{"id":3779,"date":"2017-11-18T08:53:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T08:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/?p=3779"},"modified":"2017-11-30T08:54:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T08:54:23","slug":"entire-bedouin-village-faced-with-forced-displacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/?p=3779","title":{"rendered":"Entire Bedouin village faced with forced displacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/profile\/jaclynn-ashly.html\" rel=\"author\">Jaclynn Ashly<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-duration\"><time class=\"timeagofunction\" datetime=\"Sat Nov 18 2017 18:41:16 GMT+0000\">18 Nov 2017<\/time><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>An entire village consisting of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin families is threatened with imminent forced displacement, after\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/israel.html\">Israel<\/a>\u00a0issued a rare evacuation order for the whole community.<\/p>\n<p>Jabal al-Baba, which lies to the east of Jerusalem in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/subjects\/occupied-west-bank.html\">occupied West Bank<\/a>, is home to more than 300 people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Residents are becoming paranoid of the future because it is unknown,&#8221; Atalah Jahalen, a local community leader, told Al Jazeera on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All their lives, they have lived and built in this area, and now all of it can be destroyed at any moment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Jahalen, Israel&#8217;s civil administration and police entered\u00a0Jabal al-Baba\u00a0on Thursday. They hung a poster in a central location detailing the evacuation decision and\u00a0displaying a map of the area.<\/p>\n<p>The order informed residents that they had eight days to collect their belongings and leave, or else Israeli authorities would return to force them out.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials also scattered copies of the map on the ground and took pictures of it before leaving.<\/p>\n<h2>Israel&#8217;s new strategy<\/h2>\n<p>Jabal al-Baba is situated in the heart of Israel&#8217;s contentious E1 plan, which aims to connect the\u00a0illegal mega-settlement of\u00a0Maale Adumim to Jerusalem &#8211;\u00a0settlements are considered illegal under international law.<\/p>\n<p>The plan would further isolate occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and sever the Palestinian territory from north to south.<\/p>\n<p>Residents of Jabal al-Baba arrived in the area after being displaced from the Negev during Israel&#8217;s establishment in 1948.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ps3EnSctzsU\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Since Israel&#8217;s seized the Palestinian territory in 1967, the Israeli government has refused to recognise Jabal al-Baba and has led routine demolition campaigns in the village for years.<\/p>\n<p>The village is located in Area C &#8211; which is under total Israeli administrative and military control. Obtaining permission to build in Area C is nearly impossible for Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>According to Jahalen, 52 of the village&#8217;s 57 homes have been demolished in the last three years for having been built without Israeli permits. In August, Israeli forces demolished the community&#8217;s kindergarten.<\/p>\n<p>The residents have no choice but to live in a perpetual cycle of rebuilding homes and structures demolished by Israel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In every corner of this village, you will find a demolished house &#8211; and a rebuilt house standing next to it,&#8221; said Jahalen.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>An entire village consisting of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin families is threatened with imminent forced displacement, after\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/israel.html\">Israel<\/a>\u00a0issued a rare evacuation order for the whole community.<\/p>\n<p>Jabal al-Baba, which lies to the east of Jerusalem in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/subjects\/occupied-west-bank.html\">occupied West Bank<\/a>, is home to more than 300 people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Residents are becoming paranoid of the future because it is unknown,&#8221; Atalah Jahalen, a local community leader, told Al Jazeera on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All their lives, they have lived and built in this area, and now all of it can be destroyed at any moment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Jahalen, Israel&#8217;s civil administration and police entered\u00a0Jabal al-Baba\u00a0on Thursday. They hung a poster in a central location detailing the evacuation decision and\u00a0displaying a map of the area.<\/p>\n<p>The order informed residents that they had eight days to collect their belongings and leave, or else Israeli authorities would return to force them out.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials also scattered copies of the map on the ground and took pictures of it before leaving.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>demolished house &#8211; and a rebuilt house standing next to it,&#8221; said Jahalen.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3778\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3778\" style=\"width: 999px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3778\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ad560580602a435d808858c8b0056a1d_18.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"999\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ad560580602a435d808858c8b0056a1d_18.jpg 999w, https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ad560580602a435d808858c8b0056a1d_18-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ad560580602a435d808858c8b0056a1d_18-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3778\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jabal al-Baba community leader Atalah Jahalen and members of his family [Courtesy Atalah Jahalen]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>But the latest Israeli order is a break from the routine in Jabal al-Baba.<\/p>\n<p>The evacuation order issued on the community is one typically used to evict unauthorised Israeli settler outposts constructed in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n<p>Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, a researcher for Israeli NGO Bimkom, told Al Jazeera the recent use of the order on Palestinian communities is aimed at speeding up the expulsion of Palestinian residents.<\/p>\n<p>Cohen-Lifshitz\u00a0said that demolition and stop-work orders that are routinely issued against specific structures in a community had &#8220;limited success&#8221; for the Israeli government, which found itself stuck in court for years battling appeals and petitions against the orders.<\/p>\n<p>The evacuation order necessitates fewer legal proceedings than previous demolition orders placed on the community, and allows for Israel to target the entire village, rather than specific homes and structures,\u00a0Cohen-Lifshitz\u00a0explained.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Israel used a similar order as in Jabal al-Baba on two Palestinian villages in the Jordan Valley, prompting Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher for Israeli NGO Ir Amim, to conclude that &#8220;this is not a one-time thing or a targeting of a specific area&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a new method Israel has decided to use against Palestinians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Israel&#8217;s agency responsible for implementing Israeli policies in the Palestinian territory, told Al Jazeera the order was issued &#8220;as part of the enforcement against the illegal construction phenomenon in the area&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Push Palestinians out&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Tatarsky said that regardless of the evacuation being linked to Israel&#8217;s plans to expand Maale Adumim, Israel&#8217;s &#8220;bottom line&#8221; in Area C is to &#8220;push Palestinians towards the Area A and B enclaves&#8221;, which comprise the remaining 40 percent of the West Bank.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/players.brightcove.net\/665003303001\/4k5gFJHRe_default\/index.html?videoId=4372137485001\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" class=\"article-p-wrapper\">\n<p>Area A is under the control of the Palestinian Authority and encompasses the majority of Palestinian cities. Area B comprises most Palestinian rural communities and is under Palestinian administrative and joint Palestinian-Israeli security control.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Israel wants to make the number of Palestinians in Area C as small as it can,&#8221; said\u00a0Tatarsky.<\/p>\n<p>Jabal al-Baba, located on the Israeli side of Israel&#8217;s separation wall, which will surround the village on three sides upon its completion, is a thorn in Israel&#8217;s development plans in Area C.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The families here live a simple life,&#8221; said Jahalen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we have an important role in resisting Israel&#8217;s forced displacement of Palestinians,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our presence here blocks Israel from expanding its settlements into Jerusalem,&#8221; explained\u00a0Jahalen, noting that the Bedouin in Area C are the last line of defence against what many activists and rights groups have said is Israel&#8217;s goal of annexing the entirety of Area C.<\/p>\n<p>After years of fighting Israel&#8217;s policies, residents of Jabal al-Baba are now facing an uncertain future that could leave them displaced a second time, with no alternative location provided by the Israeli government.<\/p>\n<p>But the community has vowed to stay.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will not surrender,&#8221; said Jahalen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they succeed in evicting us, then they will move on and evict all the other [Palestinian] communities in the area,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body-artSource\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2017\/11\/entire-bedouin-village-faced-forced-displacement-171118172811185.html\">SOURCE:\u00a0AL JAZEERA NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Jaclynn Ashly 18 Nov 2017 An entire village consisting of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin families is threatened with imminent forced displacement, after\u00a0Israel\u00a0issued a rare evacuation order for the whole community. Jabal al-Baba, which lies to the east of Jerusalem in the\u00a0occupied West Bank, is home to more than 300 people. &#8220;Residents are becoming paranoid &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3781,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3779\/revisions\/3781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}