Court: Israel must enable return of displaced Palestinians to West Bank villages

The High Court of Justice has ordered the government to make arrangements for former residents of two Palestinian villages in the West Bank to return to their homes, after they fled systematic violence by extremist settlers in the South Hebron Hills region at the end of October.

Following a provisional order by the court in May, the state told the court there was no obstacle to allowing the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta and Um Darit to return to their homes. The court on Monday told police, the IDF and the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration to arrange their return in short order.

Describing the violence by settlers against Palestinians as “troubling to put it mildly,” the High Court underlined in its ruling that the government and state agencies are obligated by law to protect Palestinian residents of the area from violence, including the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta and Um Darit once they return home.

The court also said police had failed to respond fast enough to emergency calls by residents of the villages reporting attacks by extremist settlers, and ordered the state to find an alternative mechanism for the villagers to report such assaults when police do not respond quickly enough.

It stressed police were legally obligated to respond to requests for assistance by local residents when dealing with “active incidents of violence” and arrive at the scene “with appropriate speed.”

The court further reprimanded police, saying that arrival at the scene was not sufficient and that they had to take effective investigative measures, adding that such a statement “should be obvious.”

A demolished school in the abandoned Palestinian village of Zanuta. The school was funded in part by the EU, as well as other foreign governments. December 4, 2023. (Courtesy Southern Mount Hebron Activists group)

In a provisional ruling issued by the court on the petition in May, it noted that police almost never go to the site of an attack to collect evidence.

The court also noted that despite dozens of violent attacks against Palestinian residents of the South Hebron Hills since October 7 — 175 according to the petitioners — not one indictment has been filed against perpetrators, an apparent consequence of police failure to properly investigate allegations.

The decision was made unanimously by justices Isaac Amit, Daphne Barak-Erez, and Yechiel Kasher.

Attorney Quamar Mishirqi-Assad, co-director of the organization Haqel: In Defense of Human Rights which has represented the villagers, welcomed the ruling but expressed concern that the court did not issue more detailed orders, and worried that absent such explicit instructions, implementation of the court’s various decisions may be difficult.

Following the October 7 invasion and atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel, a wave of violence perpetrated by civilian settlers and those mobilized into IDF regional defensive battalions engulfed the West Bank, directed particularly against vulnerable herding communities in the South Hebron Hills and Jordan Valley regions.

In its original petition in November, Haqel wrote that settlers and armed soldiers “arrive almost daily at the residents’ houses, sow destruction and devastation, and in particular destroy essential infrastructure” of the villages.

Stars of David are spray painted on a demolished school in the abandoned Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta. The school was funded in part by the EU, as well as other foreign governments. The demolition of the school comes following threats by local extremists settlers against former residents of the village not to return, December 4, 2023. (Screenshot from video footage taken by Southern Mount Hebron Activists group)

Residents of the region have also complained that when they called the police emergency call center during attacks, cops almost never respond to their request for help and would simply tell them to file a criminal complaint at the Kiryat Arba police station. Even then, police rarely if at all visited the scene to take evidence and testimony, villagers said.

As a result of the violence, in which village infrastructure such as critical water storage facilities, solar panels, and agricultural equipment were destroyed, over 1,000 Palestinians from 15 communities fled their homes.

Attacks included physical assault and threats of violence and murder, and livestock was harassed.

Khirbet Zanuta had some 250 residents but all left by the end of October, as did the three families of the tiny hamlet of Um Darit. Residents found other accommodation in nearby villages and towns, either staying with family or renting.

In its ruling on Monday, the court noted that the state had agreed to enable the residents to return to their homes and instructed authorities to facilitate this step “as soon as possible.”

Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot (right) gives his backing to the founder of the illegal Meitarim Farm West Bank outpost Yinon Levy (right), after Levy was sanctioned by the Biden administration due to allegations that he has violently assaulted Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills Region, February 4, 2024. (Courtesy Zvi Sukkot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Khirbet Zanuta residents who visited the village in late November to see if returning without assistance was feasible were harassed and threatened by extremist residents of nearby settlements and illegal outposts.

Just five days later, the village’s EU-built school was demolished in an incident that police said was under investigation, but which no one has been charged over. Stars of David were graffitied on what remained of the structure after it was demolished.

Haqel also provided police with the license plate number of a pickup truck settlers arrived in from footage taken by the villagers, and a video taken of the incident showing the settlers making their threats, with their faces clearly visible.

The area of the village was declared a closed military zone by the IDF in December, and settlers activists erected a fence around the village to prevent the residents from returning.

"Israelis” set up a barbed wire fence around “Zanuta” village to prevent Palestinians from returning. pic.twitter.com/gePareN64q

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In ordering the state to provide an alternative method of contacting law enforcement authorities beyond the emergency hotline, the court said that it would leave the details to the state agencies to arrange.

“We repeat and underline, that on the face of things, the picture painted by the claims of the petitioners is troubling — to put it mildly,” wrote the justices.

“The petitioners are protected residents who are entitled to receive a fitting response by authorities in the region, especially when these are claims of repeated violence against them.

“Law enforcement agencies in the region are therefore obligated to protect the security of the petitioners and public order even in the complex circumstances of the current period.”