Thousands of Area C Residents Face Expulsion ( B'Tselem )
Civil Administration demolishes nearly half the homes in community of Ideis, the Jordan Valley
On 21 May 2014, Civil Administration and army forces demolished approximately half of the homes and livestock pens in the community of Ideis in the Jordan Valley, leaving 53 persons homeless. This joins other extensive efforts by Israeli authorities to expel thousands of Palestinians from their homes throughout Area C, despite the prohibition on forced transfer in international law. BTselem calls on authorities to allow the Ideis community continue its agricultural lifestyle undisturbed, as it has done for the last thirty years.
Nemeh Ideis, 56, a resident of the community and mother of four, described the demolition in her testimony to BTselem field researcher Atef Abu a-Rub:
Many soldiers, big tractors, police and cars blocked off the lands around us. They ordered us to get our belongings out of our homes, and in less than half an hour they demolished everything. They left nothing. The little children and the lambs stood in the sun or under trees. All our personal belongings were outside, and the tractors scraped through and destroyed all our structures. They left no stone unturned. They left us no roof to shelter under. We were left outside with nothing. They even destroyed the stone oven I use to bake bread for the children. I asked them to leave it for us so we could eat, but it was like talking to a wall.
In just a few hours, the place was in ruins, I swear, like a war zone. The army and tractors left, and then the journalists came and everyone wanted to get pictures of the place.
http://www.btselem.org/planning_and_building/20140529_demolition_in_ideis_community