Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister

Office of the Prime Minister

3 Kaplan Street

Hakirya

Jerusalem 91950

Israel

Palestinian families living in Humsa and Hadidiya hamlets in the Jordan Valley region of the West Bank, part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, face a daily threat of forcible eviction from their homes by the Israeli army. Their movement is restricted and they are denied access to the water and land they need for survival.

Dozens of families have had their homes repeatedly destroyed by Israeli forces, causing them to move and rebuild their shelters nearby under threat that these too will be destroyed and they will be evicted.

On 4 June 2009, the Israeli army destroyed the homes of 18 Palestinian families – more than 130 people – in Ras al-Ahmar hamlet, next to Humsa, and confiscated their water storage tanker.

In Hadidiya, the families are contesting eviction and demolition orders before an Israeli military court, with little prospect of success.

Muhammad Bani Odeh, a father of six, has had to move his home at least four times for fear of eviction. Like other villagers, his family has lived in the Jordan Valley since long before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, and is determined to remain. Part of Humsa is also at risk of demolition.

Hundreds of people, mostly children, risk losing their homes and being forced from the area. Villagers have to obtain water from a mobile tanker that must travel up to 20 kilometres, often being delayed at Israeli army checkpoints. There is a well close to the Palestinian villages, but its water is reserved for Israeli settlers.

The Israeli authorities say the Palestinian families have no right to live in the area because it is a closed military zone, which skirts the illegal Israeli settlements.

The evictions are part of an ongoing pattern of discrimination in which Palestinians’ homes are destroyed while scores of Israeli settlements, illegal under international law, are built and developed on occupied Palestinian land and benefit from its natural resources.

I am deeply concerned that the residents of Hadidiya and Humsa are facing the demolition of their homes and expulsion from the area.

I call for the demolition and expulsion orders to be rescinded for discrimination and harassment to end and for confiscated property to be returned.

Sincerely,

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