Israel is taking the first steps towards establishing refugee displacement camps to house tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel whom it plans to “urgently” evict from their homes in unrecognized villages across the Naqab (Negev) region without even offering them any permanent or just housing solutions, according to a new in-depth report published by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Adalah’s new position paper, released, on Tuesday, takes a detailed look at the ramifications of the plans, and the ways in which they violate the human rights of the Bedouin community.
Israel’s basic aim is to transfer the residents of ‘unrecognized’ Palestinian Bedouin villages – villages in which they have lived for decades, and some of which have existed since before the state’s establishment in 1948 – to temporary structures for a period of up to six years.
The plans constitute another step by Israel to forcibly remove the Palestinian Bedouin population of the unrecognized villages from their homes and lands in the quickest possible fashion.
Israel’s plan to establish refugee displacement camps for Palestinian Bedouin citizens must be understood in the context of a January 2019 announcement by Israel’s Bedouin Authority that it intends to evict 36,000 Bedouin citizens for the needs of “economic development projects” and the expansion of military training areas, the report said.
These plans – expected to affect thousands of families, will have devastating consequences for the entire Palestinian Bedouin population of the Naqab, both in the unrecognized villages and in the recognized townships where the refugee displacement camps are to be constructed, the report said.
Photo: Adalah
Edited for IMEMC: Ali Salam
