Ramallah: The Israeli military has ordered Palestinian Bedouins to get rid of their mud ovens immediately as they were “harming” the nearby residents of Karmeal colony.
Some 50 families comprising 300 Bedouins live in Umm Al Khair without electricity, potable water or a drainage system.
In the past few days, eastern winds blew into the area carrying smoke from the mud ovens to the nearby colonists who complained to the Israeli military forces.
The military raided the village and destroyed two mud ovens before ordering the residents to get rid of their remaining ovens or risk having the soldiers destroy them in their next raid.
The residents tried to explain to the Israeli military forces that it was only the rare eastern winds that carried the smoke from the ovens. However, the soldiers did not give the Palestinian residents a chance to explain.
“It is not a matter of the smoke from the mud ovens,” stressed Rateb Al Jbour, the General Coordinator of the Palestinian Popular Committees for Resisting the Israeli Barrier and Settlements in Southern Hebron and Yatta. “The Israeli colonists want the Bedouin residents to leave the area so that they can occupy it,” he told Gulf News.
Al Jbour said that the colonists want to take over the privately-owned Palestinian land in the area to expand their colony.
“The residents of Umm Al Khair have made it clear that they will never leave their area and land under any circumstances,” he added.
