The Bedouin are again being displaced
The Bedouin of Jahalin on the West Bank wish to continue their traditional lifestyle, but Jewish settlers and the construction of the wall will soon make this impossible.
Ana! Ana (Me! Me!), shout the girls in the shack in the Jahalin Bedouin camp. Twenty young girls put their hands up and are eager to answer. I teach two groups of girls in English here every Wednesday. Both at home and at school, the girls have to be quiet and responsible, so this is their free time. Even though it makes it hard to teach at times, is it inspiring to observe the eagerness and joy they show when meeting us. The other group I teach consists of young women who are better English speakers, but lack the children’s worriless enthusiasm. They know about their community’s insecure future.
About 3000 Bedouin live in this area. They originally come from the Negev desert in Israel, but had to flee when the state of Israel was established in 1948. However, the Palestinian farmers in El Aizariya and Abu Dis in Jerusalem’s outskirts let them put up their tents and graze their sheep on their land. However, after the construction of the settlement Ma’ale Adumim began in 1975, the home of the Bedouin was once again threatened. In 1997, they were driven away to an area only 500 meters away from Jerusalem’s biggest garbage dump. Most of them were given a West Bank ID, which meant that they could travel to neither Jerusalem nor Israel again.
Because of the settlement and the construction of the wall, Israeli bulldozers have already demolished several shacks owned by the Bedouin. The planned route of the wall cuts through the area where the Bedouin live, which will force them to escape once again. According to Israel, the area they live in is an inhabited area. The Bedouin as a group has come between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and have been neglected in previous peace negotiations between the two parties. However, the human rights are just as valid for this minority group.
According to Karine Mac Allister from Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Israel’s plan to forcibly remove the Bedouin, because of settlement expansion or wall construction contravenes the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) invited several organizations to a meeting with the Bedouin leaders. I was invited together with some of my Ecumenical Accompanier colleagues. Several Israeli human rights organizations are present. We want to hear what the Bedouin want us to advocate for on their behalf.
We drive on a bumpy dirt road surrounded by tall mountains. After fifteen minutes of driving, we see the first sign that any human beings live here. We meet a man on a donkey, and very soon, we are at our meeting point, which is next to a few shacks. About 50 people are sitting in a circle outdoors. This is where the meeting will take place. All around are tall, green mountains where sheep graze. It looks idyllic, but on the top of the mountains, we can spot the settlement lights.
The Bedouin tell us that they are all affected by what is going on. They know the wall will come. Several of them have already had their shack demolished, while the rest of them are waiting for the same thing to happen to them. An elderly man steps forward and shows us his demolition order. Some of them have hired a lawyer and tried to stop the demolition earlier, without succeeding. Their cases have been rejected in court and the demolitions have continued.
One man tells us that the Bedouin never wanted to call themselves refugees, but that the situation now has forced them to do so. Their shacks are being demolished and they are forcibly displaced, even though they cannot see that there is anywhere else for them to be.
A case on the route of the wall will be heard in the Israeli Supreme Court on 13 May. It is the people of Abu Dis, a rural town area in Jerusalem, who have brought this case to the court. The wall already cuts through the town area, and separates the people from their land. If the Supreme Court rules that the wall will continue according to its original route, the Bedouin will be removed. They do not know where, but they all agree that they do not want to be displaced.
