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Israel to evacuate Jabal Al Baba Bedouin community via military declaration in eight day deadline

2017-11-18

On Thursday, November 18, 2017, a military force from Israel Civil Administration stormed the Bedouin community of Jabal al-Baba at 3:30 pm. The members of the military unit and the police put up a pole in the place with a map of the site hung on it. Hebrew and Arabic notices were dropped on the ground before the force left the community without talking to any of the Bedouins.

Notices turned out to be evacuation orders with eight day deadline.

The declaration delivered forbids the residents of the community from adding any building at the site where the eviction decision was issued. The declaration also included the right to object to the decision within 8 days from the date of delivery of the declaration to the Bedouins. The decision was issued on 1 November 2017, but was delivered on November 8, 2017 . According to residents of the community,  the lawyer "Mita Ammar" of the Norwegian Council "NRC" will object to the declaration of occupation in the coming days.

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Reportedly,  53 Bedouin families, estimated at 330 members, mostly children, have been living in the community since the 1950s, which is before Israel occupied the city in 1967.

Over the past years, the Bedouin community of Jabal Al Baba has witnessed fierce demolition campaigns by the Israeli Civil Administration against its inhabitants, as in the case of the other Bedouin communities surrounding Jerusalem, where the occupation authorities demolished and confiscated a large number of houses, in addition to the intimidation campaigns carried out against Palestinians during the storming of the gatherings.

The decision comes after the Prime Minister of Israel "Benjamin Netanyahu" ordered to evacuate the Bedouin communities residing on the road to the Dead Sea, on the pretext of being built illegally. In addition, the decision was for to the implementation of the colonies expansion plan "E1" that is in the periphery of "Maale Adummim" colony.

The Israeli authorities intend to transfer the Bedouin from their nomadic communities where they have been residing even before Israel occupied the city of Jerusalem in 1967 to residential buildings in the Abu Dis and Nuweima area of Jericho.

This step is an act of forcible displacement , which is considered a war crime under international humanitarian law and according to the Fourth Geneva Convention. Though, the occupying state continues to implement its settlement plans that are based on demolishing houses, confiscating lands and displacing people.  The E 1 project aims primarily to separate the occupied city from its surroundings in full, in addition to expanding the colony of "Maale Adumim" and annex it to the city of Jerusalem.

This case study is part of Kan'aan Project

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