Nowhere Left to Go

Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin

Ethnic Displacement
The Palestinian-Bedouin communities
living in the hills to the east of Jerusalem
are at an exceedingly growing risk of forced
ethnic displacement. The communities have
been informed by the Israeli authorities
that they have no option but to leave the
area, as part of 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.
The Bedouin homes are currently located
in an area that holds strategic significance
for further expansion of illegal Israeli
settlements. This includes the E1 plan,
which foresees the expansion of Maale
Adumim, an illegal Israeli settlement, and
its linkage to Judaized East Jerusalem and
Jordan Valley settlements. If implemented,
these plans, along with Seperation Barrier
construction in the area, risk preventing
Palestinian growth and development
and disrupting the territorial contiguity
of a future Palestinian state. The forced
displacement of the Bedouin would also
be detrimental to their semi-nomadic way
of life. As available land shrinks, Bedouin
refugees are faced 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 will
contribute to improving their conditions,
projects designed help the Bedouin to
build sustainable livelihoods and resist
forced ethnic displacement and the Israeli
Occupation.
Te Arab al-Jahalin tribe were originally
based in the northern Negev, but were
forcefully evicted from the area, across the
1949 armistice lines by Israeli authorities.
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Prior to Israels 1967 Occupation of the
West Bank, they were herding their livestock
between Ramallah, Wadi Qelt and Jerusalem,
maintaining the traditional Bedouin lifestyle.
Afer 1967, Israel expropriated most of the
Arab al-Jahalin lands and tribe members were
confned to an area east of Jerusalem.
Troughout the 1990s there were 120 orders
issued for the eviction of the Arab al-Jahalin
Bedouin. Mass evictions occurred in 1996
when 1,400 members of the Arab al-Jahalin
tribe were evicted from their encampments,
to allow for the expansion of Maale Adumim.
Tose evicted were fnally resettled in a
village named al-Jabal, on expropriated
Palestinian land, on a hillside outside of al-
Eizariya, only 300 meters (980 feet) away
from the Jerusalem Municipal dump.
In November 2011, an Israeli Civil
Administration delegation visited the
community of Khan Al-Ahmar, to convey
I was born here, I've
spent most of my life here,
and I want to stay here.
Ei d Hami s Swelem Jahali n
a message that plans are well underway
to transfer the Bedouin from the Maale
Adumim area to al-Jabal near al-Eizariya, the
location of the Jerusalem municipal garbage
dump. Plans for forced transfer are therefore
imminent, and ICAHD calls for international
mobilization to prevent such an occurrence,
to hold Israeli duty bearers accountable and
deter them from committing grave violations
of international law.
Unlteo Natlons Otce tor tbe Coorolnatlon ot Humanltarlan Attalrs
8LDOU|N RLLOCAT|ON: THRLAT OF D|SPLACLMLNT |N THL [LRUSALLM PLR|PHLRY
October 2011
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A
E1
East Jerusalem
'Anata
Al 'Eizariya
Abu Dis
Hizma
Beit Hanina
Shu'fat
At Tur
Wadi al Joz
Silwan
Ath Thuri
Al 'Isawiya
Ras al-
'Amud
Old
City
Shu'fat Camp
Az Za'ayyem
As Suwwana
As Sawahira
ash Sharqiya
Ash Shayyah
Jabal al-
Mukabbir
As Sawahira
al Gharbiya
Sheikh Jarrah
Bab az-
Zahira
Pisgat Ze'ev
Ma'ale Adummim
East
Talpiyyot
French Hill
Ma'alot
Dafna
Newe Ya'akov
Ramat
Eshkol
Qedar
Almon
Kfar Adumim
Jewish
Quarter
Hebrew
University
Mishor Adumim
Ramat Shlomo
Mishor Adumim
Industrial Area
Hizma
Wadi An-Nar
Az Za'ayyem
Shufat Camp
Kasarat
Nkheila2
Nkheila1
Abu Nwar
Ghawaliya
Al Muntar
Wadi el Qilt
Wadi al Awaj
Wadi Sneysel
Um al Asaawij
Jabal al Baba
Wadi Abu Hindi
Latoon Abu Jumaa
Bir al Maskoob 'B'
Wadi el Qilt
Ka'abneh
2 - School
4 - Kurshan
1 - Mihtawish
3 - Ab al Helw
Za'atreh Az-
Za'im Bedouins
5 - Abu Fellah
6 - Wadi Abu Sidr
Bir al Maskoob 'A'
Khan al Ahmar Communities
#
60
#
1
a
0 1 2 0.5
km
Planned
Relocation
Israeli-declared
Jerusalem
Municipal Boundary
E1
Palestinian Community At-risk
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Checkpoint
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Partial Checkpoint
T Tunnel/Underpass
Planned Barrier
Barrier Constructed/
Under Construction
Main Road
No Man's Land/Green Line
Palestinian Community Built-up
Israeli Closed Military Area
Oslo Area (B)
Oslo Area (C)
Israeli Military Base
Israeli Settlement Built-up
Israeli Settlement Outerlimit
Israeli-declared Jerusalem
Municipal Boundary
Map Legend
& Israeli Inner-Settlement
?
A
Israeli Police
Headquarters
Israeli Settlement
Municipal Area
Bedouin Protection Committee
Te Bedouin Protection Committee, recently
formed, is a representative body assembled in
response to an increase in forced displacement
threats to Bedouin communities and tasked
to voice protection concerns. Te Bedouin
demand to return to their tribal territories
in the Negev and, pending return, efective
protection that would allow them to stay
at their current locations in the Jerusalem
periphery. Committee members, representing
the 20 Bedouin communities in the area, called
on Israeli duty bearers to include them in the
consultation and decision-making process
determining their fate.
Concerns have also been raised about the
proposed relocation site. Te site is located
close to al-Eizariya, near where Bedouin
families were relocated in the late 1990s
to allow for the expansion of the Maale
Adumim settlement. Te proposed site does
not meet minimum standards in terms of
distance from the municipal garbage dump,
which is likely to pose a health risk to the
communities, and provides limited access
to grazing lands. According to the UN OCHA,
previously relocated families report negative
consequences, including health concerns, loss
of livelihood, deteriorated living conditions,
loss of tribal cohesion, and erosion of
traditional lifestyles.
Spotlight: Khan Al-Ahmar
Te Palestinian-Bedouin community of
Khan al-Ahmar faces the threat of imminent
displacement if the Israeli authorities
demolish their homes and school as planned.
Tis may well destroy the community, one
of 20 in the area, which has fallen victim to
creeping settlement expansion and ethnic
displacement.
The land on which the community lives has
been slated for the expansion of settlements
in the Maale Adumim area, despite the
communitys 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 of
Maale Adumim, Kfar Adumim, and other
surrounding illegal settlements, and to the
construction of the West Bank Separation
Barrier, which would de-facto annex this
strategically significant area to Israel,
rendering a Palestinian state unviable.
Te Khan al-Ahmar School is the only school
providing primary education to children of
the Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin tribe. Built in
2009 by Italian NGO Vento Di Terra (Wind
of Earth) and local NGOs, the eco-friendly
school, providing schooling to more than 80
students, is slated for demolition.
Tough the Israeli Supreme Court recently
rejected the appeal by neighboring settlers
of Kfar Adumin and Regavim an Israeli
organization dedicated to demolishing
Palestinian homes to shut down the school,
the petition has set the clock ticking for the
demolition of the school. Such a demolition
would efectively deny the children of the
community their education and jeopardize
their future.
ICAHD is committed to supporting
the Bedouin Protection Committee
and communities in their decision
to defy the Occupation and resist
forced displacement. ICAHD has set
up a contingency fund to allow for the
continuity of primary education for the
Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin boys and girls
and for possible emergency rebuilding
of demolished community schools, such
as the Khan al-Ahmar and Wadi Abu
Hindi schools slated for demolition.
Your donation will help support the
vital work of ICAHD in resisting the
Occupation, supporting Palestinian
communities, and rebuilding their
demolished homes and schools.
Please make online donations here:
http://goo.gl/sggi r
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http://goo.gl/tvSES
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INTRODUCTION
LEGAL FRAMEWORK
If implemented, the Israeli development
plans would be the culmination of years of
settlement expansion at the expense of the
Palestinian-Bedouin communities. Since
1991, when large parts of the communities
living areas were integrated into the
expanded boundaries of Maale Adumim,
Israeli policies increased the pressure on the
communities to leave their homes.
The right to adequate housing is an essential
component of the right to a decent standard
of living. When guaranteed, it provides
a foundation for the realization of other
rights, including the rights to family, work,
education, and, ultimately, national self-
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): The States Parties
to the present Covenant recognize the right
of everyone to an adequate standard of
living for himself and his family, including
adequate food, clothing and housing,
and to the continuous improvement of
living conditions. The UN Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
interpreted the content of human rights
provisions in the Covenant (General
comment 4 The right to adequate housing),
so that the right to housing should not be
interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense
which equates it with, for example, the
shelter provided by merely having a roof
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. That includes the
security of tenure, availability of services,
and cultural adequacy. The Committee has
also determined in its General comment 7
(The right to adequate housing forced
evictions) that forced evictions are prima
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
facie incompatible with the requirements
of the Covenant, and that appropriate
procedural protection and due process, and
adequate alternative housing, resettlement,
or access to productive land must be
guaranteed by a state party to the Covenant,
such as Israel. Israels claim that the
Covenant does not apply in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory has been dismissed by
all the UN human rights treaty bodies, which
oversee compliance with treaties.
As the Occupying Power, Israel is also bound
by the Fourth Geneva Convention relative
to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time
of War to which Israel is a signatory. Article
53 prohibits destruction of property that
is not justified by military necessity. The
Fourth Geneva Convention also prohibits
the transfer of an occupying powers
civilian population into the territory it is
occupying and the transfer of an occupied
civilian population. Article 49 stipulates:
Individual or mass forcible transfers, as
well as deportations of protected persons
from occupied territory to the territory of
the Occupying Power or to that of any other
country, occupied or not, are prohibited,
regardless of their motive. Israels claim that
the Fourth Geneva Convention does not
apply to the Occupied Palestinian Territory
has been rejected by the international
community, including the UN Security
Council and the International Court
of Justice (ICJ) that, in a 2004 advisory
opinion on the Legal Consequences of the
Construction of a Wall in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, ruled that these were
therefore occupied territories in which
Israel had the status of Occupying Power.
Subsequent events in these territories have
done nothing to alter this situation. The
Court concludes that all these territories
(including East Jerusalem) remain occupied
territories and that Israel has continued to
have the status of Occupying Power.
Further, the Hague Convention of 1907
calls on state parties to respect, protect, and
fulfill family honour and rights, the lives
of persons, and private property, as well as
religious convictions and practice. House
demolitions, forced evictions, property
confiscations, and forced population
transfer, exacerbated by settler harassment
and the economic effects of movement
restrictions, have left Bedouin communities
struggling to make ends meet and living in
fear. If their homes, animal pens, and schools
are demolished, the communities will not
only be plunged into deeper poverty but may
also very well be displaced and dispersed.
According to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim
Agreement of 1995, known as the Oslo II
Accord, powers and responsibilities related
to zoning and planning in Area C should
have been transferred to Palestinian control.
The agreement article 27 (2) Planing and
Zoning reads: In Area C, powers and
INTRODUCTION
ICAHD, a UN Economic-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 information concerning the status of
implementation of the ICESCR. Te report
covers the right to self-determination,
and adequate standard of living and social
security for Palestinians in the Occupied
Territory and Israel. Te report highlights
Israels protracted non-compliance to with
obligations stemming from the ICESCR,
and the plight of Jahalin Bedouin threated
with ethnic displacement. To read the
report, visit the ICAHD website. ICAHD
will submit a parallel report to the United
Nations Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination, to convene in
February 2012, further highlighting the
trends of ethnic displacement and Israeli
racial discrimination policies and practices.
ICAHD Parallel Reports to UN Treaty Bodies
responsibilities related to the sphere of
Planning and Zoning will be transferred
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 of its
Palestinian inhabitants, in contravention of
international law and bi-lateral agreements.
To highlight the recent risks of ethnic
displacement in the Jerusalem periphery
and the Jordan Valley, ICAHD has
launched a program of international tours
to the area. Having provided thousands
of people from around the world with
top-quality tours for over twelve years,
ICAHD is known for its knowledgeable
tour guides and multi-faceted approach
to examining the complexities of life in
the Jerusalem periphery and the Jordan
Valley. For more information on the
ICAHD tours, please visit our website at:
ICAHD TOURS
www.icahd.org
Recommendations
ICAHD calls for an end to the Occupation of
the Palestinian Territory and an immediate
cessation of the demolition of Palestinian
houses, schools, and infrastructure which
causes displacement and dispossession.
ICAHD calls for the transfer of 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 for a planning system
to include community participation in all
levels of the planning process.
ICAHD calls for families that have been
forcibly displaced to be allowed to return to
their homes in safety and dignity and to be
given compensation for any harm they have
suffered, including the destruction of land,
homes, and property.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Facts and Figures
3,000 Bedouin 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 receiving
humanitarian
assistance,
55% are food
insecure.
50% Are not
connected to the
water network
None of them
have access to
the electrical grid
Were re-located
from the area
in the 1990s
200
Families
1
Over 85% of them had to
abandon their traditional
livelihood as herders
300
Bedouins
2
Had been forcibly
displaced in 2011
due to demolitions
More than 0.5 million Israeli civilians live in
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, built in
contravention of international law.
Meanwhile...
3
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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.
Editor Itay Epshtain
Photos 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