Civil Administration plans to expel tens of thousands of Bedouins from Area C

[Jefferson23]

10 Oct. '11


The Civil Administration (CA) is planning to expel the Bedouin communities living in Area C in the West Bank, transferring some 27,000 persons from their homes. In the first phase, planned as early as January 2012, some 20 communities, comprising 2,300 persons, will be forcibly transferred to a site near the Abu Dis refuse dump, east of Jerusalem. These communities currently live in the area of the Ma'ale Adummim settlement and nearby settlements; half of them live in 1E, the area designated by Israel for future expansion of Ma’ale Adummim. In the second phase, the CA plans to expel communities from the Jordan Valley. One option being considered is building a new permanent town for these communities next to a-Nabi Musa, west of Jericho. According to the CA's schedule, the plan will be implemented in three to six years.

The CA announced its plan to "relocate" the Bedouin communities to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The main reason given was the claim that the Bedouins do not have rights to the land on which they currently live and that all their construction has been done without permits. The CA did not consult with representatives of the communities before adopting the plan, and ignored the anticipated harm to these communities’ way of life. Most of the communities informed the UN agencies that they would object to the plan.

About 80 percent of the Bedouins living in what Israel terms the "Adummim bloc", who are expected to be expelled in coming months, are 1948 refugees who once lived in the Negev, in southern Israel. Two-thirds are under age 18. All of them have lived for decades in unrecognized villages. Demolition orders have already been issued against most of the structures in the communities – tin structures and tents and a school in the Khan al-Ahmar community. In two communities – Wadi Abu Hindi (350 residents) and al-Muntar (300 residents) – demolition orders have been issued against all the structures in the community.

None of the communities are hooked up to the electricity grid and only half are connected to the water system. They do not receive vital services in the areas of health, education and others. They live a traditional life based on sheep and goat farming, but their access to grazing land and to markets is limited. According to OCHA’s figures, most of the residents in these communities suffer from food insecurity.

remainder: http://www.btselem.org/settlements/20111010_forced_eviction_of_bedouins

[Jefferson23]

1. The settler leader who led Israelis to disaster

Hanan Porat understood that if he could fill Judea and Samaria with dozens of settlements and hundreds of thousands of settlers, no government would be able to evacuate the territories and arrive at a peace agreement.

By Nehemia Shtrasler

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-settler-leader-who-led-israelis-to-disaster-1.388656

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[aquart]

3. What a smarmy, bigoted piece of deliberate association.

When what is most noticeable about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is how bloody hard the Israelis have tried NOT to kill Palestinians even when they really really really really want to.

[azurnoir]

4. So Israel will 'kindly' move these people in next to garbage dump, that

Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry has warned is a health hazard? But not to despair in 3 to 6 years Israel may build them a town

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I don't know why everyone complains about this humanitarian attempt to help the Bedouin!

Israel is only doing it out of a deep concern for them and because it cares so deeply!! ;)

[Scurrilous]

5. Israeli plan to relocate 30,000 Bedouin a gross injustice, say researchers

Critics say plan to appropriate land from unrecognized village would not grant adequate reparation nor sufficient compensation for those unable to receive proper documentation to purchase new homes.

<snip>

"Researchers who have spent much of the past several decades studying and documenting the Bedouin Arabs of Israel's Negev Desert claim that a government plan to relocate tens of thousands of Bedouin would be a gross injustice.

Ethnographer Clinton Bailey, who has authored volumes about Bedouin poetry, proverbs and legal traditions, says he is pessimistic about the Prawer Plan, which would effectively extinguish the Bedouin's land claims without adequate compensation.

The Prawer plan, which the government approved on September 11 and is supposed to take effect in three weeks' time, would appropriate land where between 20,000 and 30,000 Bedouin are living in villages that are not recognized by the state and which do not receive government services, such as electric power and other utilities.

Some of those Bedouin will be compensated for their losses, receiving either a cash payout or deed to another piece of real estate elsewhere in the country. But not all of the Bedouin who have land claims are able to produce documentation that meets the requirements laid out in the Prawer plan.

"They're giving the Bedouin much too little, much less than they deserve," says Bailey, who has reported on Bedouin life since the late 1960s. "It doesn't really relate to all the Bedouin population, whereas it should, in terms of reparations for land that's been taken, in land or in money."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-plan-to-relocate-30-000-bedouin-a-gross-injustice-say-researchers-1.391251

[Jefferson23]

6. The peace initiative is riveting, isn't it? So much effort put forth and such. n/t