Umm al-Khair () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village located in the

Hebron Governorate The Hebron Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine in the southern West Bank. The governorate's land area is and its population according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in mid-year 2019 was 1,004,510. This ...

of the

State of Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, in the southern

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. It was inhabited by five families, roughly 70 people, in 2008.

David Dean Shulman David Dean Shulman (; born January 13, 1949) is an Israeli Indologist, poet and peace activist, known for his work on the history of religion in South India, Indian poetics, Tamil Islam, Dravidian linguistics, and Carnatic music. Bilingual ...

, 'On Being Unfree:Fences, Roadblocks and the Iron Cage of Palestine,' Manoa Vol,20, No. 2, 2008, pp. 13-32 By 2017, the population of the village was 686.

History

In 1883, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' noted "piles of stones" at ''Rujm Umm Kheir.'' The Palestinian villagers settled there several decades ago, after Israel expelled them from the Arad desert, and purchased the land from residents in the Palestinian village of Yatta.Ilana Hammerman
'West Bank settlement is outdoing its neighboring Bedouin village,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

11 November 2011 In the wake of the

1948 War The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the Stat ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. During the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Umm al-Khair came under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. According to

David Shulman David Shulman (November 12, 1912 – October 30, 2004) was an American lexicographer and cryptographer. Shulman contributed many early usages to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and is listed among "Readers and contributors from collections" for ...

, the nearby settlement,

Carmel Carmel may refer to: * Carmel (biblical settlement), an ancient Israelite town in Judea * Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea * Carmelites, a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order Carmel may also ...

, lies on lands confiscated from the Bedouin of that village. Umm_al-Kheir

Human rights activists and reporters have criticized the lack of amenities for the villagers while settlers nearby enjoy modern life. According to

Nicholas Kristof Nicholas Donabet Kristof (born April 27, 1959) is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times''. Born in Chicago, Kristof wa ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' Carmel is :

'a lovely green oasis that looks like an American suburb. It has lush gardens, kids riding bikes and air-conditioned homes. It also has a gleaming, electrified poultry barn that it runs as a business.' Beyond its barbed wire fencing, the Bedouins of Umm al-Kheir in shanties are denied connection to the electricity grid, barns for their livestock and toilets, and all attempts to build permanent dwellings are demolished. Elad Orian, an Israeli human rights activist, noted that the chickens of Carmel's poultry farm get more electricity and water than the Palestinian Bedouin nearby.

Hammerman writes as follows: :

Right next to the stately country homes - complete with air-conditioning, drip-irrigation gardens and goldfish ponds - a few extended families including old men, old women and infants live in dwellings made of tin, cloth and plastic siding, though there are a few cinder-block structures, too. They tread on broken, barren ground. They have no running water. They are not connected to the power grid that lights up every settlement and outpost in this remote region. They have no access road.

David Dean Shulman has taken down the account of one of the villagers, a young man named ‘Id al-Hajalin, who after outlining their difficulties, showed two documents, a receipt for taxes he paid on his land, and another, an order from the Military Authorities to demolish his home. He commented:

“Why do they want to destroy my house? Where can I go? Can I go to America? I have nothing, and they want to take that nothing from me. Can you help me? Where am I supposed to go?”

Umm al-Khair was one of the main subjects of the 2016 book ''The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine'' by

Ben Ehrenreich Ben Ehrenreich (born 1972) is an American freelance journalist and novelist who lives in Los Angeles. Career Ehrenreich began working as a journalist in the alternative press in the late 1990s, publishing extensively in ''LA Weekly'' and ''The V ...

. Umm al-Khair is also the base community for th
Good Shepherd Collective
a grassroots organization resisting the intrusive colonization of local land by Israeli settlers. In June 2024, a third of the village still standing was demolished as the IDF bulldozed 11 houses, including 5 tent residences, leaving 50 shepherds homeless. They also destroyed electricity generator, solar cells and water tanks,Bethan McKernan
Israel destroys 11 homes in West Bank village amid spiralling violence

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

28 June 2024

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Articles
on

Ta'ayush Ta'ayush is a grassroots movement engaging since 2000 in non-violent collective action and civil disobedience in Palestine/Israel. Ta'ayush (, ; lit. "coexistence" or "life in common") is a grassroots volunteer movement established in the fall of ...

website
Al Faqir (Umm al Kheir) Village Profile

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
The priorities and needs for development in Al Faqir (Umm al Kheir) village based on the community and local authorities' assessment
ARIJ *Survey of Western Palestine, map 21
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Hebron Governorate Villages in the West Bank Hebron Governorate Municipalities of Palestine

History

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links