On the 2nd of July, 2008 a group of colonists threw stones at Palestinians houses in thevillage of Kafl Haris while they were 'visiting' a religious shrine in the village. A large number of the houses were damaged due to the intensive and random attack. In addition, colonists deliberately cut off electrical wires causing a general blackout in the village. Such behavior by the colonists takes the form of psychological warfare especially against the women and children of the village.

 

Photo 1: Closure Haris Road from  the Western Side

Photo 2: Closure of Deir Istya road leading to Kufl Haris

On the 4th of July, 2008 a number of colonists, protected by the Israeli occupation forces, occupied three houses in the village while visiting one of their religious sites. The uninhabited houses belong to Mr. Sharif Boziyya and Mr. Attallah Khair Al Dien. The houses sustained great damages especially that the colonists have broken down the doors of the houses and wrote indecent, anti-Palestinian phrases on its walls.

 

The colonists have made it a habit to 'visit' the religious sites and shrines in the village of Kafl Haris twice a year since the inception of the occupation of the West Bank in 1967. One of the visits usually takes place on the anniversary on the founding of the Israeli entity while the other visit usually takes place in the religious celebration of HoShana'a. That is in addition to the sporadic visits paid by the colonists between now and then during which attacks against Palestinians and their properties are common place.

 

The colonists usually arrive to the villages in big busses under the heavy protection of the Israeli occupation army. During such visits occupation forces would usually impose curfew on the village to obstruct Palestinian movement and to provide protection for the colonists visiting the religious site. As for the colonists, they have developed rituals of their own as it has been documented on a number of occasions that they would write anti-Arab phrases on the walls of the religious shrines. For example, the early months of the year 2007 witnessed the destruction of 9 Palestinian graves located in the vicinity of the shrine of the prophet Thoo Al Kafel. An official complaint was logged then by the village council at the Israeli DCL and the Israeli Police. Both entities did nothing to stop the attacks and abuses carried out by the colonists.

 

Photo 3: Aggressive statements written against arab by Israeli settlers on the Tomb's wall

Photo 4: The Religious sites of Thu Alnoon and Alkufl stormed by settlers

On the 9th of July Israeli occupation forces raided the village under the lame pretext of trying to prevent stone throwing on Road 505. The forces put the village under complete closure as it closed down all of the possible entry and exit points into and from the village. The action of these forces led to the complete halting of the Palestinian movement within the village as well as between the village and nearby villages as a state of curfew was imposed.

 

In addition to what was stated earlier, Israeli occupation forces are continuing to close down the main entrance to the village which caused great suffering and agony for the people of the village through the difficult mobility and increased transportation costs in addition to the psychological burden caused by the closure.

 

Photo 5: The old closed entrance of Kufl Haris adjacent to crossing Samaria
Road (Aber Alsamerah) under construction

 

 

General Information about Kafel Haris:

The village is located north west of the city of Salfeet. Its population according to the 2007 statistics is about 3500. The total area of the village is about 10,000 dunums. The nearby colony of Ariel devoured close to 1000 dunums of the village's lands for the purpose of its colonial expansion. The village has three religious shrines; the shrine of the prophet Joshua, the shrine of the prophet Thoo Al Kafal and the shrine of the prophet Thoo Al Noon. These shrines are important for both Jews and Muslims alike.   

 

 

 

 

Prepared by:
The Land Research Center
LRC