of Israel and supported the ‘two-state solution’. But he gave no hint as to whether he would block the Trump view on settlements in his first foreign policy speech as president.
In Humsa, EU MP Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff said: ‘We express our strong concern about the policy of demolishing residential structures of Bedouin communities that have lived here for decades.
“And our concern is very simple. We are here to uphold international law, including international military law that prohibits demolition of residential structures in occupied territories. This is contrary to obligations. [of Israel] under the 4th Geneva Convention evictions or forced transfer also. Here we are talking about 100 people, of whom 40 to 50 are children. We are in the midst of a pandemic, we are in the midst of winter time. Where are these people going to stand homeless, with winter? ‘
Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the Bedouin had no claim to the land here and insisted that the court was completely free of political influence, and that the Palestinian leadership the Bedouin as pawns.
“The Israeli government was prepared to go the extra mile here,” Regev said.
“We offered to relocate them, we offered to build housing for them in another area. I think the residents may not accept the proposals for political reasons,” he said.
Regev also said that Israel was the recognized civilian and military power in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank, a part of the land conquered by Israel in 1967, under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.
Area C is about 60% of the West Bank land area, although most Palestinians live in some area B, under Israeli military rule, but the Palestinian Civil Government, or in Area A, which is the most urban areas of the West Bank. Palestinian Authority controls both security and civilian administration.
The Oslo Accords would be a process of negotiated evolution that led to the end of Israel’s occupation and the birth of a peaceful Palestinian state with Israel. But more than 25 years later, it is a blurring vision.
A group of Bedouin men sat outside the circle of delegates on the ground, pushing and mumbling about how useless the whole scene was.
One stood up as Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh approached.
“We do not need to replace water tanks or tents. We need political support,” he shouted.
Decades of divergent violence and loggams over the future of Palestinian refugees and their descendants claim ‘on a UN-mandated’ right to return ‘, the future of Jerusalem that both parties want as capital, and the long-term status of the settlements, is not cleaned.
Thus, bitterness entrenched. And Israel’s expansion of the settlement project on the West Bank continues. More than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank – which was always opposed by the Obama-Biden government but embraced by Trump. And with the fourth Israeli election in two years approaching in March, many believe it is a way for Netanyahu to bolster his conservative support.
In the first twenty days of this year leading up to the inauguration of Biden, Israel announced plans to build another 3,352 settlements on the West Bank and east of Jerusalem.
Von Burgsdorff told CNN that he estimates that the EU and bilateral donations to the Palestinians by European countries amount to about $ 780 million a year.
With no confidence that Israel and the Palestinians will advance the peace process, there is widespread recognition by European diplomats that their money is being spent to keep Palestinians out of poverty and to influence radical groups such as Hamas, which rules Gaza, and dilute. devoted to the destruction of Israel.
“This is money that the Israelis would otherwise have to get because they do not accept the responsibility to ensure the economic and social well-being of the five million Palestinians who have been living under occupation since 1967,” von Burgsdorff said.
This is not a responsibility that Israel accepts. The Oslo Accords give responsibility for most Palestinians to the Palestinian Authority, Israeli officials say.
This has made the PA, as well as the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which represents the Palestinians in negotiations with Israel, increasingly seem powerless to gain independence.
Shtayyeh, who will run against the election in May, led his own delegation to Humsa.
Since you have achieved so little, maybe it’s time to dissolve the PA and give up? Ask CNN him.
“We have fought all our lives for an independent Palestinian state that is sovereignly viable and continuous on the borders of ’67, with Jerusalem as its capital. We have achieved something. We have not achieved everything. The Palestinian Authority is not.” “a gift from the Israelites to us. This is a highlight of our sacrifices. Therefore we keep giving hope to our people,” he replied.
But the ‘hope’ meant little to Aysha abu Awwad as the storm blew in and she was gently ushered into a tent donated by the Red Crescent, while younger members of her family struggled with sails and the rain began to subside. .
Abeer Salman contributed to this report.