Hirbet-Tana (near Beit Foureek)Saturday July 23rd, 2005 AMWatchers: Vivi S, Hava H, Ronnie H, Neomi R, Shalmit B, Varda G, Nurit L, and Nina M, (reporting)The destruction of Hirbet Tana – the state vandalism The historical ground provided by the mayor of Beit Foureek Mr. Husam Hanani and by the member of the municipality Mr.Atef Hanani(Beit Foureek Municipality: www.Beitfoureek.com)Geography and living conditions:Hirbet Tana is a small Palestinian village located a few kilometers east of Beit Foureek. The land of this village belongs to its farmers, who are also members of Beit Foureek community (they have Turkish certificates proving their ownership). Beit Foureek community counts around 12,000 citizens . Around 150 people (including children) live most of the year (from September to June) in Hirbet Tana. In addition, about 300 persons come to do agricultural work in this area during daytime, but do not stay there at night. During hot months of July and August, the village is empty: families, together with their livestock, move to Beit Foureek.Families used to live in Hirbet Tana in small houses build from stone or concrete blocks and covered with metal sheets. There are many caves in the area, where people keep their livestock. The area is rich in water sources, which are very important considering a very limited water supply of Beit Foureek. There is a very old mosque with an adjacent archeological site and there was a school building consisting of two rooms, where children from grade one to four used to study.It is worthwhile to add that Beit Foureek belongs to area B and Hirbet Tana to area CThe demolition:On July 4th , 2005 the attached document issued by Israeli administrative authority was found on the ground by passers by. The document was issued on June 15, 2005 and addresses an unspecified owner (no name is mentioned). The title of the document is “An announcement on a right to appeal against demolition order no 13741”. It is stated that a 45 square meter shelter and a surrounding stone fence will be demolished and an owner has a right to appeal within 3 days. It is worthwhile to pay attention that this document is written in Hebrew, it was not delivered to any person, but just left on the ground.Next day, July 5th, 2005, early in the morning, somebody called Beit Foureek municipality and said that 15 army jeeps surround Hirbet Tana and two bulldozers destroy the village.People were prevented from entering Hirbet Tana, which was pronounced as a closed military zone. They managed to see the result of the destruction at 11 am after the Israeli army left.The destruction as seen by Machsom Watchers today:Piles of rubble are seen all over Hirbet Tana. All buildings (23) are destroyed except the mosque and one one-room cement brick building. The school is demolished but the school furniture including chairs and a blackboard are tidily arranged by the mosque wall probably expressing the respect for educational needs of Palestinian children by the “human” army, which brought to ruin the entire village.The bread-baking oven is destroyed. The store with many sacs of food for sheep is demolished in such a way that sacs are covered by falling walls of the structure.While recording the destruction, our Palestinian companions spotted an army jeep on an opposite hill. Our driver asked us to leave immediately. He was very much afraid of any encounter with the army. Another car with owners of the demolished structures, who also visited Hirbet Tana in the same time, left in hurry as well. Soon the chase on a very steep and narrow road developed – soldiers in jeep wanted to catch another car. They lost in this race so they stopped our transit. We asked soldiers why they chase cars and we got mixed answers-something like: “we know which cars are allowed to be there”. When we asked which specifically cars are allowed to be in Hirbet Tana an answer was that everybody is allowed to be there, but running away was suspicious in their eyes. Clearly it was important to show, who is the boss of this area. The villagers of Hirbet Tana are very determined to come back and to restore their life there.