BEIT IJZA (Dispatches) – An eight-meter high metal fence surrounds the Gharib family home in the occupied West Bank. To reach it they must pass through a gate remotely controlled by Zionist troops.
Since the regime occupied the territory in the Six-Day War of 1967, a settlement has sprung up on surrounding land claimed by the family leaving them isolated in their single-storey house on the edge of the Palestinian village of Beit Ijza.
“I don’t know when this will end,” sighed Sa’adat Gharib. “No one knows the pain my children are suffering.”
For years the family home stood amid swathes of farmland, but now it lies behind a yellow gate, controlled by Zionist troops, who also patrol a narrow bridge overlooking the eight-meter (26-foot) fence.
“During these years we’ve had a tough life,” said Gharib, 40, who works for the Palestinian Authority in nearby Ramallah.
When he was a child, the settlement of Givon Hahadasha was built partially on land he says belonged to his family.
Decades on, the high fence separates the Gharib house from the Zionists’ red-roofed homes and gardens. A communal space for the settlers, with a children’s slide, has been placed a few meters away.
Settlements are deemed illegal by most of the international community.
The Gharib family has fought numerous legal battles in the occupying regime’s courts, in 2012 winning the right to a small strip of the land they claim.
“The settlers built a parking lot and a park, and we’ve needed the security forces to implement (the decision) and retrieve it for 10 years,” said Gharib.
The yellow gate leading to the house was installed back in 2008, Gharib said, and at one point the family had to hold up their IDs to security cameras to cross the threshold.
“Disputes have broken out between us and the settlers,” said Gharib, who lives with his wife and four children, as well as his mother.
Gharib has hung blue tarpaulins to create a screen between his home and the Givon Hahadasha settlement. “So that the kids can play without being bothered by the settlers and fearing them,” he explained.
Gharib said the situation has affected his children, particularly when there are clashes between Palestinians and Zionist troops nearby.
“My daughter couldn’t sleep all night, for five hours, and she was afraid of the security forces that were stationed at the door of the house,” said Gharib, recalling one incident.