BEDOUINS
BEDOUINSBWB’s field activist: “Forced displacement, violence, looting, and unprecedented aggression are being inflicted upon the inhabitants of the village of “Wadi al-Siq,” situated in the heart of the West Bank on the eastern slopes of the city of Ramallah and in all desert bordering Bedouin /Bedouin communities all over the eastern part of the west bank.
On October 12th, a group of heavily armed Israelis from nearby illegitimate settlements, alongside occupation army soldiers, conducted a raid on the Bedouin village of “Wadi al-Siq.” This village is among the Palestinian Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank, which have been forcibly displaced in an increasing wave over the past two weeks since the commencement of the war on Gaza. Israeli settlers, armed to the teeth, have been daily attacking these Bedouin settlements, often with the assistance of the occupying army, according to eyewitnesses.
We spoke to the village elder, Haj Abdul Rahman Al-Ka’abneh, 69 years old, who said, “They entered our homes and prevented us from taking anything,” adding that they moved all the Bedouin residents out of their tents and shacks and beat them. He continued, “They told us that if any of us remained in this area within an hour, they would be killed!”
Whole Families fled the village, women, children, and the elderly. They only carried the clothes they were wearing, abandoning their homes, vehicles, and livestock that they relied on for their livelihood. According to Al-Ka’abneh, everyone was beaten, and approximately 30 people were either injured during the attack or while fleeing to the nearby mountains. Furthermore, the settlers detained three young men who attempted to resist and defend the village.
The settlers, members of the two new clans, “mountain youth gang “and “Let them pay the price gang “carried out their actions in plain sight, under the watchful eyes of the occupying forces who supported them. They brutally beat the young men after stripping them of their clothes, stepped on their heads, turnoff cigarette butts on their backs and continuously beat them with a heavy steel bar video recorded them naked, and treated them in the most unethical and inhumane ways, even until midnight. Subsequently, the Israeli army handed over the three young men to the Palestinian Authority the second day.
35 families live in Wadi AL-Siq Bedouin community located North of Ramallah . The 250 residents belong to Ka’abneh tribe and all refugees of Naqab in 1948.
Al-Ka’abneh told BWB field worker: “We have no food, no water, no electricity, and no place to sleep. We have nothing.” He also added, “What is happening to us now is exactly what happened to our fathers in 1948 when they were forced to leave with nothing,” referring to the Nakba of 1948.
