By Sarah Bedson, Palestine Monitor
February 23, 2017
In an unprecedented move, Israel issued dozens of stop work orders on Sunday for an entire Palestinian Bedouin village on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Khan al-Ahmar is home to approximately 200 members of the Jahalin Tribe that was displaced in the early 1950s from their land near Tel Arad in the southern Naqab (Negev) desert. The tribe is the largest refugee tribe in the West Bank.
Eid Kahamis Jahalin, a resident of Khan al-Ahmar, explained to Palestine Monitor how large numbers of Civil Administration personnel and police raided the village of Khan al-Ahmar on the 19th of February at around 5am, declared the area a closed military zone, set up military flying checkpoints to prevent entry and exit to the village, and delivered 42 stop work orders, applying to all of the community’s structures, including its school and mosque. Eid explained that these orders caused confusion, as no works are currently underway and there are no new structures in the community.
The Italian-funded school in Khan al-Ahmar was built in 2009 out of mud and tyres to serve 152 children between the ages of 6 and 15 from all nearby communities. Eid explained that if this school were demolished, the nearest alternative would be 15km away. Al’aa Erekat, one of the teachers from the school, said that since its inception, the school had faced many problems with Israel’s threats to demolish it. “It’s very difficult”, she said. “I am worried for the children.”
The Palestinian Minister of Education and Higher Education, Sabri Saidam, described the recent events as a ‘systematic arbitrary measure’ and appealed to all international bodies to promptly intervene to stop these ‘inhumane measures’ and protect the educational process, institutions, and children’s’ right to education from such attacks.
“Palestinian children’s right to education is stronger than the tyranny of occupation,” stressed Saidam.
A lawyer succeeded in getting an injunction for both the school’s and community’s demolition order, with the Israeli High Court demanding an alternative and satisfactory plan to be provided in order to relocate the Bedouins. One of the designated ‘relocation’ sites is south of Jericho, and Eid described the suggestion as “Guantanamo for the community.”
Yesterday, villagers were manically trying to collect 1,700 shekels per family and IDs to pay court fees for the court hearing that was due to take place in the High Court in Jerusalem this morning at 10am. “It could go either way at the court but I worry because the Israeli government is backed by Trump now,” Eid said. The court hearing was later postponed for ten days.
Khan al-Ahmar is one of the dots in OCHA’s map of the E1 area.
Khan al-Ahmar is one of the 46 Bedouin communities that Israeli occupation forces are seeking to forcibly transfer in order to implement its “E1” plan. An abbreviation for East 1, the plan was formulated by former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 and refers to a twelve-kilometre stretch of Area C land situated between the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem. The “E1” plan would see the erection of a contiguous bloc of illegal settlements, which would divide the northern and southern West Bank and smother any hopes of the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, director of Jalahin Solidarity, has been involved in fighting the E1 plan since 2005 and spoke about the strategic importance of Khan al-Ahmar, calling its residents the “gatekeepers of the two-state solution.”
PLO representative Hussam Zomlot said that E1 is “the lethal bullet to any peace deal. But the E1 is already unfolding, it’s happening right in front of our eyes.”
Yesterday, the Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and UN Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper, and Director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank, Scott Anderson, visited the community.
Demolition of single houses has been going on since 2015. It’s not fast enough. Photo from
“Khan al Ahmar is one of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank, struggling to maintain a minimum standard of living in the face of intense pressure from the Israeli authorities to move to a planned relocation site,” said Mr. Piper. “This is unacceptable and it must stop.”
The UN has repeatedly stated that the imposition of the proposed ‘relocation’ of communities without their free and informed consent would amount to forcible transfer and eviction, contravening Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under international law.
“The entire existence of this community, the homes, animal sheds and school that we visited today, is under threat. I am gravely concerned about Israel’s continued pressures to force these Bedouin from their homes, destroying their livelihoods and their distinct culture”, said Mr. Anderson. “Many of these Palestine refugee families have already had their homes demolished several times within the last couple of years. I urge the Israeli authorities to halt all plans and practices that will directly or indirectly lead refugees to be displaced once again.”
The events in Khan al-Ahmar are not unique. The Israeli army demolished 872 structures in Area C last year, leaving 6,088 Palestinians homeless. There were 1,633 children among those affected.
In a new report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Territories said the New Year had seen a massive Israeli escalation in the destruction of Palestinian homes and businesses.
During January 2017, OCHA recorded the demolition of 140 structures by the Israeli authorities, displacing around 240 Palestinians and affecting another 4,000,
which was over 50 per cent higher than the monthly average of structures targeted in 2016. OCHA noted that all of these demolitions were carried out in Area C and East Jerusalem on the grounds of the lack of building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain for Palestinians.
BETHLEHEM — The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education organized a sit-in protest on Thursday inside a school in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank, against the impending Israeli government order to demolish the school and the entire village.
Protesters condemned the Israeli order to demolish Khan al-Ahmar school — which services 150 female and male students — and expressed their anger towards the Israeli army for targeting a school for kids and for “trying to ban them from their right of education.”
Minister of education Sabri Sedim called upon all Palestinians “to resist and face the Israeli plans and violations against education and Bedouin societies that reveal the ugly face of occupation,” adding that the ministry would “conduct all possible efforts to stop Israeli practices and expose them in media and courts.”
Over the past week, Israeli authorities delivered demolition notices to the village’s 40 homes and elementary school, including stop-work orders targeting various structures in the village, which is located in Area C — the more than 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli control and the site of frequent Israeli demolitions.
Locals told Ma’an at the time that Israeli forces imposed a military closure on the area before delivering the demolition warrants, as faculty and students of the school were prevented from accessing the building.
Despite the fact that the community, and the school in particular, has been threatened with demolition by the Israeli government for years, locals said the issuing of demolition warrants to every single house was an unprecedented blow. UN officials visited the Bedouin community on Wednesday and called the situation “unacceptable.”
“Khan al-Ahmar is one of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank, struggling to maintain a minimum standard of living in the face of intense pressure from the Israeli authorities to move to a planned relocation site,” Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and UN Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory Robert Piper said in a statement, adding that “this is unacceptable and it must stop.”
Khan al-Ahmar, like other Bedouin communities in the region, is under threat of relocation by Israel for being located in the contentious “E1 corridor” set up by the Israeli government to link annexed East Jerusalem with the mega settlement of Maale Adumim.
Israeli authorities plan to build thousands of homes for Jewish-only settlements in E1, which would effectively divide the West Bank and make the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state — as envisaged by the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — almost impossible.
Rights groups and Bedouin community members have sharply criticized Israel’s relocation plans for the Bedouin residing near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, claiming that the removal would displace indigenous Palestinians for the sake of expanding Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank in violation of international law.
UN humanitarian coordinator visits Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, near Jerusalem, where IDF is set to bulldoze illegal buildings
By AFP/Times of Israel Staff February 22, 2017
Video still of IDF soldier serving demolition order on illegal structure in Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin camp north east of Jerusalem (Screen capture: Twitter)
Israeli officials have over the past week issued dozens of stop work orders threatening “nearly every structure” in a part of the village of Khan al-Ahmar, the UN said.
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Robert Piper, visited the village where the school is among 140 structures at risk of demolition.
“Khan al-Ahmar is one of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank struggling to maintain a minimum standard of living in the face of intense pressure from the Israeli authorities to move,” he said in a statement.
Robert Piper
“This is unacceptable and it must stop.”
Israel says the buildings were built without permits.
The UN says such permits are all but impossible to obtain for Palestinians.
..
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories confirmed to The Times of Israel that all illegal structures in the village were given orders to “cease construction.”
The body, which interfaces with Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza, made no mention of orders to leave the buildings but said that the residents were invited to a hearing about the buildings on Thursday where they would be able to present their case.
A number of traditionally nomadic Bedouin communities are based east of Jerusalem, where rights groups fear demolitions could eventually clear the way for further Israeli settlement construction.
This could partly divide the West Bank between north and south while further isolating the territory from East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as their future capital.
The UN says there are 46 communities in the central West Bank at risk of forcible transfer, ousting approximately 7,000 residents.
The rubber tyres are sorted, filled with earth and compressed to make them waterproof and thermal building materials.
The completed tyre school in Khan al-Ahmar, east of the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, 2015. Photo Olivier Fitoussi
Israel has avoided large-scale evacuation of Palestinians in Area C, partly because of the involvement of European and American diplomats
By Yotam Berger, Haaretz premium February 20, 2017
In a rare occurrence, the IDF’s Civil Administration in the West Bank on Sunday distributed some 40 demolition orders in a Bedouin village in Area C, which is under full Israeli civil and military control.
A few hundred people live in temporary structures without any infrastructure in the Bedouin encampment of Khan al-Ahmar, just east of the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. Among the buildings at the site is the “Tire School,” built of worn-out tires, which is used by students from a number of illegal villages in the area.
The structures in the village were built without permits, but the Civil Administration has avoided demolishing them or evacuating the entire village, despite political pressure to do so.
Residents say the issuing of dozens of demolition orders is unprecedented in the area. “All the houses received [demolition] orders,” A’id Khamis Jahalin, a local resident, told Haaretz. “I’m scared. This time is different. Then they gave one [demolition order] or two, but such a blow, it’s something. They gave 42 orders. They gave for everything, there are no structures here in all the area that didn’t receive an order. I spoke with our lawyer, they gave us up to five days [to object], that’s a short time,” said Jahalin.
Israeli authorities confirmed that such a widespread issuance of demolition orders was unprecedented in the area, and this is a declaration of intention in advance of an attempt to evacuate the entire village.
In the past, the Civil Administration has offered residents to move to a permanent location, which the residents say does not meet their needs in terms of Bedouin lifestyle, amount of land and proximity to other Bedouin tribes. The government has avoided any large-scale evacuation of Palestinians in Area C, partly because of the involvement of European and American diplomats.
The Bedouins living in Area C near Ma’aleh Adumim endure harsh conditions and poverty, and the EU has often provided structures in their villages. These buildings have been put up illegally, but the EU makes sure to put a large sticker with the EU flag on all of them. The Civil Administration sometimes removes these structures. The Tire School was built in 2009 by an Italian NGO, and has since become a symbol for the Bedouins in the region.
Last week, the State Prosecutor’s Office informed the High Court of Justice in two cases that the government wanted to postpone the sessions on the demolition of structures in the Bedouin community in the West Bank, in light of the attempts to formulate a new policy on the matter.
