Tag: Bedouin - Page 4 - International Solidarity Movement

Khan Al-Ahmar: Forced expulsion of Bedouins from Area C

by Alistair George

13 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

“From the 1970’s until today, the Israelis used to demolish our tents and houses but not to deport us” says Abu Hamis, a member of the Jahalin Bedouin tribe . “We used to rebuild our places but the new policy which they are adopting is that they want to not only demolish the houses, but to deport us from the area.”

Abu Hamis lives in the tinyvillageof Khan Al-Ahmar, located in the arid, rocky East Jerusalem periphery where steep mountain slopes plummet to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea. The Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, considered illegal under international law, is visible on the hill above the village. The settlement is currently home to around 35,000 people; however,Israel has plans to expand it to create a city of 100,000.

This massive expansion will require the transfer of Arab Bedouin communities living in the area and is part of a wider plan – outlined to the UN by the Israeli authorities – to forcibly transfer all Bedouin communities from Area C, the 62% of land in the West Bank under full Israeli civil and military control. The plan would involve transferring around 27,000 people and it could begin as soon as January 2012.

“This is a huge story” says Eyal Hareuveni, a researcher at Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. “Evacuating Area C for all the Bedouin communities actually means taking 20% or more of all the Palestinians that live in Area C and transferring them without their consent to another area. Legally, forced eviction is considered a grave violation of human rights, and there are some NGOs that are already calling it a war crime.”

A mass forcible eviction, which seems the most likely outcome of the plans of the Israeli authorities, would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions – which is a war crime, for which there is personal criminal liability.

There are also grave environmental concerns with the proposed relocation site for many of the Jahalin Bedouin communities, which is located next to a potentially highly toxic rubbish dump east of Jerusalem.

Furthermore, B’Tselem and the Bedouin communities of Area C claim that the plan to expand Ma’ale Adumim will sever the connection between the southern and the northern part of theWest Bank for Palestinians – effectively ending the possibility of a two-state solution.

The forced transfer of the Jahalin community

The 22 Bedouin families (160 inhabitants) of Khan Al-Ahmar have homes that are mostly shacks made from corrugated iron and wood, with metal fences holding livestock – the primary source of income for the village. The village had 1500 goats for over 10 years, but now they have 150. They have a single camel, when they once had thirty. The inhabitants are no longer allowed to work in the Israeli settlements as they once did. Two electricity lines pass nearby, but the village is not allowed to connect to these networks, so they have to use small diesel-powered generators. Unlike many of the Bedouin communities in the area, who have to import water in highly expensive containers, the village does have some running water.

The village’s existence is in stark contrast to Ma’ale Adumim which has swimming pools, libraries, a transport system, health facilities, shopping malls and subsidized water and electricity.

Demolition orders have been issued by the Israeli authorities for all of Khan Al-Ahmar’s structures, including the village’s school which serves five Bedouin communities in the area with 85 students.

Abu Hamis said that, “The most basic need for any human being is to have an education…after we built the school I invited the council of Ma’ale Adumim to the school in order to create some kind of cooperation between us and they came here and they showed us they are very happy that we have a school now. Three days later we received a demolition order and the excuse was that it’s a ‘danger for the settlement’.”

Nicola Harrison, from UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency), says that the timeline of Israel’s Civil Administration’s plan is unclear, and they refuse to show the written plans to anyone outside of the Israeli authorities. “What’s very clear is that the civil administration has confirmed that they do plan to move the Area C population who do not have a building permit, and they are going to go ahead with identifying different locations throughout Area C,” she said. The plan would remove around 2,300 members of the Jahalin tribe in the area.

A previous expulsion of Bedouin communities by the Israeli authorities occurred in the 1990’s, after the Oslo Agreement was signed in 1993. However, Harrison said, “The 90’s was a compensation package after the forcible relocation, with bulldozers and multiple demolitions. This time they are very much trying to avoid the chaos of that, and they’re going to use much smaller drip-by-drip techniques to exhaust everyone into accepting the package so they don’t have to come with bulldozers. However, they have confirmed several times that, if the Bedouin refuse this ‘nice package,’ they will be demolished anyway and moved by force.”

According to Harrison, the relocation package is likely to include a plot of land, building permission, leaseholds and a certain amount of money, depending on the size of the family. Abu Hamis says that the plans would not leave them with enough land to graze their livestock and would endanger their traditional way of life. The area has been home to the Jahalin tribe since 1948, when they were forced to leave the Negev following the creation of Israel. There is no doubt that Khan Al-Ahmar badly needs development, but the school and the struggle to gain running water are examples of progress.

Environmental Issues

Israel’s Civil Administration have indicated that they will try to re-locate around 100 Bedouin families, comprising around 800 people, to a site next to Jerusalem’s primary rubbish dump, near Abu Dis and to the homes built for Jahalin people forcibly transferred by Israel in the 1990’s. The Jahalin communities, human rights organizations, and UNRWA are concerned that this site would endanger the health of the community.

According to Eyal Hareuveni, “The dumpsite was supposed to be closed in 2006, then 2007, 2010, 2011 and now it’s supposed to be closed down in 2012. 95% of the dumping is from Israel, the only reason they choose to dump here is that it is cheaper than dumping in Israel….This is the legal justification because the Palestinians are ‘enjoying it’ as well. According to the Israeli Ministry of the Environment, this is the worst dump that Israelis using.”

The site contains 7 million tonnes of waste and the Israeli authorities have failed to monitor the gases emitted from the site, so they have no way of knowing whether it is safe. The rubbish-choked valley is completely open for anyone to access; people from the nearby Bedouin community can be seen searching through the mounds of trash for valuable scrap metal.

The Israeli authorities plan to rehabilitate the rubbish site in order to forcibly re-locate Bedouins in Area C and house them there – however, the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim municipalities and the Civil Administration have not yet agreed on a plan to rehabilitate the site.

Hareuveni says that relocating the Bedouins to the site of the rubbish dump is “typical of any plans that the civil administration has all over Area C…the main purpose of the civil administration is to limit the possibility of expansion for any Palestinian community. The plan for the dump site is another example of how they don’t care about the livelihoods of the Palestinians.”

He claims that the plans to remove Bedouins in other parts of Area C will inevitably produce more environmental problems.

In the Jordan Valley most of the areas were closed down for Palestinians because there were settlements or fire zones or nature reserves or even landmine fields. So there aren’t any places were the Bedouin communities can keep their traditional way of life or livelihood in the Jordan Valley and the issue of water is much more crucial there than it is here. Water has been taken by the settlements in theJordanValleyfor many years and there are established [Bedouin] communities in theJordanValleythat are losing their livelihood because of the lack of water or diminishing water resources.

Expansion of Ma’ale Adumim and the end of the two-state solution

“This is the most strategically important expansion of settlements in the West Bank. If this compound will be built, it’s most likely that the two state solution won’t be viable anymore” says Hureuveni.

The so-called E1 compound is the proposed site for the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim. Around 10 Bedouin communities reside within the compound and will be forced to make way for the planned expansion, including the village of Khan Al-Ahmar.

The E1 compound was annexed to Jerusalem municipality after the Oslo agreement in the beginning of the 1990’s. The Israelis plan to build 4000 houses here to expand Ma’ale Adumim; according to Hareuveni, the master plan for the expansion in E1 has already been passed by Israel’s Civil Administration. It only needs the approval of the Ministry of Defense.

The only road connecting the south of the West Bank to the north, that Palestinians are permitted to use, passes through the municipality of Ma’ale Adumim– it is also the only road Palestinians are allowed to use which passes through a settlement, as the road does not pass through a built-up part of the settlement.

According to Hareuveni, if the Bedouins are transferred from the area, and the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim is enacted, “it will seal East Jerusalem from the east and East Jerusalem will be disconnected from the West Bank because there will be no territorial contiguity between the north of the West Bank and the south part of the West bank. Any future Palestinian entity will be divided by a northern canton and a southern canton.”

It will also facilitate the breaking up of the Ramallah – East Jerusalem -Bethlehem economic link which comprises 35-40% of the Palestinian economy

There are currently no credible plans for an alternative road for Palestinians to use. Israel had begun to build part of a road that could eventually pass near Jerusalem but the project stalled in 2007. Hareuveni adds that there is another alternative, “but this seems like a fantasy – it is called ‘Road 80’ that is supposed to encircle all of Ma’ale Adumim block and connect them [Palestinians] back to Ramallah – but this is a huge engineering project that will cost billions of dollars, and there is no approval.”

Hareuveni says that when articles are published in the press, they usually only cover one part of the story, focusing on either the house demolitions, or the plan to move Bedouin communities to the rubbish site, or the plans to expand the E1 compound – with all issues covered in isolation. However, he insists that “all these [issues] are interrelated. They wouldn’t do anything with the Bedouin communities unless there was some wish to expand Ma’ale Adumim to E1, and they wouldn’t speak about transferring the Bedouin communities unless there was the option of expanding the Jahalin village near the dump site.”

As UNWRA and many human rights organizations claim, the forcible transfer of people under occupation is a grave breach of the Geneva Convention and a war crime with personal criminal liability for those in power. Furthermore, the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim will, in all likelihood, carve up the West Bank into unconnected northern and southern cantons, destroying any possibility of a future two-state solution.

It is under this threat that Abu Hamis of the Bedouin Khan Al-Ahmar village makes an appeal to mobilize forces.

“[We need to] put pressure on the Israelis to stop their plans,” said Abu Hamis. “We want to live in freedom, we want to live in dignity in our land here and we want our children to live in the best conditions without any problems or deportation…Next month, there is a real danger that we will be pushed from this area – we need all of you to be beside us.”

Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Jordan Valley: threat of imminent demolition hangs over the village of Al Hadidiya

by Ben Lorber

7 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Before the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Al Hadidiya, near the Jordan Valley villages of Tubas and Jiftlik, was inhabited by over 100 families. Today, only 14 families remain. Since 1967, the village has been demolished four times, and over 3000 dunums of land, necessary for shepherding and grazing of animals, has been stolen by the nearby settlements of Ro’I and Beqa’ot.

On November 10, the community received nine new demolition orders that target 17 structures and will affect 72 people. As lawyers struggle to legally postpone or annul the orders, the people of Al Hadidiya wait in uncertainty and fear.

Abu Sacher is a shepherd whose makeshift tents are slated for demolition. Before 1967, the year of the first demolition of Al-Hadidiye, he, like all other villagers, lived in a sprawling stone house. “Do the Americans, the French or the British,” he protested, “think that the children in Palestine and the children in their countries are equally valuable? Do they want to live under occupation? America was under British occupation and they didn’t like that!”

Most villagers have relocated to nearby villages such as Tubas, Jiftlik, or Nablus. Others, however, like Abu Sacher, whose home has been demolished six times, remain steadfast on their land. “I will not leave my home”, he says. “Even if the entire population of America comes and settles here, I will still be here!”

In June 2011, Israeli military carried out two sets of demolitions in Al-Hadidiya, demolishing, according to the figures of Stop the Wall, 33 structures, leaving 37 residents without homes, and undermining the livelihood of a further 15.

The close proximity to Al Hadidiya and the nearby Ro'l settlement

A week after the November demolition orders inspired the Stop the Wall campaign to spearhead a letter-writing campaign, diplomats from 7 European representative offices visited Al Hadidiya to show solidarity. On November 17, a day before the scheduled demolition, Al Hadidiya’s legal defense team entered court to ask permission for the construction of homes. The Palestinian-owned land of Al-Hadidiya has since 1970 been declared an Israeli Area C military zone, despite the absence of any noticeable military activity.

As a consequence of policies designed to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian Bedouin from Area C of the Jordan Valley, the people of Al Hadidiya lack direct access to education, health care, electricity and water resources. Because villagers are barred from digging water wells or using the Mekorot water pipes that run under their feet, they cannot pursue their traditional agricultural lifestyle and must rear animals, a task made more difficult as more dunums of grazing land are stolen by settlements. “My family were peasants”, living off the land in a stone house, explains Abu Sacher, “but we have been made to live like Bedouin”, dwelling in tents as shepherds. The nearby settlements of Ro’I and Beqa’ot, on the other hand, enjoy an abundance of land and water, government subsidies, high-tech methods, and European markets for their agricultural industry.

Ben Lorber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Dkaika: Israel continues to expel Bedouins

by Aida Gerard

23 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Dkaika Bedouins face expulsion - Click here for more images

The entire Bedouin village of Dkaika encounters demolitions, and all the villagers face expulsion. Every single construction of Dkaika has a demolition order totally over 75 demolition orders including a mosque, a school, a graveyard, water cisterns, housing tents, and folds for sheep.

This Thursday, on the 24^th of November, the Israeli Supreme court will decide if it will accept the interim injunction submitted by villagers in collaboration with Rabbis for Human Rights.

The village of Dkaika has a history of receiving demolition orders as early as 1998, and since then they have been facing demolitions. The latest demolition orders arrived the 1^st November 2011. The village received 36 demolition orders covering 46 structures. This January, 17 structures were demolished in Dkaika including a part of the school and family houses, which left families sleeping outdoors in the winter time and school children studying under the open sky.

The Israeli Civil Administration plans to expel the Bedouins in Dkaika to a village 6 kilometers north of Dkeika called Hameeda. The Civil Adminstration reasons that in Hameeda members from the same Bedouin tribe called Ka’bne reside there and thus the expulsion is justified. Rabbis for Human Rights consider the planned expulsion to be a violation of international law. Yet the issue is complicated since none of the Bedouins of Dkaika have land in that village, and the tribe system of the Bedouins makes it impossible for the Bedouins to move to other Bedouins’ land.

In reaction to the demolitions, the head of Dkaika community, Mukhtar Yussif Nadjada said, “If they come and demolish our houses we will start rebuilding the same day. We have lived on this land before the creation of Israel and we will die on this land.”

The ICA (Israeli Civil Administration) usually puts pressure and building restrictions on villages in area C by using area zone planning. They draw a circle fitting the needs of the Occupation and name it the buildup area. This causes a lot of problems for villagers because it restricts their possibilities of building on their land, and normally it supports the expansion of settlements and is of no infrastructural use for Palestinians. In the case of Dkaika, ICA is not even willing to create an area zone planning. ICA claims that the Bedouin village has no self sustainability, and for this reasons they will expel all citizens of Dkaika to Hameeda.

Mukhtar Yussif Nadjada, the head of Dkaika, said, “The planning of the Occupation ONLY suits the building of the soldiers and settlers who expand. We live near the separation wall, and that’s why they want to expel us.”

The expulsion of Bedouins in the South Hebron Hills are similar to the plans of expulsion of Bedouins in all area C in the West Bank and of the Bedouins living in the Negreb dessert, according to B’Tselem.

Aida Gerard is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Israel: Charging house demolition victims to pay costs of demolition equipment

by Samira | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The people in the Bedouin community, Mihtawish, in Khan el Ahmar area outside Jerusalem today faced a house demolition. Three family houses were demolished, which hosted in total 39 people. 30 of them are children. One family lived in their house year round and two were soon to come for the winter. The families will now stay temporary in tents provided by the UN, but they will have to move to another area, while the demolition order is still valid.

The families received the first demolition order 10 days ago and were then told to demolish their own houses. When this did not happened a final demolition order was sent three days ago. Around 10 AM today 15 military vehicles arrived and the army demolished the three houses. Two of the sons of the families spotted the jeeps and called the head of the community, Abu Rayyed, who contacted the UN and the president of the whole area.

Charging victims of house demolitions - Click here for more images

Of course the families did not demolish their homes themselves. Not only did they loose their homes, but they will also be held responsible to pay for the rent of the bulldozer that demolished the houses. Only one woman and one child were present when the demolition happened. All the men stayed away from the location in order not to be held financially responsible.

The area is considered Area C, which means no Palestinians are allowed to build anything, yet Bedouins, known for their nomadic lifestyles, have been caged between areas. They are also prohibited from rebuilding old encampments or houses.

Abu Rayyed recently brought new wooden panels and corrugated iron for his house, but all building materials were confiscated by the Israeli army. The area is also a nature protectorate, but the hills are all sand and stones and the only green to be seen is inside the illegal Israeli settlements that are surrounding the Bedouin communities.

The families in the Bedouin community in Khan el Ahmar are originally from southern Palestine, but were displaced in the 50’s.

“I was born in ’58, but I am born here too.” Says Aby Rayyed.

Now the families are soon to face a second replacement. This was the first demolition in the whole area of Khan el Ahmar, but not the last one. The villagers have received a verbal demolition order for the whole area, and the whole Bedouin community will be displaced. There are speculations that this will happen In January, but yet none knows for sure when and how it will happen, or where they will go, as expressed by a woman who lost her home today.

“They want us to go away, but where should we go? There is nowhere for us to move. But they want us all to disappear. All of us,” she said.

Samira is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Bedouin community endures demolitions

24 July 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On July 24th at around 1PM, a bulldozer accompanied by 10 military jeeps arrived in the Bedouin community of Mughayyar ad-Deir, about 12 km north east of Jerusalem, near the Ma’ale Michmas settlement and demolished residential structures, structures for livestock, and confiscated vehicles, displacing three families.

16 people were affected by this demolition, including children and a baby less than a year old, who were all forced to sleep on the ground that night with no shelter from the sun in the morning. The community had been issued two eviction orders: one was issued two years ago, the other 5 days before the demolition. Israel justified the demolitions by claiming the community was established on land that was a closed military area. Israeli further suggested that if the community had moved 10 meters or so to the other side of the dirt road, then the demolitions would not have occurred.

Israel justified confiscation of village tractors because they were not licensed. Confiscation of their tractors, according to community members, takes away their means of transporting water. It will also prevent them from transporting goods such as food or taking the goods they produce to be sold at markets. The community did not obtain licenses because of the price (1200 NIS per tractor). Of course now that they have been confiscated, they will have to pay fines if they want to get the tractors and the a trolley back.

After the families slept without shelter the night of the demolition, the neighbors constructed a small temporary wood and tin shelter so that the families would have somewhere to sleep. The Red Cross and the ICRC will be returning to the village with basic aid such as tents and perhaps hygiene kits.