On the southwestern edge of Jericho, where Palestinian homes once stood among orchards and swimming pools, there is now only flattened earth. Beneath the packed dirt lie entire houses, dumped into pits and smoothed over. Only a few severed water pipes hint that anyone ever lived here.

Khalil al-Razim, 60, a Jerusalemite who has spent summers on his plot in Ein al-Duyuk for over a decade, asks: 'Why do you hide the crime you're committing?' Next to his house, a pile of rubble over two meters high blocks the entrance to his neighbor Mohammad Salah's home. Salah now climbs his own fence to reach his house.

In February, during the first settler attack, a bulldozer demolished parts of Salah's home. This summer, the work resumed under the guise of 'clearing' the ruins. According to Salah, the settler told him: 'This land is not coming back to you.' Since July 19, settler-operated excavators have been coming almost daily, demolishing houses, alleys, orchards, and digging pits to bury debris.

The settler, Hanan Herbst, owner of the Armonot Farm outpost, which was retroactively legalized by the Israeli cabinet in March, is escorted by soldiers on every visit. No official order has been shown to residents. Lawyer Tawfiq Jabareen, who filed an emergency injunction with Israel's High Court, said: 'The army circumvented the court's decision and sent the settler to do the demolishing instead.'

In the February attack, 13 Bedouin families were driven out, 150 sheep scattered, and a tractor stolen. In May, the Binyamin Regional Council asked the Civil Administration to let Herbst clear 'building waste' from 'previous demolitions,' without specifying that those demolitions were the settlers' own making. The request was approved, and a military escort was authorized.

Jabareen argues that the law and court rulings mean nothing to the authorities. 'They believe imposing facts on the ground is stronger than any court decision,' he said. The state's own filing reveals a state-backed arrangement granting Herbst agricultural use of the land, despite court orders protecting the homes.

Mohammad Salah has moved his family to Bethlehem, unable to safely reach his home. His son told him: 'Dad, you're a liar. We don't make trouble, and yet they came and destroyed our house.' Salah feels powerless, standing in front of his children and wife, unable to protect his home.

Source: www.aljazeera.com