A pair of sofas sat around the embers of a fire within the rectangular outline of what had been a rudimentary house.
The large delegation of European ambassadors came in a convoy of all-terrain vehicles that meandered down a dirt track through Ro’I’s upcoming Jewish agricultural settlement last week.
They parked at a discreet distance from Israeli troops watching from the eastern edges of what had been a property. Diplomats made their way through the twisted remains of corrugated metal ceiling panels, torn tents and a lone refrigerator.
They had been expelled to return home to their dismay at the continued Israeli displacement of Arabs from the West Bank and, more generally, by the ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements in areas captured by Israel in 1967. .
Aysha Abu Awaad walks bent with great difficulty. He watched the arrival of diplomats sitting on a pillow under a makeshift awning and pushed the flies away from the face of one of his grandchildren sleeping in a crib.
She says the last time the Israeli forces came “they told us that we should leave and that the land belonged to them and that they should form the army here.”
Israel has declared the area a “closed military zone.”
Military officers often make this statement when they try to clear areas of people they say are “squatters”.
Similarly, Palestinians, who have lived in parts of southern Hebron Hills for years, were forced to leave the village of Jenbah when the surrounding area was declared a “training area.” a shooting range, last week.
Upon leaving, Israeli weapons were filmed by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which was driving over crops and roofs of houses built in caves.
The Donald Trump administration broke with decades of U.S. policy and said Jewish settlements in the West Bank did not violate international law. This is out of step with the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and most major interpretations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits land grabbing and construction in occupied territory.
Historically, President Joe Biden has been a committed friend to Israel and has supported the “two-state solution.” But he made no suggestion on whether he would reverse Trump’s view on settlements in his first foreign policy speech as president.
In Humsa, EU Delegate Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff said: “We express our strong concern regarding the policy of demolition of the residential structures of Bedouin communities residing here for decades.
“And our concern is very simple. We are here to defend international law, including international military law that prohibits the demolition of residential structures in the occupied territories. It is contrary to the obligations [of Israel] in accordance with the 4th Geneva Convention, also evictions or forced transfer. Here we are talking about 100 people, of whom between 40 and 50 are children. We are in the middle of a pandemic, we are in the middle of winter. Where are these people going in front of the homeless, in front of the winter? ”
Mark Regev, senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CNN that the Israeli Supreme Court had ruled that the Bedouins here had no claim on the land and insisted that the court was completely free of political influence and that the leadership Palestinians used Bedouins as pawns.
“The Israeli government was willing to make an extra effort here,” Regev said.
“We offered to move them, we offered them the construction of housing in another area. I think for political reasons residents were not allowed to accept these proposals,” he said.
Regev also said Israel was the recognized civilian and military power in the “Area C” of the West Bank, part of the land captured by Israel in 1967, in accordance with the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.
Area C represents approximately 60% of the West Bank’s land area, although most Palestinians live in Zone B, under the Israeli military government, but in the Palestinian Civil Administration, or Zone A, which is most of the urban areas of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority controls both security and civilian administration.
The Oslo Accords were supposed to be a process of negotiated evolution leading to the end of the occupation of Israel and the birth of a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel. But, more than 25 years later, this is a vision that is fading.
A group of Bedouin men sat on the floor in front of a group of delegates and the press, muttering how useless the whole scene was.
One stood up when the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Shtayyeh, approached.
“We don’t need to replace water tanks or tents. We need political support,” he shouted.
Decades of intermittent violence and protections against the future of Palestinian refugees and their descendants claim “a” right of return “forced by the UN, the future of Jerusalem that both sides want as their capital and the long-term status of settlements, have not been deleted.
Therefore, bitterness is tied. And Israel’s expansion of the West Bank settlement project continues. Now, more than 400,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, which was always opposed by the Obama-Biden administration, but adopted by Trump. And with the fourth Israeli election in two years to come in March, many believe it is a way for Netanyahu to consolidate his conservative support.
Just the first 20 days of this year prior to the inauguration of Biden, Israel announced plans to build another 3,352 settlement houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Von Burgsdorff told CNN that he estimated that the EU and bilateral donations to the Palestinians by European nations were around $ 780 million a year.
Without the faith that Israel and the Palestinians will advance the peace process, there is general recognition by European diplomats that their money is being spent to keep Palestinians out of poverty and to dilute the influence of radical groups like Hamas. , which governs Gaza. dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
“This is money that Israelis should find otherwise, as they do not take responsibility for ensuring the economic and social well-being of the five million Palestinians living under occupation since 1967,” von Burgsdorff said.
This is not a responsibility that Israel accepts. The Oslo Accords cede responsibility for the majority of Palestinians to the Palestinian Authority, Israeli officials argue.
This has left the PA, as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization, which represents the Palestinians in negotiations with Israel, seemingly increasingly powerless to achieve independence.
Shtayyeh, who will face the election in May, led his own delegation to Humsa.
Since you’ve achieved so little, maybe it’s time to dissolve the AP and give up? CNN asked him.
“We have spent our whole lives fighting for an independent Palestinian state that is viable and contiguous sovereign on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital. We have achieved something. We have not achieved everything. The Palestinian Authority is not a gift.” It is the culmination of our sacrifices, so we continue to give hope to our people, “he replied.
But this “hope” meant little to Aysha abu Awwad when the storm broke out and she was gently ushered into a tent donated by the Red Crescent while younger members of her clan struggled with the tarpaulins and the rain went down. start beating.
Abeer Salman contributed to this report.