Violation: demolishing a residential tent and two barns and confiscating a water tank.
Location: Um Al-Riyah region north of the village of Bardala – Tobas district.
Victim: the farmer Muhannad Ahmad Sawafta.
Date: November 7, 2012.
Violation:
In conjunction with the start of the military training of the Israeli occupation forces in the Jordan Valley which will affect more than 44 Bedouin families living in the Jordan Valley, the Israeli occupation forces demolished on the 7th of November in the early morning a tent house in addition to two cattle barns in the region of Um Al-Riyah north of the village of Bardala.
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Effects of demolition in Sawafta’s installations
Pointing out that the Israeli occupation justified the demolition by building without a permit in area C of the Oslo accord.
The following table clarifies general information about the installations targeted by the Israeli occupation:
Area m² | Number of Targeted (barns or shacks) | Area m² | Number of Targeted Tent Houses | Children under 18 years of age | Family Members | victim |
110 each | 2 | 60 | 1 | 3 | 9 | Muhannad Sawafta |
Source: Field Observations – Monitoring Israeli Human Rights Violations Team – LRC
It is to be mentioned, in this context, that the Israeli occupation did not only demolish the installations and displaced the inhabitants but also confiscated two water tanks with the capacity of each is 3 m3 owned by the same citizen, noting that these tanks were used for transferring water from Ein Al-Bayda village towards the Bedouin regions in the area.
After the confiscation of the tanks, the suffering of the Bedouins in that area has increased, as they became homeless without water or shelter to keep them from summer heat or winter cold.
For his part, the framer Muhannad Sawafta (41 years) emphasized to the LRC field observer that “he was targeted by the occupation for three consecutive times during the last year, and that he was displaced with his family to other regions of the Jordan Valley, till he was newly targeted by the occupation through the new demolition operations, where the inevitable result was more displacement where he has passed most of his life time, while, at the same time, the neighboring colonies witnessed new construction and expansions at the expense of the original inhabitants”.
