The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has urged the donor community to step up its opposition to the planned transfer of thousands of Bedouins, from the central areas of the West Bank, to the newly created town of Nweima, near Jericho. “If such a plan were implemented this would not only give rise to concerns that it amounts to a ’forcible transfer‘ in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” said UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl. “It might also make way for further Israeli illegal settlement expansion, further compromising the viability of a two state solution. I urge the Israeli authorities not to proceed with the transfer of these communities and I also urge the donor and state community to take a firm stand against it.”
The Palestinian News Network (PNN) reports that, in April of 2014, Israeli authorities made public a plan to relocate rural Bedouin communities living throughout the West Bank to three areas, Nweima, al Jabal and Fasayil.
The large majority of these communities targeted for transfer are Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA. (Palestinians are now the largest refugee group in the world, according to UNRWA statitstics.) These communities also include people residing in the E1 and Ma’ale Adumim areas, near Jerusalem, which have been slated for new Israeli settlement development and possible expansion.
Search IMEMC: ‘bedouins’ & ‘prawer plan’ for extensive background info regarding this topic.
“The humanitarian impact of the planned transfer could be immense,” said Krähenbühl. “The Nweima plans, published on 25 August and 9 September, indicate that the proposed move could lead to the transfer of as many as 12,000 individuals.” There are concerns that the planned population transfers will be implemented shortly after Israel’s final approval of the Nweima plans, and that pending demolition orders will be executed, destroying the homes and livelihoods of these communities.”
The Bedouin community has continually and expressly opposed its relocation. As Palestinian refugees, the Bedouin wish to be allowed to live on their traditional lands in the Negev desert. Pending this, they wish to remain in and be part of temporary plans at the locations in which they currently reside.
Many Bedouins live under the daily threat of displacement owing to countless property demolitions, seizure orders, evictions and confiscations which have arisen because they do not have access to a fair, non-discriminatory zoning and planning system, which Israel as the Occupying Power controls in Area C.
Now, following the publication of the ‘Nweima plans’, the threat of losing their homes is greater than ever.
PNN further reports that, in 1997, several Bedouin communities were transferred to an area around the largest landfill in the West Bank, at al Jabal, resulting in the collapse of their pastoralist economies and inflicting an irreversible damage to their social fabric and rural way of life.
Many of those targeted for transfer have resided in their current locations for decades, having fled to the area from their traditional ancestral lands, as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, and remain unable to go back. Following the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, these communities have witnessed the growth of Israeli settlements around them.
The international community, including the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice, has condemned the establishment of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory as a violation of international law.
See also: 07/13/14 Jews Against Genocide Hold Memorial for Palestinian Children at Yad Vashem for related info.
