Most of the residents of al-Nabi Samwil fled the village to Jordan during the 1967 War, except 100 that managed to stay. At the time, these residents were living in their houses around the mosque, inside the designated area what is now the archaeological site. Seam zones are sections of Palestinian land within the occupied Palestinian territory, which fall between the illegal Israeli Annexation and Separation Wall and the 1949 Armistice Line and are therefore severed from the oPt. These swaths of land have been designated by Israel as closed areas. Access to these isolated areas is controlled by an Israelicontrolled permit system thereby severely restricting Palestinian access to their lands. Those who live within seam zones must apply to the Israeli Civil Administration for a ‘permanent resident ID’ in order to remain on their own land. Their movement is tightly controlled through the use of checkpoints and a permit regime, which in turn intrudes upon all aspects of their day-to-day activities and greatly compromises the quality of life.91 In 1971, the Israeli military came in the middle of the night, forced the residents to abandon their homes and demolished all the houses. The villagers were not allowed to take anything with them, so all their possessions were destroyed with the houses. No previous notice was given, and the official justification provided by the Israeli authorities was that those houses were unstable and unsecure, and therefore could collapse on the tourists or the ruins. This was despite the fact that some of the demolished houses were newly built. As their homes were destroyed, the residents were forcibly displaced to other homes further away from what is now the archaeological site. Besides being located in a seam zone, al-Nabi Samwil is also situated in an archaeological site and a national park. These categorizations impose a further set of restrictions on the residents.92 In September 1995, Israel declared an area of some 3,500 dunums as a national park. The declaration was based on the protection of its unique flora and Mediterranean landscape, and on the importance of the antiquities at the location. Despite declaration of the site as a national park, the construction of the Annexation and Separation Wall years later divided the declared park area.93 The residents of the village were not consulted or given any information about this decision. The area of the antiquities site is approximately 30 dunums large. Despite this, the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority declared an area 100 times this size as a national 91 For more information on this, see Reynolds and Alqasis, “Seam Zones Turn 50,000 Palestinians into ‘Internally Stuck Persons.’” 92 Elise Hannaford, “Nabi Samwil: Balancing Historical Heritage and Human Rights.” 93 Emek Shaveh, Nabi Samuel. 32