Atta Jaber Loses His Last Plot of Land

Two JCB bulldozers arrived unannounced on Sunday, 3 rd May, as work began to clear land to widen highway 60 that goes through the Jaber family land.

Since 1998, ICAHD has told the story of Atta Jaber, the Palestinian farmer, and his family, who have struggled to stay sumud/steadfast on their land in the Baq’a Valley near Hebron, one of the most fertile areas of Palestine. Atta was born in 1962 so for most of his life he has lived under Israel’s brutal military occupation and has not known what it is like to live in freedom.

The family’s home has been demolished twice, and once his present home, rebuilt by ICAHD, was invaded by dozens of settlers from Kiryat Arba, the settlement where Ben-Gvir lives, built literally on Atta’s land. They threw the family out of their home, spent the Sabbath there, then burned the house as they left — all under the watchful eye of the Israeli army and police. Indeed, attacks and harassment from the settlers are constant. His father was stoned by a gang of kids from Kiryat Araba and died soon after.

Atta lost his large agricultural fields when expropriated to build Kiryat Araba and the highway that serves it. In 2018, Israeli authorities destroyed the 150 fruit trees and grapevines on the terraces around his house. He was left with just one small strip by the side of the road for growing grapes and other produce, the source of the family’s meagre livelihood. Heartbreakingly but true, it was on this piece of land that Atta was actually born when his mother went into labor and could not get home fast enough for her delivery. Wedded to his land that had been in the family for generations, even this tiny plot had become Atta’s paradise.

On Sunday, Atta walked down the hill from his house to his land and encountered JCB bulldozers poised to start work. He was informed that his last piece of land was being taken to expand the settler highway. And not only his, but the land of the other Palestinians farmers, along a twelve-kilometer stretch driving through the heart of the Valley. Twelve meters will be taken on each side of the existing highway.

The government’s plan is to dry out the Valley (Atta and his neighbors are forbidden to even dig reservoirs to collect rainwater), drive out the farmers and then pave it over with a large urban area, one that will dominate Hebron, which is already being eaten away by settlers from within. The destruction of Atta’s farm and of the Baq’a Valley is part and parcel of the destruction of Palestine itself.

Atta spent Monday and Tuesday frantically clearing what was left in his own field – the equivalent of the self-destruction of one’s home that the Israeli authorities often force Palestinians to do. Although he salvaged some of his grapevines, he has nowhere to plant them so he knows that they will die.

The video clip was captured on Sunday by ICAHD’s Jeff Halper who rushed from Jerusalem to Atta when he got the news that Israeli authorities had arrived. This is evidence that JCB bulldozers continue to be used in the Occupied Territory in violation of international law.

Atta’s struggle goes on. Watch “Rooted in the West Bank”, a film about Atta for Al-Jazeera. ICMEP joins ICAHD to stand in solidarity with the Jaber family now as ICAHD has for decades. You are welcome to contribute to an Emergency Fund for the Jaber family.