SummaryOver the past few months, Jahalin Bedouin have remained under sustained pressure by the Israeli military to relocate outside the planned route of the Wall and the area set for the construction of the new E1 colony (settlement). Their forced relocation to land belonging to other Palestinian villages would cause tension with local communities, constitute forced displacement and would be detrimental to their semi-nomadic way of life. As available land shrinks, Bedouin refugees are faced with nowhere to go.

The case brought by residents of Abu Dis concerning the Wall route near their village, which may also impact the Bedouin communities living nearby, was heard by the Israeli High Court in June, 2007. The Court ruled at the beginning of August that the Defence Minister (Mr. Barak) had 45 days to review the Wall route in this area and advise the Court as to whether or not it could and should be changed. Depending on the opinion of Minister Barak, the Wall may be re-routed further away from the village of Abu Dis, which could also allow nearby Jahalin communities (around 10) to remain where they currently reside.

If the Minister does not change the route of the Wall, construction will go as planned and these Bedouin communities will most certainly be forcibly displaced within the next few months.

Meanwhile, Jahalin Bedouin are seeking ways to improve their general living conditions. A number of communities living in the area, and in particular near Kedar, have appealed to local and international organizations to support projects that will contribute to improving their conditions. They have identified the most pressing needs of their communities: water, electricity (generator), and education for their children. Projects should help the Bedouin to build sustainable livelihoods. The Jahalin welcome and are happy to host visitors, in the longstanding traditions of ancient Bedouin hospitality.

As the world, and this region specifically, faces increasing pressure on receding water resources and gradual desertification, these indigenous survivors of desert will be sorely needed for their wisdom and advice as to how to survive in extreme desert conditions. We shall miss and value them. When it is too late?

“Cease the construction of the wallin the OPT, including in and around East Jerusalem,dismantle the structure therein situated and make reparation for all damage caused.”

“Actions that change the demographic composition of the OPT are violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

This publication has been produced by ICAHD’s Action Advocacy Project, funded by Irish Aid, Austrian Development Agency and the Netherlands Representative Office, as a resource supporting a coalition of international and Israeli organisations which advocates for a just settlement for Jahalin Bedouin refugees (originally from the Negev) who face eviction due to the route of the Ma’ale Adumim “Separation Wall.” The views herein are those of ICAHD and others in the coalition, and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of Irish Aid, Austrian Development Agency or the Netherlands Representative Office.

P.O.B. 2030, JerusalemTel: +972-2-624-5560, E-mail: info@icahd.org Website: www.icahd.org

Editor: Angela Godfrey-GoldsteinGraphics: Olga GoltserPhotos: ActiveStills Co-operative www.activestills.org [See Endnote, p.48]

Printer: Bracha Print

In early January 1999 the bulldozers of Israel’s Civil Administration (CA) mounted a hill next to the main dump of Abu Dis, the final resting place of most of the garbage from the Jerusalem area. They began preparing for the construction of a “model village” about half a kilometer west of Ma’ale Adumim. Dozens of housing lots were allocated to the Jahalin after the Bedouin tribe lost a five-year legal battle against its expulsion from the land on which new neighborhoods of Ma’ale Adumim were built. The Israeli authorities, with the Israel Defense Forces and

the CA taking the lead, had by then evacuated hundreds of Bedouin from their homes. They demolished the shanties, tents and caves they had been living in for decades and moved them into shipping containers. Under international pressure, the High Court of Justice - which had ruled on at least 11 petitions submitted by the tribe - stopped the work and ordered the IDF and the CA to negotiate with the Jahalin.

The final result, achieved through the work of the CA, Maj. Gen. (res.) Rafael Vardi, and the State Prosecutor’s Office, on the Israeli side, and the tribe’s attorney, Shlomo Lecker, was an unprecedented deal including terms that until then had only been offered to Jewish settlers. The new village contained 120 plots for 120 families of 2-dunam (1/2 acre), 1-dunam and half-dunam sizes with 49-year leases and an additional 49-year rental-extension option, signed by the Israel Lands

Nowhere to goBedouin expelled by Ma’ale Adumim WallArnon RegularSeptember 23, 2005

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Administration. About 100 homes have been completed or are now under construction.

The tribe, most of whose members had been expelled by force from the area of the neighborhood once know as “06” in Ma’ale Adumim, received monetary compensation for the move to their new location. Families with more than four children received NIS 38,000, smaller families received NIS 28,000. A total of NIS 4 million was allocated to the families for the construction, in addition to about 3,000 dunams (750 acres) of pasture land.

Until last July, the arrangement was being implemented as planned. The Jahalin left Ma’ale Adumim and the real-estate sharks made a fortune from the land they once occupied. Most of the Bedouin understood that the deal benefited them, even though in effect they were expelled from their lands. The Bedouin, just like their

neighbors, want to live in peace and ensure their future.

The new village is sandwiched between the threatening, frantic urban mode of Israeli life in Ma’ale Adumim and, on the Palestinian side, the towns of Al-Azariya and Abu Dis. Most of the families who moved there were destitute before. They built large homes and their economic situation greatly improved. A mosque was built in the center of the village, on top of the hill, and there are already schools for the children, but the villagers are also trying to hold onto the remnants of their old world. They put up goat-hair tents in their yards, and there are shelters for sheep and goats here and there.

Rummaging in the landfillIn terms of employment, the Jahalin are more similar to nomads who live on the edges of the cities. Some work as construction-site guards in Ma’ale

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Adumim, some transport water to the village and its environs, others salvage metal from old IDF wrecks in the nearby target-practice zones, and there are a few who have chosen the traditional profession of smuggling goods from Jordan. But the most

popular occupation is rummaging in the nearby landfill.

In recent years the value of the land has increased dramatically, making the parties to the arrangement wealthy in comparison to their previous condition. One dunam costs about 100,000 Jordanian dinars (about NIS 650,000). In recent weeks, however, as a result of the visits by the CA, the villagers have discovered that their “model village” is slated to be beyond the planned route of the separation fence and to be annexed to Abu Dis. That knowledge strikes fear in the hearts of the Bedouin.

Although the CA transferred “state lands” to the tribe in order to ensure its members’ welfare, the residents of Abu Dis view these lands as their own property which the CA expropriated forcibly from them. The Jahalin fear that as soon as the fence

is finished the original owners of the lands in Abu Dis will demand that they leave.

The villagers have already received threatening hints about what will happen once the fence is finished. Abu Dis is a center of power for the Palestinian Authority, including the family of Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, a major landowner in the area. Mohammed Khalil is one of the mukhtars of the Jahalin village, and the former manager of a company that provided guards to building sites in Ma’ale Adumim.

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“First we were all forced to abandon our previous way of life and to live within a half-kilometer-square piece of land,” Khalil says in response to the future route of the fence. “Now they want to build a wall that will cut us off both from the desert and from workplaces in Ma’ale Adumim and to attach us to Abu Dis, with which we have no regular contact and which we don’t go into.”

In the past few months the CA has been conducting a survey to determine how many Bedouin are living within the area that will be defined by the planned fence. According to their research, there are between 1,000 and 1,500 people who are not part of the agreement hammered out in the 1990s. These include the Salamat clan (about 60 families); the Hamadin (about 25 families), who live in “Area C” which separates Ma’aleh Adumim (to the south and southwest) from the Jahalin village; the Abu Dahuk and ‘Arara clans

(about 50 families), who live along the Ma’ale Adumim-Jericho road and near the Mishor Adumim industrial area; and the Sayara clan, about 60 families that live in Wadi Al-Hindi, near the Kedar settlement on the south side of the fenced-in enclave of Ma’ale Adumim.

‘Where will we go?’In early July, the situation changed for the people living within Area C and those within the borders of the planned fence. Inspectors from the CA came and told them that the buildings they were living in were illegal and that the CA views them as squatters trespassing on state land. These visits continued for a few weeks. Earlier this month, the inspectors returned with evacuation and demolition orders. An examination by Haaretz revealed that at least 66 such orders were issued to the Salamat and Hamadin clans living in Area C. Each order specified the buildings, huts, wells and livestock shelters.

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The home of Mohammed Hamadin, 34 and a father of six, consists of a series of shacks. It is midway between Ma’ale Adumim and the Jahalin village. Hamadin jokes that his diwan, the room in Arab homes that serves as the parlor, rates five stars on the Bedouin scale: carpets that are carefully arranged and well brushed, a stand for the television and the stereo. “I don’t want houses or money,” he says, with a hint at his fellow Jahalin in the village. “Wouldn’t it be a pity to demolish a home like this? At first they came and started taking pictures of the huts and everything. Now they’ve issued 12 orders for all the huts. Later they started putting up random checkpoints on the access road. All at once we’ve gotten nervous. Where will we go? The flocks go east into the desert, and when the wall is built they won’t have anywhere to go and neither will we. We were here before the people

of Kedar and even before the people of Ma’ale Adumim. So move them to somewhere else.”The residents of other tents in the same area are frightened by the thought of having to evacuate soon, even though they have not received orders yet. Abu Yosef Saraya, the mukhtar of the residents of Wadi Al-Hindi - located in the desert a few hundred meters below the homes of Kedar - underwent demolitions and demolition attempts in 1997. Despite it all, he managed to build an elementary school and to keep his extended family together.“We didn’t ask for the residents of Kedar or Ma’ale Adumim to leave, so why are we being asked to go?” Saraya asks. “If we are forced westward, no one will let us in. And to the east there’s a firing zone that no one can enter. Only the CA knows where it wants to send us.”A few weeks ago the CA began negotiating with the Jahalin mukhtars

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in an attempt to reach an agreement over their evacuation, but their lawyer terms the offers proposed so far “shameful.” According to one of the proposals, the tribe would move south to what is called state land east of Sawahra Al-Sharqiya, whose residents are also Bedouin. Hamadin rejects this option, explaining that it will create more problems. He says that Sawahra alone has 12,000 heads of cattle and that the residents must bring in water from Al-Azariya. He fears conflicts over water.The areas in which the 66 evacuation and demolition orders have been issued are those that are supposed to be defined by the separation fence in the vicinity of Ma’ale Adumim, and no further warning is required before they are implemented. In theory, the IDF and the CA can begin tearing down the structures as soon as they are issued. Both the Bedouin and military sources say that the main purpose of the measure is to clear out all of the Bedouin tents from the planned enclave of Ma’ale Adumim. After the fence is built, the residents of Area C and the other areas, defined by the CA as “trespassers on state land,” will be driven out of the place they lived in for decades and it is not clear where they will go. And unlike the residents of the Jahalin village, these people are devoted to their old customs. They have large flocks of sheep and goats, and the fence is likely to pose an even more serious threat to their way of life.

The Civil Administration: Enforcing law and orderThe CA said in response to this article that “for several years the Bedouin have been squatting on state land and building illegally. The administration is acting in coordination with the heads of the Jahalin tribe and their attorney in order to enforce law and order. As part of the enforcement activities, the Bedouin have been given alternative plots on state land. The administration even undertakes the connection of the plots to the water supply and builds access roads, provides aid with respect to structures used as classrooms, kindergartens and a clinic, and in addition provides monetary compensation. The administration will continue to take action to evacuate the illegal squatters.”Lecker: ‘Chutzpah’Lecker, who has been representing the Jahalin since the mid-1990s, says that “the Civil Administration and the Israel Defense Forces keep accusing the Jahalin of “trespassing on state lands” despite the fact that they have been here for decades. The plan for the separation fence at Ma’ale Adumim is a plan with chutzpah that has absolutely nothing to do with security. The main victims are the Jahalin - a relatively weak and disunited population. The implementation of this plan will in effect drive them out of the area.”

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A) Background on the Jahalin BedouinThe Jahalin Bedouin are 1948 refugees originating from the area of Beersheba in the Naqab (Negev). The Jahalin Bedouin initially found shelter in the Hebron Governorate. In the 1960s they moved into the hilly Judean desert between Jerusalem and Jericho, next to Road No. 1. While all Jahalin Bedouin are 1948 refugees, only 80 to 85 percent are registered with UNRWA. Bedouin live a semi-nomadic lifestyle and – based on custom and tradition – use land

Interview with members of the Jahalin Bedouin Community near Ma’ale Adumim and Abu Dis

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This excerpt is from a September 2006 report “Displaced by the Wall – Forced Displacement as a Result of the West Bank Wall and its Associated Regime” published jointly by Badil Resource Center and the Norwegian Refugee Council/IDMC, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The entire report is available in pdf file version at:

h t t p : //www . b a d i l . o r g /Publications/Books/Wall-Report.pdf

they perceive as ‘empty’, i.e. not privately owned or used for crops.

The Jewish colony of Ma’ale Adumim was built in 1976.1 In 1996 and 1998, Jahalin Bedouin families were forced to relocate on so-called security grounds from the vicinity of Ma’ale Adumim to the Palestinian communities of Abu Dis and Al-Azariya. Remaining Bedouin families who were not issued an expulsion order stayed in the area around Ma’ale Adumim. However, as the colony expanded, and especially since the beginning of the construction of the Wall, they too face displacement. The Wall will include Ma’ale Adumim and the E1 Block2 in Israeli-annexed Jerusalem, thus once more redrawing the boundaries of Israel’s Jerusalem municipality. Approximately 3,000 Bedouin in the Ma’ale Adumim area are at risk of being forcibly displaced in this context. An Israeli military order was given to some families stipulating that the Ma’ale Adumim area must be empty of Bedouin by 2007. An Israeli lawyer has taken the case of the Bedouin to the Israeli High Court but a hearing is still pending. The lawyer aims to either move the route of the Wall so that the Bedouin can remain in a small area outside Ma’ale Adumim, or – at least – obtain compensation for their resettlement on Jerusalem’s municipal garbage dump in Abu Dis.

An additional problem is the possibility of life on the garbage dump in Abu Dis; the land is contaminated and even if the dump is closed and covered with earth, the area will remain uninhabitable for several years. Moreover, ownership of the land is contentious; the Israeli government argues it is state land, while the municipality of Abu Dis says it is theirs. A court case is pending as to the ownership of the land.

Living conditions are also harsh at the site near Ma’ale Adumim. Without electricity and often without running water, a two-hours’ donkey ride away from the closest urban area, and with no access to essential services, the Jahalin Bedouin live in “third world-like” conditions. Most of those visited lack essential food and potable

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B) Voices of Bedouin in the Ma’ale Adumim area Testimonies and accounts of the Jahalin Bedouin in the area of the Jewish colonies of Ma’ale Adumim and Kedar and the Palestinian town of Abu Dis were gathered during a day-long visit to the area. We visited two main gatherings where four to six families reside.3 One interview was provided by the head of the household, the second account was given by women. The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) facilitated access and discussion with the different families living in the Ma’ale Adumim “enclave”, which otherwise would have been inaccessible; the area is controlled by an Israeli checkpoint, and only UN or other essential vehicles (e.g. water tanks) are allowed in. These Jahalin Bedouin are located in an area which will be

water, basic shelter and housing, appropriate clothing, and essential medical services and sanitation. Kedar colony’s sewerage runs through the valley they inhabit.

A small school financed by the Palestinian Authority and other donors provides primary school education. Children usually do not continue their studies afterwards, as there is no school nearby. Boys are requested to help with the livestock while it is not well-perceived for girls to continue their education in far away or co-ed schools. Most families cannot afford to pay for education. There are also a number of cases of disabled and handicapped children, reportedly due to inter-marriage. Some families have sent these children to specialised centres, others prefer to keep the children with them, although no assistance or specialised services are available.

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completely encircled by the Wall; all of them hold West Bank ID cards.

Leave us alone to live our lives The head of the family conveyed that: the Wall is a way to grab land, it is not about security. It rather puts Palestinians in closed areas, prevents them from conducting their activities and destroys their social life.

We fear that we will be forced to move. Our way of life, raising livestock and collecting plants, is all we have. We do not want to and cannot adapt to a life in a village or town. I am convinced that the only way to counter the threat of displacement is through the Israeli High Court.4 I have no faith in the power or the willingness of the international community to address this injustice and our problems.

If there is no choice and we are relocated, we don’t want to be moved to the site of the garbage dump. It should at least be to a healthy place. Also we don’t want to be moved to land that belongs to Abu Dis. We have no money to buy land, and are afraid that our relocation in Abu Dis land will create tensions with the community there.

We men travel to towns and villages, mainly Abu Dis and Al-Azariya, on donkeys to go to work or buy essential goods, while the women and girls do not leave the house often. I also disagree with the idea of women studying at university or working. Women only leave the house once they are married or in the company of men.

Of course, there is a problem with health care. We travel to see a doctor only in very serious emergencies, such as snakebite or

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the settlers were giving us water, and their children played with ours. But now, we no longer talk to them, and the water from the colony has been cut. I keep contact with one settler only; I take care of his cattle. Nobody ever gave a hard time to the Bedouin, only the Israelis.

heart attack. Israeli ambulances are very expensive and medical treatment as well. No doctor or medical clinic comes to visit us here. Still, my household is not in need of humanitarian assistance, although many other families are.

In the past, we had quite good relations with the Jewish settlers;

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All we are asking for is to be left alone so we can continue living here and keep our animals.”

We are women, we want a better life!Four to six women and some 25 children described their concerns as follows: Our life has always been difficult, but the Wall has made it even more difficult. Many of our men have lost their jobs because of the closures in this intifada, and our economic situation has become worse. The children have become sick from the dust caused by the construction of the Wall.

Only UNRWA, once or twice a year, and OCHA come to visit us. UNRWA brings wheat flour, vegetable oil, and lentils, which is not enough. Sometimes the food is even expired. We leave our houses

only to buy essential goods, or if we or one of the children need medical treatment. Otherwise, we rarely go out and never for fun. We mainly take care of the children and the animals. We don’t have money to buy a variety of food. We have plenty of bread and tea, but lack vegetables and fruit.

We are women, and we want a better life, especially for our children. Do you think we like this life, to live in this house and for our children to be dirty? We would not mind relocating somewhere else, as long as our rights are respected and our conditions improve.

We would also like to send our children, including our daughters, to school and university. People should develop and adapt because life is changing. The problem with the men is that they do not say the whole truth, because they are

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on the site of the garbage dump, and near the Palestinian village of Al-Azzariya.

In the winter of 1997, the Israeli army arrived at their previous location near Ma’ale Adumim with approximately 2,000 soldiers and bulldozed the shelters of around 35 families without prior warning. With the support of peace groups, they remained in the area, living in the rubble of their shelters. The Palestinian Authority hired a lawyer and after a successful court ruling, they were allowed to rebuild. In 1998, however, a new ruling from the Israeli High Court ordered them to leave the area for the security of the settlers of Ma’ale Adumim.

The six men described the experience of their community:The families displaced in 1996 and 1998 received a small financial compensation for their relocation, between 15,000 and 30,000 NIS each (between $3,500 and $7,000). We rent the land where we currently live from the Israeli government for 49 years, although the land belongs to the municipality of Abu Dis. This makes us feel uncomfortable. Some families have built houses, while others have kept the old lifestyle and remained in their tents and shacks.

Of course displacement has changed our lifestyle, we have become more settled and like city people. But we insist in keeping

narrow-minded and proud. Women here marry young, at the age of 16–18, and have many children. We would like to learn about family planning. And we would like more help from UNRWA, a small health care centre, or visit from a doctor. But we are not angry. We know we are living difficult lives, but we hope you can help us.

C) Voices from those already displaced onto the garbage dump in Abu Dis After our visit of the Jahalin community in the Ma’ale Adumim area, we met Jahalin community leaders (six men) who were forcibly displaced in 1996 and 1998 as a result of the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim. Their community comprises approximately 1,000 persons. They live in the area of the Palestinian town of Abu Dis,

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our cattle. And we think that education is important, also for women. In the past, there was the idea that sending women out of the house, to school for instance, was a shame, but now, the mentality has changed. A woman should take care of herself the way she wants, and in any case, she would not be the only woman at university!

We worry what will happen if more families will be moved to our site. There is not enough space for everybody. If all 3,000 or so Jahalin are brought here, this will prevent us from keeping our cattle and lifestyle. Tensions with residents from Abu Dis may also arise as the land on which they would be relocated belongs to the municipality.

The biggest problems caused by the Wall are that it closes the access of our animals to grazing land and

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and isolation among vulnerable Palestinian populations. The Wall causes stress and anxiety and threatens traditional familial relationships. The city of Jerusalem has become further removed from these Palestinians.

This fact affects all aspects of their lives, from access to health services to the choice of a spouse. People’s lives have been changed; the security and stability provided by work and school, home and neighbourhood, have been shattered by the concrete Wall, checkpoints and permits. Women’s freedom of movement appears to have become particularly reduced, and many are feeling depressed and powerless. The Wall and its closure regime, combined with increased unemployment, have caused poverty and increased financial stress on families.

that we cannot go to Jerusalem for treatment at UNRWA clinics or the hospital and for services. There is also only a primary school (grade 1 to 6) in the neighbourhood and it is not finished. Some families have no cattle and no money to buy food. UNRWA’s support has been helpful for them.

We have formed a committee, the Arab al Jahalin Committee for Development, and we are looking for new ideas and projects to develop and improve our community. We know that staff of the UN and other organizations are working hard, but we do not see change or impact on our lives. We have lost our faith in the UN and its readiness to deal with the reality on the ground.

ConclusionThe Wall and its associated regime have aggravated division

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1 “Ma’ale Adumim was originally founded by a tiny group of settlers in 1976, but did not begin to expand significantly until 1982. It was at this time that the Israeli government

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declared the area to be ‘State Land’, in spite of the legal ownership of the Palestinian residents of Abu-Dis. Despite being 4.5 kilometres from Jerusalem, Ma’ale Adumim has been promoted as the new eastern limit of the city. Ma’ale Adumim is also slated to be the limit of the newly-conceived ‘Greater Jerusalem’, which is an Israeli plan to annex an enormous area of the West Bank and to confirm its 1967 annexation of Arab East Jerusalem.” Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), The Expansion of Ma’ale Adumim Colony and the Expulsion of Jahalin (Bethlehem, 24 February 1997). Available at: http://www.arij.org/paleye/maale/index.htm2 “The E1 Plan calls for the largest single settlement construction project in recent history. Bulldozers begun to clear Palestinian land north of the large Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in December 2004 but it was only on February 28 that the Israeli government announced its intention of building at least 3,500 new housing units on the site. The E1 Plan intends to appropriate approximately 12,500 dunums (125km2) of Palestinian lands belonging to the Palestinian villages of Al-Tur, ‘Anata, Al Eizaryieh, Abu Dis, Al Essawyieh and Hizma.” Dr. Jad Isaac & Fida Abdel Latif, Jerusalem: the strangulation of the Arab Palestinian city, (Bethlehem: Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), July 9, 2005). Available at: http://www.arij.org/pub/Colonization in Jerusalem/index-1.htm3 The visit was conducted on Tuesday, 15 August 2006.4 They have no help to pay for the Israeli lawyer representing their case and this causes great financial stress and pressure on all families.

While some people have already been forced to move and are trying to adapt, many are still awaiting their fate in an uncertain future.

They do not know whether they will be able to remain where they currently reside, on which side of the Wall they will live, or whether they will eventually be expelled. Still, they are determined to build a better future, preserving their lifestyle and a Palestinian presence in Jerusalem. All of them wish for international action and pressure on Israel to dismantle the Wall and its closure and permit system; many, however, have lost faith that this will happen.

The bulldozers came for Hamid Salim Hassan’s house just after dawn. Before the demolition began, the Bedouin family scrambled to gather what they could: a fridge, a pile of carpets, some plastic chairs,

a canister of cooking gas and a metal bed frame.

Now, with their house a wreck of smashed concrete and broken plastic pipes, Mr Hassan and his family are living in a canvas tent on a neighbour’s land. Their possessions are piled outside, along with boxes of supplies, including washing-up liquid, toothpaste, corned beef, wheat flour and tomato paste, provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

His tent is small but it affords Mr Hassan a compelling view of the future. Stretched out before him are the hilltops of the West Bank where he and his family, all Bedouin shepherds who fled Israel in 1948, used to live and graze their sheep. Standing there now is Ma’ale Adumim, one of the largest Jewish settlements which is illegal under international law. Snaking up the hillside towards his tent is

Negev desert nomads on the move again to make way for Israel’s barrierSecurity fence and spread of Jewish settlement risks way of life for thousandsRory McCarthy in AzariyaFebruary 28, 2007

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the West Bank barrier, also ruled unlawful in advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice. When complete, the steel and barbed wire barrier, which here will be 50m wide and include a ditch and patrol roads, will surround Ma’ale Adumim, attaching it to a greater Jerusalem.

For the 3,000 Bedouin living here, most from the Jahalin tribe, this presents an imminent crisis. “They came and destroyed my house to protect their wall,” said Mr Hassan, 62. “They really don’t have enough land already that they had to come and destroy my house? We’ve lost everything.”

Earlier this month the Israeli military destroyed seven huts and tents belonging to Bedouin living near a settlement in Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Another group of Bedouin living further east in the Jordan Valley have

been given two months to leave their homes near an Israeli military base and a Jewish settlement.

In each case the Israeli authorities argue the homes have been built without permits, but Palestinians say they are notoriously hard to obtain.

Bedouin culture has been eroded as a result. Refugees from the Negev desert in Israel who crossed after 1948, their grazing land has been squeezed by the growth of Palestinian towns, the rapid emergence of large Jewish settlements and lately the vast concrete and steel barrier. Most Bedouin live on land that under the Oslo accords was supposed to be unpopulated farmland where Israel has civilian and military control. Today most live in primitive shacks, many no longer keep animal herds and they have little in the way of formal land

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ownership documents. They have become one of the most vulnerable Palestinian communities.

Open and free Mr Hassan, 62, was born in Be’er Sheva, in what is now Israel. His family crossed during the 1948-9 war and moved to land near Azariya, the biblical town of Bethany, near Jerusalem. For years they continued their semi-nomadic existence, grazing their large flock of sheep on the hillside. In 1975 a group of 23 Jewish families founded the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, which has grown into a town of 35,000 people. Mr Hassan and other Bedouin were forced off the land. Most set up shacks on another hilltop. Ten years ago Mr Hassan found the money to buy a plot of land and built a house, giving up his Bedouin existence. “Life changes,” he said. “We had no other choice.” His seven children,

including his daughters, went to school and college, integrating into a new urban life.

Other Bedouin have also changed and work as construction labourers, many even employed in Ma’ale Adumim, building the settlement that has taken the land they once lived on.

“In the past people envied our lifestyle. The land was open and free. There were sheep and we were rich,” said his brother Saeed Hassan Salim, 50. “The occupation put us out of business. The Bedouin life is slipping away.” He now lives in a small shack that stands directly in the path of the barrier and is almost certain to be demolished soon.

“It seems the whole presence in this area is about to disappear,” said Jeremy Milgrom, 53, a rabbi and human rights activist who has worked with the Bedouin

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here for 15 years and is mapping their remaining communities. “We are asking why it is this has to happen. Why did the government assume the prerogative that they can absolutely redesign the entire landscape and eliminate the Bedouin?”

The Israeli military’s civil administration, which runs the West Bank, says the Bedouin were being offered alternatives. “They came and illegally put up their houses and tents. So we are working against this illegal construction,” said its spokesman Captain Tsidki Maman. “We are helping them to find a place where it will be OK for them to settle.”

The areas under consideration are all on the other side of the barrier from the Jewish settlements.

Capt Maman rejected the Bedouin argument that they have lived on

the land for years. “The Bedouin are travelling all the time. They can’t say they’ve been here for decades. It’s not like this,” he said.

In the late 1990s there was a similar move against the Bedouin around Ma’ale Adumim and several of

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their homes were demolished. But supported by Shlomo Lecker, an Israeli lawyer, the Bedouin were given a deal under which they would move to a new area, with plots of land, building permits and up to 40,000 shekels (then ₤7,000) per family. Around 50 families took up the offer, and now live in an area known as the Jebel. However, the deal was not without its problems: the houses are within a few hundred metres of Jerusalem’s main rubbish dump and on land that other Palestinians claim as their own.

Power and water The prospect of another move is being hotly debated within the Bedouin community. For some it is an opportunity to upgrade to houses with electricity and running water. Others say they would rather move into Palestinian towns

like Azariya but lack the money, while others still want to stay on their land and cling to what is left of their traditional lifestyle.

Mr Lecker, the lawyer, said in reality they will have little choice but to move. “They are being forced. They don’t have another option,” he said. “All these shacks are built without permits and there is a lot of pressure on them.”

Israel defends the barrier on the grounds of security, saying it has drastically reduced the number of suicide bombings. But Mr Lecker said: “There is absolutely no reason to build the wall there. This is to do with taking a huge chunk of land and making it part of a wider Jerusalem. It is the idea of taking the land without the people. Why not give them rights in Israel - identity cards, electricity and water? The land comes with the

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people and if you take the land and push out the people then what do you call it?”

Backstory Bedouin shepherds have lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic life in the Negev desert for centuries. After the 1948-9 war, when Israel was created, many were forced out or fled. Around 140,000 now live in the Negev, in Israel. Some serve in the Israeli military but around half live in villages not recognised by the state where they lack basic services and building permits.

Those that fled Israel crossed to Jordan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. In the West Bank, around 3,000 members of the Jahalin tribe live next to land taken by the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. In the 1990s several Bedouin families

were moved to make way for the settlement. Now other homes are being demolished, to make way for the West Bank barrier.

Guardian Unlimited © 2007

Urgent appeal on the situation of the Jahalin Bedouin living in the occupied Palestinian territory and threatened by forced displacement

Friday, 6 July 2007

Communication to:

Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Mr. Walter Kalin.

Special Representative to the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict, Mrs. Radhika Coomeraswamy.

Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-

discrimination in this context, Mr. Miloon Kothari.

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Mr. John Dugard.

Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen.

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Urgent Appeal to United Nations

1. IntroductionThis urgent appeal is brought by Agricultural Development Association (PARC), Al Haq, Applied Research Institute -Jerusalem (ARIJ), Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Defence for Children International/Palestine Section (DCI), Ensan Center for Democracy and Human Rights, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and the Jerusalem Legal Aid Center (JLAC) on behalf of the Jahalin Bedouin community and residents of the villages of Abu Dis, Al ‘Zaryya, Eastern Sawahrah, Al Za’ym, and Sheikh Sa’ad in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The petitioners are the Jahalin Bedouin, who face arbitrary displacement as a result of home demolitions and restricted access to land and essential services,

and the residents of the villages of Abu Dis, Al ‘Zaryya, Eastern Sawahrah, Al Za’ym, and Sheikh Sa’ad. The Bedouin and the villagers are affected by the E1 plan (the planned construction of a new settlement east of Jerusalem, labelled by Israel as an expansion of the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim) and the construction of the Wall in the occupied West Bank.1

The E1 plan and the route of the Wall around the E1-Ma’ale Adumim settlement block, if implemented, will encompass 52km2 and over 50,000 Jewish settlers, de facto annexing this part of the occupied West Bank to Israel’s ‘Greater Jerusalem’.2 This will require the removal of the Jahalin Bedouin, who live a traditional semi-nomadic life in the

of this community is reflected in the lack of concrete data on this population.3

Israel plans to displace the Bedouin onto lands belonging to the adjacent Palestinian villages of Abu Dis, Anata, Al ‘Zaryya, Eastern Sawahrah, Al Za’ym, and Sheikh Sa’ad. These villages on the eastern periphery of Jerusalem are host communities to the Jahalin Bedouin who live semi-nomadically on their land. In some cases in the past, the Bedouin were forcibly displaced onto private properties belonging to the residents of these communities. These villages are effectively surrounded by the Wall and are affected in two ways: to the West, they are cut off from Jerusalem; and to the East, they will be disconnected from other parts of the West Bank, as the route of the Wall will in the future sever

area, to permanent clusters planned by Israel outside of the route of the Wall. To this end, the Bedouin are facing arbitrary displacement and a threat to their traditional way of life.

The affected Jahalin Bedouin community includes up to 2,700 persons and is scattered among 31 localities on the hills and roads in the desert around the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and near the villages of Anata, Abu Dis, and Al’ Zaryya (see annex 1). The Bedouin are a vulnerable group because they are an indigenous people, refugees (many are both refugees and have been internally displaced as well), and they have no adequate housing nor secure land tenure. The community is largely made up of women and children. The marginal status

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the central West Bank (greater Jerusalem) from the northern and southern parts, effectively dividing the West Bank into three separate segments.

All the Bedouin and surrounding villages live under Israeli military occupation and are protected persons under international humanitarian law.

2. Situation of the Jahalin Bedouin and adjacent villagesa) Legal Status The Jahalin Bedouin are 1948 Palestinian refugees originating from the area of Bir el Sabe’e (Beersheva) in the Naqab (Negev), now located in Israel. While all Jahalin Bedouin are 1948 refugees, only 80 to 85 percent are registered with UNRWA. Most have subsequently been internally

displaced within the occupied West Bank. The majority hold West Bank identification cards.

Residents of the villages of Abu Dis, Al ‘Zaryya, Eastern Sawahrah, Al Za’ym, and Sheikh Sa’ad hold either West Bank or Jerusalem ID cards.

b) Living conditions

The living conditions of the Bedouin have always been difficult, but they are becoming harsher as they are prevented from pursuing their traditional way of life and maintaining their livestock, their main source of livelihood. The Bedouin live a semi-nomadic life based on custom and traditional use of land for inhabiting and grazing. Without electricity and often without running water and with little access to essential services, the Jahalin Bedouin live in “Third World-like” conditions. Many lack

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Jerusalem neighborhoods, but since the establishment of the permit regime in the mid-1990s and the construction of the Wall in 2002, access to markets has been substantially reduced. This lack of access led to a reduction of women’s freedom of movement and a change in their socio-economic role.

There are only two Palestinian Authority (PA) primary schools for the Jahalin Bedouin; one at

Wadi Abu Hindi which is attended by around 100 children from grade one to eight; and the other on the hill (hereinafter Jabal) near Abu Dis and Al ‘Zaryya which has over 130 students. The school at Wadi Abu Hindi is built of steel and does not have electricity. Other children go to more distant schools, such as the Anata PA school or the UNRWA ‘Qbit Jabir school in Jericho. Access to educational

essential food and potable water, basic and habitable housing, appropriate clothing, essential medical services, sanitation, access to educational services and secure land tenure.

Since the implantation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in the 1970s, the Bedouin have been forced to alter their way of life, as available land decreased and many were displaced as a result of threats and/or home demolitions. Many

now work or look for work in the Jewish settlements and have become semi-urbanized. The majority struggle to preserve their livestock. The lack of access to grazing land combined with the presence of the Wall and the permit system has further affected the Bedouin’s capacity to maintain their livestock and earn a living. Bedouin women used to sell their products (e.g. cheese, yogurt, animal fat) in

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services has become more difficult while the cost of transportation has increased; children go by donkey or by bus (which is very expensive) or walk long distances. Children usually do not continue their studies after primary school because boys seek work in the settlements or are requested to help with the livestock and it is not well-perceived for girls to continue their education in far-away or co-ed schools. Moreover, most families cannot afford to pay

for education and/or transportation fees. As a result, the illiteracy rate is high, particularly among women who often stop school at the 6th grade.

Access to health care varies according to the Bedouin’s proximity to urban centers (Anata, Al ‘Zaryya, Jerusalem, Jericho, and Ramallah). Access to medical centers has, however, become

more difficult and costly as a result of movement restriction and the Wall. Staff from UNRWA medical clinics rarely visit Bedouin communities, especially those in remote locations. In the past, the Bedouin used to go to hospital in Jerusalem or to UNRWA medical clinics, but that requires a permit, which is increasingly difficult to obtain.4 Restricted access to Jerusalem has led to many complications, particularly in

the provision of emergency medical services. An 11-month old baby died in January 2007 as a result of breathing complications. The baby needed urgent medical attention and the family did not have time to apply for a permit to access East Jerusalem’s hospitals. Giving birth has also become a problem, as women require a permit to access hospitals in East Jerusalem while

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and the Jerusalem garbage dump. In Anata, there is open sewage; and the Bedouin from Wadi Abu Hindi and the Jabal live a few hundred meters from the garbage dump, which has contaminated water and land and from which emanates a very strong odor.

The adjacent villages of Anata, Abu Dis, Al ‘Zaryya, Eastern Sawahrah, Al Za’ym, and Sheikh Sa’ad are cut off from Jerusalem by the Wall, which means that many inhabitants are unable to visit their families or access their workplace in Jerusalem and risk losing their Jerusalem ID. Most residents can only reach Jerusalem through checkpoints; moreover, holders of West Bank ID need a permit, which is increasingly difficult to obtain. A number of holders of Jerusalem ID have already moved west of the Wall

the nearest medical center may be hours away if no car is available. On some occasions, women deliver at home or at checkpoints (five reported cases of women giving birth at checkpoints in Abu Dis and nearby villages). Post-natal care is practically nonexistent. In a number of instances, ambulances have been delayed or unable to reach the hospital in Jerusalem, leading to the death of heart patients and to complications for children injured in accidents. Bedouin who can afford it are now going to private clinics or to Ramallah for medical treatment. In other cases, lack of money and access prevents them from reaching medical care at all.

Some areas inhabited and used by the Bedouin are polluted by sewage from the Jewish settlements, improper sanitation

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in order to preserve their right to residency in the city.

c) Ongoing displacement since 1948The displacement of the Jahalin Bedouin, which began in 1948, has continued throughout the 1970s, and now threatens the existence of the community. Part of this refugee community was displaced for a second time in the mid-1970s to make room for the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.5 When Ma’ale Adumim was established in 1976, hundreds were arbitrarily displaced and forcibly relocated in an unnaturally tight cluster to the south-west of Ma’ale Adumim. Today, this group is facing displacement for the third time. Since the mid-1990s, Jahalin Bedouin communities have received

hundreds of military orders, most of which are stop-work orders and demolition orders. The exact number of military orders issued and pending is unclear, but it is estimated to range from 100 to 150. For instance, nearly all Jahalin Bedouin families near Anata have had their homes destroyed two, and in some cases, three times since 1998, and still have pending demolition orders.

Between 1997 and 1999, another 120 families were arbitrarily displaced on so-called security grounds from the vicinity of Ma’ale Adumim to the land of Abu Dis to make room, once again, for the expansion of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement. The first group of Bedouin challenged the displacement in court, but were eventually physically removed by the army in the middle of

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victims of arbitrary displacement as no appropriate remedy has been offered by the Occupying Power.

Israel claims that the shacks in which the Bedouin currently live have been illegally built on ‘state land’. This land, however, belongs to Palestinian residents of the surrounding villages. Israel also claims that the Bedouin lack permits, which the Israeli authorities grant to settlers but not to Palestinians in Areas B and C.7

The Bedouin affirm that Israeli officials, either from the army or the Civil Administration,8 as well as their lawyer, have informed them that they are required to leave the area that will be encompassed by the Wall. In response to an article published in Ha’aretz in September 2005, the Israeli Civil Administration stated that “the administration will continue to take action to evacuate the illegal

the winter in 1997 to shipping containers onto the Jabal, next to the garbage dump in Abu Dis. In 1998, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed deep concern at “the situation of the Jahalin Bedouin families who were forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands to make way for the expansion of the Ma’aleh Adumim and Kedar settlements” and deplored “the manner in which the Government of Israel has housed these families - in steel container vans in a garbage dump in Abu Dis in subhuman living conditions.”6 A second group who used a different lawyer in 1998 were able to move to the Jabal at a slower pace. In 2004, the last families were displaced onto the Jabal. While these Bedouin eventually received some form of financial compensation through an agreement with the Israeli authorities, they remain

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squatters.”9 Statements made by Israeli officials also appear to confirm the intentions of the government to make the ‘E1-Ma’ale Adumim bubble’ a ‘Palestinian-free area’ and to assign the route of the Wall as the future border of the state of Israel.10

d) Resettlement opportunities

One feature of Israel’s policy is to reduce land available to Palestinians by restricting their access to land, essential services and goods, prohibiting construction and demolishing homes built in Areas B and C. As land becomes increasingly scarce, so are viable resettlement opportunities. This has led many Bedouin to conclude: “We have nowhere to go”.

Israeli authorities have envisaged resettling the Bedouin onto land on the Jabal in Abu Dis, but the

land is on the site of the Jerusalem garbage dump, which is polluted and uninhabitable. Moreover, the land is owned by private residents of Abu Dis, who are reluctant to see the Bedouin resettled on their land again. The land slated for resettlement is also unsustainable for the size and needs of the community. Other resettlement opportunities have been verbally advanced by the Civil Administration, but no decision has yet been made. However, considering the way the Bedouin were displaced in the past, it is unlikely that Israeli authorities will propose a sustainable and viable resettlement opportunity that will meet the right to remedy and reparation of the Bedouin.

e) Position of the Jahalin Bedouin and adjacent communitiesMost Bedouin communities are aware of their impending

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Eastern Sawahrah, Al Za’ym, and Sheikh Sa’ad, on whose land the Bedouin live, want the Bedouin to stay where they are and have asked the international community to take action against the construction of the Wall and prevent the displacement of the Bedouin.

f) Current legal effortsOver the years, lawyers representing the Bedouin have brought over 20 cases to the Israeli High Court. None, however, have prevented their displacement. At best, the High Court froze the eviction and demolition orders until the Israeli government clarifies the status of the Bedouin, a process which is still pending. It is unclear at this stage whether the homes of the Bedouin will be demolished and they will be displaced or whether they will be allowed to stay in the area.

displacement and those that have received military orders have hired a lawyer to try to prevent their eviction and the destruction of their homes. Others have only been verbally informed by Israeli authorities that they have to evacuate the area and have not yet engaged in legal proceedings. In general, however, Bedouin want to remain in their homes and improve their living conditions, particularly access to water, health care and education. Throughout the years, the Bedouin have proved steadfast in resisting displacement. While many are aware that displacement may be unavoidable, they refuse to move onto land belonging to other Palestinians and have expressed a strong desire to preserve their traditional nomadic way of life while improving their living conditions.

Palestinian residents of the nearby villages of Abu Dis, Al ‘Zaryya,

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There is also a case brought by the residents of Abu Dis before the Israeli High Court concerning the route of the Wall. The aim is to alter the route of the Wall so that the residents of Abu Dis can keep some of their land, which would also allow some of the Bedouin to remain in the small area south-west of Ma’ale Adumim. The Court should rule on the case on the 13th of May 2007.

3. Legal & political implications of the displacement of the Jahalin Bedouina) The displacement is not consistent with international law

Although collectively or privately belonging to Palestinians, Israeli authorities have classified the land as ‘state land’ and have imposed a strict building permit regime on the

area. The demolition of homes as a result of lack of building permit is discriminatory because Israel does not grant building permits to Palestinians in Areas B and C while it does to Jewish settlers living in the same area. The building permit regime violates the principle of non-discrimination enshrined in article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which Israel is a party since 1979, article 2 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a party since 1991, and articles 13 and 53 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (hereinafter Fourth Geneva Convention) to which Israel is a party since 1951.

Moreover, the Wall and its associated regime, as well as Jewish settlements, do not

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constitute legitimate grounds under international law to permit the displacement of the Jahalin Bedouin. The Jewish settlements and resulting population transfer violate article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitute a grave breach according to article 147 of the same Convention while the Wall and its associated regime have been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion on 9th July 2004 on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

b) The displacement is tantamount to the annexation of territory by force and violates the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people

Through land confiscation and home demolition for the purpose of the construction of the Wall and the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim, Israel is redefining the boundaries of ‘Greater Jerusalem’ and de facto annexing more Palestinian territory. The annexation of territory by force violates article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations and article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which clearly stipulates that “protected persons who are in occupied territory shall not be deprived, in any case or in any manner whatsoever, of the benefits of the present Convention by [...] any annexation by the [Occupying Power] of the whole or part of the occupied territory.” Also, both the Wall and the settlements contravene

the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people to “freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development” and “freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources” as enshrined in article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to both of which Israel is a party since 1991.11 They also constitute additional Israeli unilateral measures creating ‘facts on the ground’ which detrimentally affect final status issues, notably the feasibility of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state.

c) The displacement amounts to forced population transfer The displacement of the Jahalin Bedouin constitutes the crime of population transfer defined in article 7(2)(d) of the Rome Statute as

the “forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law” which coupled with article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and article 8(2b)(viii) of the Rome Statute, amounts to a war crime, namely “the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory.” The displacement of the Bedouin thus violates the prohibition against forced population transfer as stipulated in article 11 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and constitutes a crime against humanity and a war crime.

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d) The displacement constitute elements of the crime of apartheid

The arbitrary displacement of the Bedouin is prohibited under Principle 6 of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as it is “based on policies of apartheid, ‘ethnic cleansing’ or similar practices aimed at/or resulting in altering the ethnic, religious or racial composition of the affected population.”

The displacement constitutes elements of the crime of apartheid as defined in article 2 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. That is, the displacement is based on some of the inhuman acts delineated in article 2 which are part of an Israeli policy and practice “of racial segregation and discrimination… committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining one

racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” Notably, the measures taken by Israel to arbitrarily displace the Palestinian Bedouin, when combined with the Wall and settlements and its associated regime, violate their basic rights to housing, freedom of movement and residence, thereby constituting the inhuman acts under article 2(c) and 2(d) of preventing the Bedouin “from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group” and of “divid[ing] the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group.” In this context, it is worth noting that the definition of racial discrimination in article 1 of the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms

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of Racial Discrimination includes discrimination based on national origin.

Moreover, Article 7(2)(h) of the Rome Statute states that inhuman acts such as forcible transfer “committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime” constitute crimes against humanity on the grounds of apartheid.

e) The displacement violates the right to an adequate standard of living

Home demolitions and arbitrary displacement violate the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of the person and of his family, including sufficient and adequate food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security. In 2002, the Committee on the Right of the Child expressed deep concern at the “large-scale demolition of houses and infrastructure in the occupied Palestinian territories, which constitutes a serious violation of the right to an adequate standard of living for children in those territories.”12 Home demolitions impede upon the right of the child to physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.

The arbitrary displacement of the Jahalin Bedouin thus violates article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

f) The displacement constitutes unlawful interference with one’s privacy, family, home and violates the right to be protected against such interference

Home demolitions and arbitrary displacement violate the right to be protected against any unlawful attack against one’s privacy, family and home as enshrined in article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 16 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The displacement also contravenes the right to choose one’s residence as enshrined in article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

g) The displacement affects the social, cultural, economic and political system of an indigenous, semi-nomadic community

Unlike their counterparts in the Middle East, the Bedouin in the

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occupied Palestinian territories have had to change their way of life as a result of the difficult conditions imposed by the occupation and colonization of their land. The ongoing demolition of homes and arbitrary displacement fail to recognize, respect and promote the full realization of the social, economic and cultural rights of the Bedouin with respect for their social and cultural identity, customs and traditions. It also fails to consider the best interest of the child as enshrined in article 3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The lack of respect by the occupying power for the Bedouin, their honor, their family rights, and their manners and customs also contravene article 27 of the IV Geneva Convention.

4. Implications for other Bedouin communities throughout the occupied West Bank

Other Palestinian Bedouin communities are also affected by the reduction of available land to Palestinians; a systematic Israeli policy in the occupied West Bank, particularly in Area C (59 percent of the West Bank). For instance, approximately 15,000 Bedouin residing in the Jordan Valley are harassed by the army, have received demolition orders and have seen their freedom of movement and access to land

and essential services restricted. Bedouin communities south of Hebron and Qalqilya are also threatened by similar measures and are facing displacement because of the Wall, land confiscation and the Jewish settlements.

5. Given the imminent forcible transfer of the Jahalin Bedouin sanctioned and carried out by the Israeli government, urgent measures are requested. We, Al Haq, Applied Research Institute -Jerusalem (ARIJ), Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Ensan Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Agricultural Development Association (PARC), The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and Defence for Children International/Palestine Section (DCI) call upon the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, the Special Representative to the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict and the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied

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since 1967, and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people to request of the government of Israel the following:

• Stop the construction of and dismantle the Wall and annul all related legal acts pertaining to the administrative regime established, particularly the permit and closure system, as stipulated in the International Court of Justice advisory opinion and UN Resolutions ES-10/13 of 21 October 2003 and A/RES/ES-10/15 of 2 August 2004;

• Explain how the eviction/displacement of the Jahalin Bedouin is consistent with Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under humanitarian law and under international human rights law and prove that eviction/displacement is unavoidable and in accordance with international human rights law, undertaken solely for the

purpose of promoting the general welfare of the protected population, reasonable and proportional, and regulated so as to ensure full and fair rehabilitation of the displaced;

• Allow the Jahalin Bedouin to remain where they presently reside, and cease issuing eviction, home demolition and stop-work orders;

• Cancel all pending eviction, home demolition and stop-work orders;

• Refrain from taking any measures that lead to the arbitrary displacement, i.e. population transfer, of the Jahalin Bedouin, including practices of home demolition and land confiscation;

• Cancel the E1 plan and planned expansion of the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.

• Improve the conditions of life and work and levels of health and education through the participation and cooperation of the Bedouin and ensure the availability and accessibility of employment;

• Recognize the rights of the Jahalin Bedouin to the land they traditionally inhabit and use for their subsistence and traditional activities;

• Give building permits to Palestinians, including the Jahalin Bedouin, residing in Areas B and C of the occupied West Bank; and,

• Allow internally displaced persons in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Jahalin Bedouin, to return to their homes and places of habitual residence in accordance with international law, the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons.

• Allow Palestinian refugees, including the Jahalin Bedouin, to return to their homes of origin in Israel, and respect their right

to a remedy and reparation, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantee of non-repetition in accordance with UN Resolution 194, the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, and the UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons. To this end, we respectfully invite the Special Representatives on internally displaced persons and children in armed conflict and the Special Rapporteurs on housing, the occupied Palestinian territories and indigenous people to undertake the following:• Send urgent communications to the highest levels of the Israeli government addressing the above;

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• Include recommendations for appropriate intervention by UN bodies on the case of the Jahalin Bedouin in the occupied Palestinian territories based on the reporting requirements of each individual mandate;

• Visit the occupied Palestinian territories to assess the situation of internal displacement, including the situation of Jahalin Bedouin and other Palestinian communities facing arbitrary displacement; and,

• Monitor and report on the Jahalin Bedouin and other Palestinian communities displaced or vulnerable to displacement in the occupied Palestinian territories under the reporting mechanism established by UN Security Council Resolution 1612.

Footnotes:1 “The E1 Plan calls for the largest single settlement construction project in recent history. Bulldozers began to clear Palestinian land north of the large Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in December 2004 but it was only on February 28 that the Israeli government announced its intention of building at least 3,500 new housing units on the site. The E1 Plan intends to appropriate approximately 12,500 dunums (12.5 km2) of Palestinian lands belonging to the Palestinian villages of Al-Tur, ‘Anata, Al Eizaryieh, Abu Dis, Al Essawyieh and Hizma.” Dr. Jad Isaac & Fida Abdel Latif, Jerusalem: the strangulation of the Arab Palestinian city, (Bethlehem: Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), July 9, 2005). Available at: http://www.arij.org/pub/Colonization in Jerusalem/index-1.htm.

2 Israel illegally annexed occupied East Jerusalem (70 km²) to west Jerusalem in a series of administrative orders and laws passed between 1967 and 1980. Since then, Israel has continued to de facto annex occupied West Bank land to what it has termed ‘Greater Jerusalem.’ The UN General Assembly and Security Council have declared that “administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and in particular the recent ‘basic law’ on Jerusalem, are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith.” UNSC Resolution 478, 20 August 1980. See also Security Council Resolutions 267 (1969); 298 (1971); 446 (1979); 465 (1980); 605 (1987).

3 Information collected for this report is based on discussions with Jahalin Bedouin communities.

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4 In order to receive a permit, it is required to obtain a report from the hospital (usually sent by fax) stating that they, or their relative, need medical treatment. Without this report, it is practically impossible to obtain a permit.5 “Ma’ale Adumim was originally founded by a tiny group of settlers in 1976, but did not begin to expand significantly until 1982. It was at this time that the Israeli government declared the area to be ‘State Land’, in spite of the legal ownership of the Palestinian residents of Abu-Dis. Despite being 4.5 kilometres from Jerusalem, Ma’ale Adumim has been promoted as the new eastern limit of the city. Ma’ale Adumim is also slated to be the limit of the newly- conceived ‘Greater Jerusalem’, which is an Israeli plan to annex an enormous area of the West Bank and to [consolidate] its 1967 annexation of Arab East Jerusalem.” Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), The Expansion of Ma’ale Adumim Colony and the Expulsion of Jahalin (Bethlehem, 24 February 1997). Available at: http://www.arij.org/paleye/maale/index.htm.6 UN Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights : Israel, E/C.12/1/Add.27, 4 December 1998, para. 12.7 The Oslo Accords divided the West Bank in three zones: Areas A, B and C. Areas A are under Palestinian civil and internal security control; Areas B are under Palestinian civil control and Israeli security control; and, Area C is under exclusive Israeli control. 8 The Civil Administration is the arm of the Israel Defense Ministry responsible for non-security matters in the occupied Palestinian territories. 9 “Both the Bedouin and military sources say that the main purpose of the measure is to

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clear out all of the Bedouin tents from the planned enclave of Ma’aleh Adumim.” Arnon Regular, “Nowhere to go - Bedouin expelled by Ma’ale Adumim Wall,” Ha’aretz, 23 September 2005.10 The Minister of Justice and Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni affirmed that “the wall is the future border of the state of Israel” and that “the High Court of Justice, in its ruling over the fence, is drawing the country’s border.” Yuval Yoaz, “Justice Minister: West Bank fence is Israel’s future border,” Ha’aretz, 1 December 2005. 11 International Court of Justice (ICJ), The Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, 9 July 2004, para. 133.12 UN, Concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child : Israel. CRC/C/15/Add.195, 9 October 2002, para. 50.

Endnote:The photographs show Jahalin Bedouin communities and lifestyle in the Ma’ale Adumim/Greater Jerusalem region, including those Bedouin already displaced and moved to the Jabal, or those currently facing eviction because of the Ma’ale Adumim Wall and E1 development. Photos were taken by ActiveStills Co-operative during research interviews by Badil in August 2006, during demolition in February 2007 of Bedouin homes and, more recently, to record the Wall infrastructure.