wfn.org | Re: Israeli officials expel Jahalin Bedouin

[Mennonite Central Committee Communications]

TOPIC:  ISRAELI OFFICIALS EXPEL JAHALIN BEDOUIN
DATE:   February 14, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

Jahalin Request Emergency Assistance from MCC
JERUSALEM, West Bank -- Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
workers here are providing food and blankets to members of the
Jahalin Bedouin tribe recently evicted from their homes east of
Jerusalem.

Israeli officials began relocating the Jahalin--who have live on the site
for nearly 40 years--in late January.

After declaring the site a "closed military area", officials proceeded to
bulldoze the tent homes, tin shacks and livestock corrals. The site is
near the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.

Thirty-one Jahalin families were evicted from their tent homes last
week (Feb.11). Israeli authorities first cleared 14 families from an area
southeast of Ma'ale Adumim in the morning, and then moved to the
major encampment directly south of the settlement and evicted another
17.
     Five bulldozers supported by hundreds of Israeli police,
soldiers, and hired laborers worked simultaneously to remove the
families.

Over 200 people were displaced last week, adding to the 36 evicted
earlier this year.

This is the most recent example of illegal land confiscation and
expulsion by the Israeli military used to make way for the expansion
of Ma'ale Adumim. The 
development is considered illegal by international law and a violation
of the spirit and letter of the Oslo peace agreement.

After one of the evictions, Mohammed Al-Hirsh, a member of the
Jahalin tribe, approached MCC country director Patricia Shelly and
MCC development officer Sahir Dajani with a request for emergency
assistance.

Shelly, Dajani and Carmen Pauls, MCC peace worker, visited the site
and found some of the families living in shipping crates the Israeli
military had moved onto the location. Inside one of the windowless,
metal structures, women and children huddled around a campfire to
keep warm.

Tents donated to the families by the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency do not provide adequate shelter from the winter rains or the
wind on the hilltop. The displaced members of the Jahalin tribe carried
what belongings they could salvage to the site.

One water pipe has been brought to the site and although power lines
run overhead, the Jahalin don't have access to the electricity.

After visiting the site, MCC workers decided to provide blankets, rice,
MCC canned chicken, and sugar. More aid is being considered. 

"MCC decided to give material aid for many reasons," Dajani
explained. "The Israelis forced the Jahalin to move at the coldest time
of the winter and during the holy month of Ramadan. The tradition
during Ramadan is that people give to the poor so that no family goes
without during the feast. It is fitting that we respond with blankets and
food at this time."

During Ramadan, Muslims fast during daylight hours, as a way of
remembering the giving of the Qur'an, the Muslim scriptures to the
prophet Muhammad. Ramadan ends in a five-day feast which, this
year, began the weekend of February 8.

"The emergency aid is small but symbolic," said Shelly. "There are
clearly long-range issues at stake here. There are issues of land
ownership and the development of an illegal Israeli settlement.

"MCC has been standing in solidarity with the Jahalin for the past four
years. When they approached us with a request for emergency help, we
wanted to be able to respond to their urgent need in a concrete way."

In past years MCC along with other groups and individuals formed the
Action Committee for the Jahalin Tribe. They supported the Jahalin by
providing them with a cellular phone so they could make emergency
phone calls when Israeli military entered their encampment and
threatened them.

MCC workers have made visits, even spending the night in the tents at
the invitation of the Jahalin, in order to provide an international
presence in the face of impending removal by the Israeli military. Now
the threatened expulsion has become a reality.

"In principle, we do not accept this location (designated by the Israeli
military)," said Al-Hirsh.

"We are resisting until we are forced by the Israeli military to move.
At the very least, the Israelis should have respected this month of
Ramadan. Their decision to move us by force at this time shows they
have no consideration for the winter rains or for the religious
importance of Ramadan."
                    -30-

Carmen Pauls, MCC West Bank

rjf14february1997

Carmen Pauls of Henderson, Neb., is a member of Bethesda
Mennonite Church in Henderson.  Patricia Shelly of Newton, Kan., is
a member of Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton, Kan.TOPIC:  SIDEBAR: THIS EVICTION WAS
DATE:   February 14, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

JERUSALEM, West Bank -- Prior to the 1950s the Jahalin Bedouin
lived as nomads in the Negev Desert near what is now the Israeli town
of Arad.

They settled near Jerusalem in 1952 because of harassment from the
Israeli military who were determined to remove the Bedouin to make
way for the development of Israeli towns.

The eviction from the Jerusalem-area site makes way for the growth of
the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Like all Israeli settlements
constructed in the West Bank, Ma'ale Adumim is illegal according to
international law. Begun in 1982, Ma'ale Adumim has grown to one of
the largest Jewish settlements, with a population exceeding 20,000
Israeli settlers.

The Jahalin tribe was threatened with eviction on several occasions in
the past because the government considers them illegal tenants on state
land.

It became state land by military order after the 1967 occupation of the
West Bank by Israel. This method was used to strip 65 per cent of
Palestinian land in the West Bank from its owners.

Lynda Brayer is the legal advocate for the Jahalin tribe and director of
St. Yves, a Jerusalem-based human rights organization. She said that
only part of the land now being developed for Ma'ale Adumim's
expansion was actually declared "state land" in a 1981 decision.
However, this is nearly impossible to prove because government files
on the agreement were destroyed by Israel, she said. The Israeli
Supreme Court has filed its intention to pursue the criminal
implications of this act. 

The new site is unsuitable to live on, said Brayer. Located 500
meters/550 yards from a Jerusalem municipality garbage dump, the site
is considered a health hazard by Israeli government standards.

"The site is not suitable for human habitation according to Israeli law
which requires a minimum of 2,000 meters distance from a garbage
dump," said Brayer.

To make matters worse, the land itself was illegally confiscated from
Palestinians living in the nearby town of Abu Dis. So far the Jahalin's
demand that the rightful owners of the land be given financial
compensation for the market value of the land has been ignored by
Israeli officials.   

                    -30-
Carmen Pauls MCC West Bank
rjf14february1997