Since the end of September 2016, hundreds of Palestinians who live in the Jordan Valley have had to look on as their homes and the land on which they live and tend their flocks were used by Israeli troops for military training. The military conducted training throughout the Jordan Valley on 20 separate occasions over the past three months, including 19 times that Palestinian residents were made to leave their homes owing to the training.
Some 220 people, including about 100 minors, from the communities of Khirbet Humsah, Ibziq and Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar were forced to vacate their homes for at least several hours. In some cases, entire families had to stay far from home even at night. The residents of another community, al-Fajam, were forced to leave their homes and pastures due to military maneuvers, although they were not served evacuation orders. While the residents of al-Farisiyah were not displaced, the military forbade them to pasture their flocks near the community. The military also conducted training and even erected mobile toilets on the residents’ cultivated fields. In addition, the troops cleared some of the nearby land to facilitate military vehicles, thereby even further damaging the farmland.
Israeli armored personnel carriers on the land of Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar, in the occupied Jordan Valley, December 2016 (Photo: Activestills)
According to B’Tselem “the repeated displacement of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley to allow for military training nearby causes intolerable disruption to their lives. Residents are made to leave home for hours on end on short notice, sometimes given mere hours of advance notice. In some cases, families have no proper place to remove to and have no choice but to remain out in the open, exposed to the elements, where they must provide food, water and shelter for themselves. The frequency of these incidents has thoroughly destabilized life in these communities, to such an extent that their very existence is in jeopardy.”
International humanitarian law (IHL) permits an occupying state to act in occupied territory based on two considerations only: the good of the local population and pressing military needs in the occupied territory. As the occupying power in the West Bank, Israel is not permitted to use the area for routine military purposes such as general or combat training. It most certainly cannot cite this pretext for actions that harm the livelihood of protected residents nor can it try to expel them permanently from their homes. Israel must immediately cease all temporary displacement of Palestinian communities in the West Bank for the purpose of military training nearby, and must stop all other measures adopted with a view to driving Palestinians out of the Jordan Valley.
