On Friday 12th February activists from Himmam youth group and Jordan Valley Solidarity were joined by Israeli activists in a day of solidarity with the families from Humsa al-Fawqa.

The community in Humsa is facing a relentless campaign of harassment by occupation forces and have had their homes demolished countless times in the last month.

The community’s homes were completely destroyed by occupation forces in November 2020. The people refused to leave their land and rebuilt their tents and animal shelters. Then again, from 1st – 3rd February 2021, all the homes and animal shelters were destroyed in yet another attack. The village is continuously raided under the pretext of ‘military exercises’ and they have been forcibly evacuated 11 times so the occupation forces can play war games on their land and around their homes.

Their steadfastness is not unique, but it is inspiring. This is why activists came to the community for a day of solidarity and action.

The day started with a demonstration from the main highway (Road 60) past two Israeli colonies of Roi and Beqa’ot, to arrive in the village and be received by the local people. There were already 5 or 6 Israeli military jeeps surrounding the area – the group didn’t allow that to intimidate them and continued with their plans to arrange activities for all the children in the community. They distributed gifts and entertained them with a circus performance.

To directly challenge the demolition of local homes, the activists also supported one of the families to build a new tent to live in and shelter for their sheep and cows.

This is part of a new partnership between Jordan Valley Solidarity and Himman youth group to work in solidarity with local communities in the Jordan Valley every Friday.

UPDATE: Two days after this event JVS heard from the village that the occupation forces had come again to carry out more demolitions.