Nowhere Left to Go: Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin Ethnic Displacement

8/3/2019 Nowhere Left to Go: Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin Ethnic Displacement

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Nowhere Left to Go

Arab al-Jahalin BedouinEthnic Displacement


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he Palestinian-Bedouin communities

living in the hills to the east o Jerusalem

are at an exceedingly growing risk o orced

ethnic displacement. he communities have

been inormed by the Israeli authoritiesthat they have no option but to leave the

area, as part o a larger plan (to begin as

early as January 2012) to relocate Bedouin

communities living in Area C (Jerusalem

periphery, Jordan Valley, and south Hebron

Hills), where Israel retains control over

security as well as planning and zoning.

he Bedouin homes are currently located

in an area that holds strategic signiicance

or urther expansion o illegal Israeli

settlements. his includes the E1 plan,

which oresees the expansion o Maale

Adumim, an illegal Israeli settlement, and

its linkage to Judaized East Jerusalem andJordan Valley settlements. I implemented,

these plans, along with Seperation Barrier

construction in the area, risk preventing

Palestinian growth and development

and disrupting the territorial contiguity

o a uture Palestinian state. he orced

displacement o the Bedouin would also

be detrimental to their semi-nomadic wayo lie. As available land shrinks, Bedouin

reugees are aced with nowhere to go.

Meanwhile, the Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin are

seeking ways to improve their general living

conditions. Communities living in the area

have appealed to local and international

organizations to support projects that willcontribute to improving their conditions,

projects designed help the Bedouin to

build sustainable livelihoods and resist

orced ethnic displacement and the Israeli

Occupation.

Te Arab al-Jahalin tribe were originallybased in the northern Negev, but were

orceully evicted rom the area, across the

1949 armistice lines by Israeli authorities.

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION


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Prior to Israels 1967 Occupation o the

West Bank, they were herding their livestock

between Ramallah, Wadi Qelt and Jerusalem,

maintaining the traditional Bedouin liestyle.

Aer 1967, Israel expropriated most o theArab al-Jahalin lands and tribe members were

conned to an area east o Jerusalem.

Troughout the 1990s there were 120 orders

issued or the eviction o the Arab al-Jahalin

Bedouin. Mass evictions occurred in 1996

when 1,400 members o the Arab al-Jahalin

tribe were evicted rom their encampments,to allow or the expansion o Maale Adumim.

Tose evicted were nally resettled in a

village named al-Jabal, on expropriated

Palestinian land, on a hillside outside o al-

Eizariya, only 300 meters (980 eet) away

rom the Jerusalem Municipal dump.

In November 2011, an Israeli Civil

Administration delegation visited the

community o Khan Al-Ahmar, to convey

I was born here, I've

spent most of my life here,and I want to stay here.

Eid Hamis Swelem Jahalin

a message that plans are well underway

to transer the Bedouin rom the Maale

Adumim area to al-Jabal near al-Eizariya, the

location o the Jerusalem municipal garbage

dump. Plans or orced transer are thereoreimminent, and ICAHD calls or international

mobilization to prevent such an occurrence,

to hold Israeli duty bearers accountable and

deter them rom committing grave violations

o international law.


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Spotlight: Khan Al-Ahmar

Te Palestinian-Bedouin community o

Khan al-Ahmar aces the threat o imminent

displacement i the Israeli authorities

demolish their homes and school as planned.

Tis may well destroy the community, one

o 20 in the area, which has allen victim to

creeping settlement expansion and ethnic

displacement.

he land on which the community lives has

been slated or the expansion o settlements

in the Maale Adumim area, despite thecommunitys decades-long presence. Israeli

authorities see Khan al-Ahmar and the

other Palestinian-Bedouin communities in

the area, more than 3,000 people in all, as

a hindrance to the planned expansion o

Maale Adumim, Kar Adumim, and other

surrounding illegal settlements, and to theconstruction o the West Bank Separation

Barrier, which would de-acto annex this

strategically signiicant area to Israel,

rendering a Palestinian state unviable.

Te Khan al-Ahmar School is the only school

providing primary education to children o

the Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin tribe. Built in

2009 by Italian NGO Vento Di erra (Wind

o Earth) and local NGOs, the eco-riendly

school, providing schooling to more than 80

students, is slated or demolition.

Tough the Israeli Supreme Court recentlyrejected the appeal by neighboring settlers

o Kar Adumin and Regavim an Israeli

organization dedicated to demolishing

Palestinian homes to shut down the school,

the petition has set the clock ticking or the

demolition o the school. Such a demolition

would efectively deny the children o thecommunity their education and jeopardize

their uture.

ICAHD is committed to supporting

the Bedouin Protection Committeeand communities in their decision

to dey the Occupation and resist

orced displacement. ICAHD has set

up a contingency und to allow or the

continuity o primary education or the

Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin boys and girls

and or possible emergency rebuildingo demolished community schools, such

as the Khan al-Ahmar and Wadi Abu

Hindi schools slated or demolition.

Your donation will help support thevital work oICAHD in resisting the

Occupation, supporting Palestinian

communities, and rebuilding their

demolished homes and schools.

Please make online donations here:

http://goo.gl/sggirUSA tax deductible contributions:

http://goo.gl/tvSES

SUPPORT ICAHD


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INTRODUCTIONLEGAL FRAMEWORK

I implemented, the Israeli development

plans would be the culmination o years o

settlement expansion at the expense o the

Palestinian-Bedouin communities. Since

1991, when large parts o the communitiesliving areas were integrated into the

expanded boundaries o Maale Adumim,

Israeli policies increased the pressure on the

communities to leave their homes.

he right to adequate housing is an essential

component o the right to a decent standard

o living. When guaranteed, it providesa oundation or the realization o other

rights, including the rights to amily, work,

education, and, ultimately, national sel-

determination.

Israel is party to, and bound by, the

International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which

explicitly guarantees the right to adequate

housing (Article 11.1): he States Parties

to the present Covenant recognize the right

o everyone to an adequate standard o

living or himsel and his amily, including

adequate ood, clothing and housing,

and to the continuous improvement oliving conditions. he UN Committee

on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

interpreted the content o human rights

provisions in the Covenant (General

comment 4 he right to adequate housing),

so that the right to housing should not be

interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense

which equates it with, or example, theshelter provided by merely having a roo

over ones head or views shelter exclusively

as a commodity. Rather it should be seen

as the right to live somewhere in security,

peace and dignity. hat includes the

security o tenure, availability o services,

and cultural adequacy. he Committee hasalso determined in its General comment 7

(he right to adequate housing orced

evictions) that orced evictions are prima


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Without electricity

How can a student work

past certain hours? If

research is required,how can a student get

access to a computer?

Hanan Awwad, Principal, Khan Al-Ahmar

acie incompatible with the requirements

o the Covenant, and that appropriate

procedural protection and due process, and

adequate alternative housing, resettlement,

or access to productive land must beguaranteed by a state party to the Covenant,

such as Israel. Israels claim that the

Covenant does not apply in the Occupied

Palestinian erritory has been dismissed by

all the UN human rights treaty bodies, which

oversee compliance with treaties.

As the Occupying Power, Israel is also boundby the Fourth Geneva Convention relative

to the Protection o Civilian Persons in time

o War to which Israel is a signatory. Article

53 prohibits destruction o property that

is not justiied by military necessity. he

Fourth Geneva Convention also prohibits

the transer o an occupying powerscivilian population into the territory it is

occupying and the transer o an occupied

civilian population. Article 49 stipulates:


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Individual or mass orcible transers, as

well as deportations o protected persons

rom occupied territory to the territory o

the Occupying Power or to that o any other

country, occupied or not, are prohibited,regardless o their motive. Israels claim that

the Fourth Geneva Convention does not

apply to the Occupied Palestinian erritory

has been rejected by the international

community, including the UN Security

Council and the International Court

o Justice (ICJ) that, in a 2004 advisory

opinion on the Legal Consequences o theConstruction o a Wall in the Occupied

Palestinian erritory, ruled that these were

thereore occupied territories in which

Israel had the status o Occupying Power.

Subsequent events in these territories have

done nothing to alter this situation. he

Court concludes that all these territories(including East Jerusalem) remain occupied

territories and that Israel has continued to

have the status o Occupying Power.

Further, the Hague Convention o 1907

calls on state parties to respect, protect, and

ulill amily honour and rights, the lives

o persons, and private property, as well as

religious convictions and practice. Housedemolitions, orced evictions, property

coniscations, and orced population

transer, exacerbated by settler harassment

and the economic eects o movement

restrictions, have let Bedouin communities

struggling to make ends meet and living in

ear. I their homes, animal pens, and schools

are demolished, the communities will notonly be plunged into deeper poverty but may

also very well be displaced and dispersed.

According to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim

Agreement o 1995, known as the Oslo II

Accord, powers and responsibilities related

to zoning and planning in Area C shouldhave been transerred to Palestinian control.

he agreement article 27 (2) Planing and

Zoning reads: In Area C, powers and

INTRODUCTION


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ICAHD, aUNEconomic-Social Council

Special Consultative Status organization,

has submitted a parallel report to the

United Nations Committee on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights 47th session

in November 2011. Te Committee

addressed the state report by Israel, and

ICAHD presented Committee members

with inormation concerning the status o

implementation o the ICESCR. Te report

covers the right to sel-determination,and adequate standard o living and social

security or Palestinians in the Occupied

erritory and Israel. Te report highlights

Israels protracted non-compliance to with

obligations stemming rom the ICESCR,

and the plight o Jahalin Bedouin threatedwith ethnic displacement. o read the

report, visit the ICAHDwebsite. ICAHD

will submit a parallel report to the United

Nations Committee on the Elimination

o Racial Discrimination, to convene in

February 2012, urther highlighting the

trends o ethnic displacement and Israeliracial discrimination policies and practices.

ICAHD Parallel Reports to UN Treaty Bodies

responsibilities related to the sphere o

Planning and Zoning will be transerred

gradually to Palestinian jurisdiction that

will cover West Bank and Gaza Strip [...] to

be completed within 18 months. However,

that has not happened in the 16 years since

its signing, and Israel has made it clear that

it intends to annex the area and rid it o its

Palestinian inhabitants, in contravention o

international law and bi-lateral agreements.


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o highlight the recent risks o ethnic

displacement in the Jerusalem periphery

and the Jordan Valley, ICAHD has

launched a program o international tours

to the area. Having provided thousandso people rom around the world with

top-quality tours or over twelve years,

ICAHD is known or its knowledgeable

tour guides and multi-aceted approach

to examining the complexities o lie in

the Jerusalem periphery and the Jordan

Valley. For more inormation on theICAHD tours, please visit our website at:

ICAHD TOURS

www.icahd.org

Recommendations

ICAHD calls or an end to the Occupation o

the Palestinian erritory and an immediate

cessation o the demolition o Palestinian

houses, schools, and inrastructure which

causes displacement and dispossession. ICAHD calls or the transer o powers

and responsibilities related to planning and

zoning in the West Bank, including Area

C, to Palestinian jurisdiction in accordance

with international law and bi-lateral

agreements, to allow or a planning system

to include community participation in all

levels o the planning process.

ICAHD calls or amilies that have been

orcibly displaced to be allowed to return totheir homes in saety and dignity and to be

given compensation or any harm they have

suered, including the destruction o land,

homes, and property.

RECOMMENDATIONS


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Facts and Figures3,000Bedouin reside in 20

communities in the hills to

the east of Jerusalem.

90% have demolition orders

pending against their homes

More than 80%of them are

refugees

Despite receivinghumanitarian

assistance,55% are food

insecure.

50% Are notconnected to thewater network

None of themhave access to

the electrical grid

Were re-locatedfrom the areain the 1990s

200Families

1Over 85%of them had toabandon their traditional

livelihood as herders300

Bedouins

2

Had been forciblydisplaced in 2011due to demolitions

More than 0.5 million Israeli civilians live inIsraeli settlements in the West Bank, built incontravention of international law.

Meanwhile...3


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Contact UsICAHD-USA

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ICAHD FinlandMerikorttikuja 7 as 6Helsinki 00960

E [email protected]

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

(ICAHD) is a human rights and peace organization

established in 1997 to end Israel's Occupation

over the Palestinians. ICAHD takes as its main

focus, as its vehicle for resistance, Israel's policy

of demolishing Palestinian homes in the Occupied

Palestinian Territory and within Israel proper.

EditorItay EpshtainPhotos Ben Guss / ICAHD

Design www.RoniLevit.com

Nowhere Left to Go: Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin Ethnic Displacement by The Israeli Committee Against House

Demolitions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License. 11.2011

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Nowhere Left to Go: Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin Ethnic Displacement