I want to discuss the 2019 demolition—the demolition where they demolished our family house. In previous demolitions, they didn’t demolish our house because we were in the middle of a legal process. But then our lawyer, our personal lawyer, deceived us and made it possible for the home to be demolished, illegally, of course, and it was demolished. So, we stayed on the land for five years in tents. We prefer to be refugees in our land rather than to leave it and be refugees somewhere else. So, we slept in tents, and we used to upgrade the inside of the tent for winter and summer. And each time we set up a tent, they [the Israeli military] came and demolished it.
The last two demolitions before the one when they kicked us out, they tried to come in and demolish our tent. And they tried to send the settlers to do the same, but they didn’t make it in because I didn’t allow them to come in. And I called the [Israeli] police at that time. They [the settlers] weren’t backed up by the military at that time. They were only kids. And when the police came, they kicked the settlers out and we stayed in the land. But on July 31, 2024, they made a good plan with the military for a “closed zone order,” which says that there is nothing in Al Makhrour, allowing the military to seize the land and kick us out.
When I was younger, I wasn’t really aware of how to deal with this. I was relying on my parents. They used to deal with it with lawyers—not by partaking in activism or raising their voices. They were really careful. But suddenly, I had this strength, and I had no fear of fighting them [the settlers] back and saying the truth and raising my voice for the world to hear me. So, I asked for help from human rights activists, politicians, priests, religious leaders and anyone who really has any dignity. They came.
Many people came and stood by us and helped us with this struggle. And during that time, the videos became viral, and people knew about our story. It gave me more power to fight back. I was old enough to understand, or I was aware enough to understand that I have to face this and I have to fight back. So, I wasn’t afraid of that.
You just described the repeated demolitions undertaken by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against your family’s property—including your father’s restaurant, your family home and your tents. How has that long ordeal impacted you and your family, both emotionally and physically?
The situation has not only impacted us emotionally and physically. It’s psychologically, mentally and financially. It is by all means, with more than 15 years of spending money on lawyers. We were not really as aware of this legal battle as we should be, but we learned and we gained experience. For Palestinians that hire lawyers, and who rely on those lawyers, those lawyers are being manipulated by settler organizations and the Civil Administration in order to get their lands. And lawyers can lie.
For example, for the first few months, they [lawyers] will show them [Palestinians] that they are working. Let’s say there is a land that is around five dunams or let’s say it’s around 20 dunams. And this lawyer can work on one dunam and leave the 19 remaining dunams for the settlers. And he will show us that he’s working by winning that single dunam.
Lawyers can also have deal exchanges with the Civil Administration. For example, this lawyer has another case in another part of Area C [One of three zones established after the Oslo Accords and the only Zone fully controlled by Israel, constituting 60% of the West Bank]. So, they give Palestinians those lands to be successful, to win for them [Palestinians] in order to lose another bigger or more strategic piece of land. And there are many ways that they [settler organizations] can manipulate the case in order to get what they want. And people, they don’t have any legal background to know what’s really happening. And especially Palestinians—they don’t know Hebrew. And they don’t know Israeli law.
With demolitions, with rebuilding, it has cost us a lot. Each time we used to rebuild, we lived in fear that one day they might come back and demolish again and again and demolish what we have been working on for years with our family—a business or your family house or your memories. It’s really tiring.
And watching all these bulldozers and this big army coming for demolitions, it’s really terrifying. But thank God we were and still are a strong family that are fighting back for our property, even if it hurts. But this pain has brought us to a level of patience and power to fight back. And also, physically it strengthens us—living in tents, living through demolitions, each time we rebuild.
It’s not the first time we’re losing our home. In the 2000 Intifada, we lost our home, our family home. Also, I was three years, around three or four years old then. Six years maybe, I don’t really remember my age. But back then there were also demolitions. It’s like history repeating itself now. I thought to myself during each demolition, “This time, it has to come to an end. This cycle won’t come back again to my kids and their kids.”
And for my family, it was really terrifying—the things that they have been living through. My nephew, my nieces, everything is related to that land. Financially, emotionally, everything. As much as I can describe for you, it is not enough because living in it is very difficult. But thank God, we were able to pass this and become stronger than ever. And I believe that those years were an experience, a journey with experience that God put in our path so we can fight them and get back our rights and be a symbol of a family that’s fighting [Israel’s] government, the corrupted people in this government and the people who are helping them.
For me, as Alice, it’s a journey that I am enjoying. I’m enjoying it because I am enjoying destroying the evil within those settlers. It’s not about a promised land; it’s about a project land. You will see buildings here that they are selling for millions. One day they [the settlers] will wake up and realize what they have been doing to other people.
Would you say settlers have taken advantage of post-Oct. 7 conditions to accelerate the theft of your family’s property? And if so, can you describe how their tactics have evolved over the past year and half?
So, when all the media is concentrating on the war and on Gaza and on the internal problems within the Israeli government, they [Israel] started to annex more and more and they started sending those settlers. People should know that settlers do not move alone, do not plan alone. They are funded by Israeli organizations, the settler organizations such as Himanuta, Amana [an extremist pro-settler non-governmental organization sanctioned by the Biden Administration in 2024], and many other private companies that the Jewish National Fund and other governmental institutions founded in order to steal Palestinians’ land. And this is how they have been stealing those lands—through private companies.
You know Area C, it follows the Jordanian law until this moment. And that’s why the Regavim [a pro-settler NGO that pursues legal actions against Palestinians building in Israel and the West Bank] have been trying to manipulate or change the law, the Jordanian law number 40. In the last few years—three years or four years—they have been trying to change this law because they say it’s a racist law that’s not allowing Israelis to buy Palestinian land. But their proposed law says that those lands cannot be sold to any Arabs or Palestinians.
And then, in 1971, they amended the legislative process where they changed the law a bit. And they added that it [land in Area C] could be bought only through Israeli companies or foreign companies, but only for development projects. It cannot be directly sold to Jewish or Israeli people. And, according to this law, many companies that are stealing Palestinian lands in Area C are not even registered in the list of the legal companies that can do developments. One of them is Himanuta, the one that we are facing. So, people should really dig into these companies.
Second, besides the forged documents and the legal things that they are trying to manipulate, they send settlers to harass people. And those settlers are trained, are brainwashed to follow the rules, to follow the orders. They are like a small mafia, a young mafia. It’s funded. It’s brainwashed. They have plans. They have plans. And just harassing people. Many other families just left because of this—without fighting back.
It [harassment] makes them successful. Also, they spread rumors about the owners of this land, like what happened with us. These tactics have all been used against us. Spreading rumors that the owners sold the land—like someone from the family from long ago sold the land. And this is a rumor where people in town around us will maybe think that “OK, they sold the land. Why are they fighting? They are traitors.” So, no one will defend us. No one will stand with us.
And these rumors are spread by Arabs who have also profited, or they have a business together with those settler organizations, or they have been paid to say so. But we have proved otherwise. We have proved that we never sold it. Proved that my ancestors never sold it. Proved their documents are forged.
And they also have this tactic where, for example, when a land has many neighbors, they go to your neighbors secretly. They offer to do a new land registration or a new map where they erase the name of your father or the owners of the land. And instead of it, they write the Israeli company or Himanuta, like what they did with us through our neighbor.
And the neighbors are afraid that their land will be taken. So, they go and do it. I understand their fear, but this is very selfish. Also, there are other tactics to manipulate the people around you: the lawyers, the neighbors, everything. They are threatening as well. They try to set up traps or an ambush. Many things, but thank God we have passed all these tests, and they lost.
Can you give us an overview of the legal battle your family has fought with the Jewish National Fund to maintain the rights to your land? Also, if you can, outline the legal documentation your family has utilized to prove ownership over the land.
So, we were issued a land registration from the Civil Administration in 2014. And it was issued in the name of my father. But we have been fighting in the courts with many documents that we have. And there was no problem with the ownership of the land until 2017, when Himanuta came and claimed that it is theirs. They said they bought it in 1969, and they said that their land registration has an origin in the archive of the state.
When we entered the archive of the state and searched for their claims, we found nothing. We found no documents. And what they have been doing is that they are filling out the blanks [with the name Himanuta] in this archive because the Jordanians, when they left, they gave a copy.
What they did is that they started to fill out the blanks in order to steal more and more land. It’s the same as what’s happening in East Jerusalem, Silwan and everywhere. They are forging documents with the name JNF or Himanuta. They say that it’s registered officially. It’s in the archive. So, people wouldn’t go, or their lawyers wouldn’t go and search for it. And even if they want to send a lawyer to search for it, they can manipulate him not to go or to bring another document for the owners and say, “OK, it’s registered.”
But we searched in it [the archive] personally. We found it empty. Along with this, in the last court hearing that we had, the Supreme Court admitted my rights to the land. We are talking about five pieces of land. One of them is the one that we kept for my father. We stayed in it for many years. The others are for farming.
The Supreme Court admitted my rights to those five lands. And they [the JNF] are out of the land. But we will continue fighting the legal battle. I don’t believe in any legal system, but I believe in God—that he will bring good to people at the right time. And this is what’s happening with us, always bringing good to people at the right time. And he’s always opening a door when the other is closed. We have the keys, but we need to try the keys with each door.
I can’t say so many details about the legal battle because it was very, very big. I’m talking about 15 years plus. But the last one was really successful. And they thought that because we have been in this struggle for many years that no one knows, and we don’t talk. This time they thought that it was going to be the same. But everything was exposed and everything got extremely crazy around this subject.
When we set up a solidarity tent, we had interfaith events and nonviolent protests, which brought so much attention. Working in the field did as well. It’s very good to prove your existence, your rights to those lands. And legally, we waited. We didn’t rush to go to the courts. We waited around four months. And the minute that we applied to the Supreme Court, they removed their caravans, they removed the settlers. And it was really successful, but we waited until the last court decision.
We still have more legal battles to go. Also, since that court decision in June, the [Israeli] police and the settlers have accused me and my mom of running over a soldier or hitting a soldier. So, they are afraid, but they are trying to make us pay more money, putting our attention into other cases. We have court in October against those settlers. And we still are focusing on the land. I know their tactics are trying to make us really tired, also to pay so much money for lawyers.
I didn’t mention that at the time when this was happening, they stopped my father’s [work] permission—he had permission to go work to Jerusalem—because he’s Palestinian. They stopped his permission in a way to push the family to not have an income; to stay home and to not pay for lawyers. So, it’s a way. It’s a tactic.