Israeli Demolition of Umm Al-Hiran Bedouin Village Will Displace 350 Palestinians

Rasa - The Haifa-based Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a press release on Thursday that Israeli authorities announced this week that they would demolish the entire Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab desert in April, which would displace 350 Palestinians.

News ID: 436959

Date: 23 March 2018 - 21:53

RNA - Adalah sent an urgent letter on Wednesday to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and the Israel Land Authority demanding that they postpone the eviction of residents and demolition of their homes, WAFA reported.

Israeli police forces entered Umm al-Hiran on Wednesday in preparation for the April demolitions, posting eviction notices on homes and the village's mosque. The notices specified that Israeli authorities will carry out demolitions at some point between April 15 and 29.

Adalah attorneys Suhad Bishara and Myssana Morany wrote in the urgent letter that the demolition of Umm al-Hiran will leave its 350 residents – including many women and children – homeless.

"Despite the state's obligations and promises to the Supreme Court, these [eviction] notices have been delivered before a just arrangement has been reached with residents and before they have been ensured an adequate and available housing solution. All of this is taking place in the shadow of the racist and discriminatory aims of the Hiran settlement association which will, apparently, be involved in allocating land plots in [the new town of] Hiran," set to be built on the ruins of Umm al-Hiran, the letter said.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that "the planned town will not prevent [those from Bedouin villages] from living there and anyone who wishes to live in Hiran is entitled to do so."

But despite the state's repeated promises to the court that Hiran would accept all new residents – regardless of religion or ethnic background – this is not the case and Hiran is, in fact, closed to non-Jewish residents.

Hiran's cooperative association bylaws specified that only Orthodox Jews will be permitted to live in the new town, according to a document uncovered by Adalah in August 2017.

The bylaws read that "an individual may be approved by the admissions committee and become a member of the Hiran cooperative association if they meet the following qualifications: a Jewish Israeli citizen or permanent resident of Israel who observes the Torah and commandments according to Orthodox Jewish values… ."

Attorneys Bishara and Morany emphasized that Bedouin families who have already been uprooted from Umm al-Hiran and transferred to other locations are now living in inhumane conditions, despite the promises of Israeli authorities.

Umm al-Hiran families forced by Israeli authorities to sign transfer agreements and to leave their village "live today in dangerous temporary structures without even the most minimal living conditions, and without any hookups to basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, or sewage", attorneys Bishara and Morany wrote.

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