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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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ICAHD UK (and Europe)BM ICAHD UK
London WC1N 3XX
T033 000 [email protected]
www.icahduk.orgRegistered Company No. 6060984
Contact UsICAHD-USA
P.O. Box 2565,
Chapel Hill, NC 27515T +1-919-277-0632
www.icahdusa.org501(c)3 tax exempt
ICAHD12 Hillel St. 91020 Jerusalem
P.O. Box 2030T +9722-624-5560
F +9722-622-1530
www.icahd.org
ICAHD FinlandMerikorttikuja 7 as 6Helsinki 00960
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