The Al Hadad Family live on Tel Rumeida hill, in between olives trees, on the path that connects the settlement (located on the top of Tel Rumeida) and Shuhada street. This location passes through the water spring, which settlers consider holy. During the second Intifada, soldiers occupied their rooftop and part of the second floor of their house for almost 6 months. The soldiers climbed onto the roof through a metal ladder and they prevented the family from using the main entrance to enter the house. Today the soldiers have a camera on their rooftop in order to protect settlers walking down.
Soha Hadad moved into the house during The Second Intifada. For the first three months, soldiers occupied part of the house. They then moved to the roof, stayed for six months, and installed security cameras as they left. When the soldiers lived in the house, the family was required to leave the door open at all times, regardless of the weather, and the women felt pressured to always cover themselves up and wear hijab in their own homes. The soldiers once prevented the father from leaving and hit him in the chest with a gun, and another time they pushed Soha forcefully from the door. During the Intifada, the family was under curfew, sometimes from 6am to 4pm. Now, the house is a closed military zone and no visitors are allowed. Eight years ago, a soldier wanted to go to the roof. He thought there was a staircase inside and did not believe Soha when she told him otherwise. He hit her and went to the ground floor instead where the army bursted open the door with explosives to enter. Soha filed a complaint that was taken to high court, but it yielded no results.
The family has also suffered from a series of settler violence. When Soha was pregnant with twins, she went to her recently deceased uncle’s house to pay tributes. On her way home, she was followed by settlers who tried to attack her. She ran away to save herself, and she lost the babies as a consequence. Four years later, settlers beat up her 14-year-old son and broke his hand. He spent eight days in the hospital and still suffers from the injury today. They took the case to court but to no avail. Soha has documented many incidents with the camera B’Tselem gave her, but it has changed nothing. Her son has been questioned naked on his way home from Jerusalem, and her daughter was nearly shot by mistake at the renovated checkpoint 56 because she did not know the procedures. Despite everything, Soha has hope for the future.