49 years after Land Day: mass expulsion in the Naqab unfolding
A protest to mark Land Day at Saa’wa Al-Atrash village in the Naqab, 26 March 2022
Adalah reports on 28 March 2025:
On 30 March 2025, Palestinians mark 49 years since Land Day. Land Day has become a symbol of Palestinians’ ongoing struggle against land confiscation and forced displacement. Today, nearly half a century later, Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line once again face the looming threat of mass expulsion and forced displacement.
In Gaza, the war has returned after nearly two months of ceasefire, and with it, US and Israeli plans to expel the entire Palestinian population. In the West Bank, over 40,000 Palestinians have been uprooted from their homes in recent months, particularly in the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, with Israeli military operations rendering entire communities nearly uninhabitable. Simultaneously, Israel is accelerating a wide range of annexation measures, in direct violation of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory opinion issued in July 2024.
Makeshift housing in Hura, a Bedouin town in the Naqab
In the Naqab (Negev) in southern Israel, 13 unrecognized Bedouin villages face an immediate risk of forced eviction, while Israeli authorities push forward additional plans to uproot, destroy and erase entire communities, in place for generations. Adalah is representing hundreds of residents of three villages in evacuation lawsuits initiated by the state, and is taking legal actions to oppose broader plans for mass displacement in the Naqab.
Displacement in the Naqab: The Cases of Ras Jrabah, Al-Bqea’ah, and Umm Badoun
Ras Jrabah residents and Adalah staff at the Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem and in Ras Jrabah. Photos by Adalah and Waleed Al-Obra
Over the last six years, since May 2019, Adalah has been defending 500 residents of Ras Jrabah, an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Naqab, against state-initiated forced eviction lawsuits. The village is located on land belonging to members of the Al-Hawashleh tribe, who have lived there for generations. The evictions aim to make way for the expansion of the adjacent Israeli Jewish city of Dimona, which was built on the land of Al-Hawashleh tribe