Planning, Restrictions Building Land Permits Confiscation on Use and and Home Access Demolitions Introduction Mahmoud Bisharat - Khirbet Humsa, Jordan Valley333 I moved from Tammun to live in Khirbat Humsa, which is located on Tammoun's land, after the death of my parents in 1982. This old house I live in was built before 1967. Through the years, I have built 8 extra rooms for my sons on the same hill I live on so they can live nearby. But in 1994, the Israeli authorities came and demolished all the rooms. I did not despair and I rebuilt another 8 rooms. Unfortunately, in 1996 the Israeli Military came again and demolished the rooms for the second time, all the 8 rooms. This wasn’t the last time in which they demolished my rooms. I slowly built the rooms again, but unfortunately they demolished them once again in 1998. Now I am building little by little because I want to bring my sons back here. I want them to live with me in our land. And, if the occupation wants to demolish them again, I will rebuild again and again and again. This is how I resist on my end. The Israeli authorities claim that the rooms were built without building permits. This is absurd because the Israeli authorities don’t give any permission for building. They don’t want us to live in this area. In my specific case, the Israeli Military tried to take me out from my house because they wanted to set up a military watching point here. My house and my land have a strategic importance. They’re located on top of a hill from which you can see the whole area. However, I was able to resist leaving my house. Home demolition First of all the military handed me a notification, which I immediately gave to my lawyer who was appointed to follow my case by the Palestinian Authority and he succeeded to delay the demolition orders for around two years. But after this period, the Israeli Military came and demolished the rooms. The same happened with the other two waves of demolitions. Usually the bulldozers come accompanied by soldiers and demolish everything. Despite the demolitions, we were subjected to casual harassments by the Occupation’s military, raids at night and inspections. As well, two of my sons and I were arrested. Resisting We made bricks in order to build with them. I used to do it together with the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign activists. We used to manufacture the bricks near my house and we succeeded to restore a lot of houses in the valley that were subjected to home demolitions; many Israeli and foreign activists joined us. Without having this project we wouldn’t have been be able to rescue some of the families. Electricity and water supply: those are two essential things for our survival. As well as by providing them we can prove our presence on our land by creating facts on the ground. However, it is not easy to have electricity and water supply 333 Mahmud Mohammad Bisharat, ‘Khirbat Humsa, Jordan Valley’, interview by BADIL, March 2013. 97