Naqab(Negev), Palestine: Israel continues its ‘secret’ policies of house demolitions and violations against the indigenous Arabs of the unrecognized villages. The Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages (RCUV), in cooperation with HIC-HLRN, requests your immediate action in the current violations taking place in the Naqab (Negev).

Unrecognized village in the Negev

Description of Events

In the early morning hours of Monday, 25 June 2007, a large contingent of Israeli police forces, along with support from the Israel Border Patrol and under orders from the Israeli Ministry of Interior, demolished 28 structures, including 25 houses, in the Unrecognized Village, of Attir - Umm al-Hiran and left over 150 men, women and children homeless and without any personal belongings in the scorching heat of the Naqab Desert.

The Government of Israel (GoI) had forcibly relocated the residents from their ancestral lands to the village of Attir - Umm al-Hiran in 1956. Now, 51 years later the GoI intends to relocate them again so that GoI, Jewish Agency and Jewish National Fund can build a Jewish town on the land of the victims. Two years ago, the residents received demolition orders to evacuate the territory, but remained steadfast on their property. On the night of Sunday, 24 June 2007, Israeli authorities were at one of the resident’s home, partaking in true Bedouin hospitality, with the understanding that next morning the Bedouin Arabs would sign a compensation agreement and voluntarily move. Instead of an agreement and instead of compensation, bulldozers were brought in to demolish their homes. The government offered neither compensation nor alternative shelter, thus depriving hundreds, including women and children, of their shelter and belongings in the scorching heat of the Naqab Desert.

The forced evictions and displacement of the residents of Attir - Umm al-Hiran was carried out at the behest of the Israeli authorities, including the National Security Council, to ensure both the cleansing of the Arab population from the Naqab for the future resettlement of Jews on the stolen land and as compensation to settlers redeployed in 2005 from settler colonies in the Gaza Strip. These actions not only violate general principles of international human rights and humanitarian law, but also illustrate the depth of racial discrimination against the indigenous Palestinians within the political structures of the State of Israel and its parastatal institutions.  In full realization of the State’s intentions, the residents of Attir – Umm al-Hiran, demonstrated against these plans, to which Israel responded by closing all entry roads into the village and arresting RCUV Director Husain al-Rifai-ah, placing him in administrative detention.[1][1]

The current demolitions are part and parcel of Israel’s increasingly campaign forcibly to displace the Arab residents of the Naqab (Negev) and settle their land with Jewish settlers.

Background Information on Palestinian Villages in the Naqab (Negev).

The Arab residents of the Naqab (Negev) have been living on their land for centuries. In the aftermath of the Palestinian Naqba (disaster, resulting from the 1948 Israeli conquest), a direct consequence of the mass violations and population transfer committed by Zionist military commanders who became Israel’s political leaders in 1948, only 10% of the original Arab population of the Naqab remained.

The indigenous Bedouin Arabs are a unique community of the Palestinian people that has lived in the Negev for centuries. In 1948, they formed 98% of the population of the Naqab. However, after the establishment of Israel, only a small fraction of the population was left in the Naqab, Israeli forces having expelled the rest to Jordan and Egypt. The Israeli authorities have refused to recognize the Bedouins' traditional tenure rights. Dispossessed of the lands they have owned for centuries, today the 160,000 Bedouins are the most disadvantaged citizens in Israel. Almost half of the Bedouin community of indigenous citizens live in seven failing government-planned townships or “concentrations” (rekuzim), as Israeli planners calls them. The remainder lives in at least 45 villages that the State of Israel still refuses to recognize. These villages do not appear on any official maps of Israel and, without recognition, are denied basic services such as running water, electricity, garbage collection, etc.

One of the principal methods by which the government hopes to resettle this indigenous community in the townships is by demolishing their houses in the unrecognized villages on the premise that they are “illegal,” and by simultaneously foreclosing all avenues for legal construction within the traditional villages.  On 30 May 2006, the Minister of Interior announced at the Parliament that, during the past three years, Israeli authorities had demolished 560 houses in the “unrecognized” villages. These demolitions have taken place in the early hours of the morning by squads of local police and Israel Land Administration officials. Reportedly, these authorities drive families out of their homes under police order, and destroy the houses with bulldozers, causing civilian casualties. Moreover, these demolitions have resulted in rendering thousands of people homeless, with many of the evictees now living in overcrowded conditions with their relatives, while some have build shacks from scrap materials.

Duty holders

The State of Israel, its elected government, parastatal institutions and its military forces bear the duty to uphold norms of applicable international human rights law as minimum obligations in their treatment of the Palestinian Arab citizens, including the indigenous Bedouin community, on the basis of nondiscrimination.  The State has assumed these duties, including by way of its treaty ratifications and affirmations mentioned below. By extension, compliance with these rules also is required of local authorities and private parties, which the State of Israel also is required by law to ensure, in order to protect against violations

International Law

The State practices reported here violate the inhabitants’ human right to adequate housing; i.e., the right of all women, men and children to gain and sustain a secure place to live in peace and dignity. House demolitions represent a gross human rights violation and a violation of the international human rights norms, especially provisions regulating adequacy, nondiscrimination and military necessity. It is worth noting that the Israeli authorities generally do not inform the inhabitants in advance of demolition, and do not allow them a chance to salvage possessions or furniture.

The Israeli authorities do not ensure that “all persons should possess a degree of security of tenure [that] guarantees legal protection against forced eviction, harassment and other threats,” as provided in General Comment No. 4, elaborating the States obligations under treaty.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) requires that States parties, such as Israel, “take immediate measures aimed at conferring legal security of tenure upon those persons and households currently lacking such protection, in genuine consultation with affected persons and groups” (para. 8[a]).

According to General Comment No. 7, “States Parties shall ensure, prior to carrying out any evictions, and particularly those involving large groups, that all feasible alternatives are explored in consultation with the affected persons, with a view to avoiding, or at least minimizing, the need to use force.

Legal remedies or procedures should be provided to those who are affected by eviction orders.” States Parties shall also see to it that all the individuals concerned have a right to adequate compensation for any affected personal and real property (para. 15).

 The same legal standard provides that evictions “should not result in individuals being rendered homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights. Where those affected are unable to provide for themselves, the State Party must take all appropriate measures, to the maximum of its available resources, to ensure that adequate alternative housing, resettlement or access to productive land, as the case may be, is available” (para. 17).

Actions requested:

Please write to the Israeli authorities, international officials, and/or your local politicians demanding that:

   1. Israel cease its illegal actions against indigenous Palestinians;

   2. Israel’s parastatal organizations (WZO and JNF) registered and operating internationally be recognized as foreign agents (representing a foreign State), and not as charitable organizations; and that

   3. Both Israel and its parastatal organizations be held accountable for their conduct both in Palestine and international

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Please note this story here:

http://www.care2.com/news/member/726835551/431317

Most Arabs and Muslims (and some of their friends) refuse to recognize Israel. Most people in the world think it is a matter of the difference of religion, while, in fact, it is a natural response to the nature of this strange regime. I’ll try to explain why.

Firstly I’ll take a brief history of what’s called now “Israel”.

As we can see, for more than 7,000 years the Canaanites (Palestinians) lived continuously uninterrupted on the land of Palestine. During the 7,000 years more than 20 invading powers including the Jews occupied parts of Palestine but they were all defeated by the Palestinians or other invading powers the Palestinians never left the land through out history. The Jews came in 1186 BC and the last Jews left in 135 AD after being defeated by the Romans.

The ideas of Zionism where raising. As a secular movement, using Judaism as a tool, they convinced the whole world that Jews have the historical right to live in Palestine, when it was easy to spread lies among people. One of these lies was that Palestine is "a land without a people for a people without a land." Its original form is, "a country without a nation for a nation without a country," this was penned by Lord Shaftsebury.

The rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933 produced a powerful new impetus for Zionism. Not only did it create a flood of Jewish refugees but it undermined the faith of Jews that they could live in security as minorities in non-Jewish societies. Jewish opinion began to shift in favor of Zionism, and pressure for more Jewish immigration to Palestine increased. But the more Jews settled in Palestine, the more aroused local Arab opinion became, and the more difficult the situation became in Palestine.

By the early 1900s illegal Jewish immigrants started arriving at the shores of Palestine and immediately they formed armed Jewish gangs terrorizing Palestinian citizens. In 1920, as we saw, Palestine came under British mandate and more illegal Jewish immigrants were allowed in Palestine and more gangs were formed. And in May 15, 1948, the British rule in Palestine ended and Britain handed control over to Jewish gangs who attacked Palestinian towns and massacred whole families and they massacred all the inhabitants of the town of Deir Yasin in a clear attempt at ethnic cleansing.

The Jew, Weizman, referred to the massacre as this "miraculous simplification of our task," and Ben Gurion said that "without Deir Yasin there would be no Israel." Americans are not told that ten percent of the Arabs killed by the Israelis in 1948 were Christian, and that ten percent of the Arab property confiscated belonged to Christians. Nor are they told that Israel's massacres and military actions forced 100,000 Christians to become refugees.

Accounts by Red Cross and United Nations observers who visited the scene said that the houses were first set on fire and the occupants were shot down as they came out to escape the flames. One pregnant woman had her baby cut out of her stomach with a knife. The head of the International Red Cross delegation in Palestine, Jacques de Reynier, drove into the village and was met by a detachment of Irgun terrorists. In his report of the massacre the previous night, he wrote: "All of them were young, some even adolescents, men and women armed to the teeth: revolvers, machine-guns, hand-grenades, and knives, most of them still blood-stained. A beautiful young girl with criminal eyes showed me hers (knife) still dripping with blood, she displayed it like a trophy."

For more information about the Zionist crimes, click here.

More than 54% of the Palestinian towns were destroyed by the Zionist gangs and the Israeli government in 1948 and the early 1950s. On May 15, 1948, there were more than 771 cities, towns, villages and tribal areas in Palestine. By December 1949 only 371 of these towns left standing more than 400 towns were destroyed and the civilian population were either killed by Zionist gangs and Israeli forces or they were forced to run for their lives to neighboring countries.

And If we wanted to forget about these historical facts, the Arabs still have reasons to refuse the existence of ‘Israel’. For:

• Israel is a Jew-only state, Zionists made their best to make their land empty of any other religion. More than 6 million refugees were forced to flee to the neighbour states. There is still an Arab minority and they are suffering from racial discrimination. Recently, they were banned from advertising in their language (Arabic), and Arab student is paid much less than the Jewish student. In the last war with Lebanon, Arabs inside Israel were less protected than the other Israeli citizens.

• Israel is still occupying the West Bank and still holding Gaza strip (see this video), and more than 10,000 prisoner including women, children and old people. Israel is also still occupying the Golan highs which belong to Syria and Shaba’a lands that belong to Lebanon in addition to the prisoners of Syria, Lebanon and even Jordon.
• Israel is not responding to the UN security council resolutions that demand the withdrawal of the lands that it invaded in 1967 war and to let the Palestinian refugees go back to their lands while any Jew can live in Israel with very simple steps. (see my post about the Palestinian refugees here)
• Israel is still digging under one of the holiest Islamic and Christian places, al-Aqsa mosque and the neighbouring churches, which is very afraid that it will be destroyed by these diggings.
• Israel is also building what is called ‘security fence’.  “The Apartheid Wall will be 8m high and probably 1.000km long. For comparison, China's Great Wall – the only human-made object seen from outer space – is 6.700km long, whereas the Berlin Wall was a dwarf, just 155km long and 3,6m high. Keeping silent on this gigantic project and its genocidal implications, meant to prevent any fair future settlement (not to mention the Road Map), is a moral crime, of which almost the entire Western media is guilty.” -Ran HaCohen
  This wall is not only stealing more lands, but it is also touching the everyday life of the Palestinians. Some of them can’t go to their work anymore. The olives fields of others have been destroyed in order this wall to be built. The wall requires 10 spare meters on both sides, and since this wall is built in the heart of the Palestinian territories, hundreds of homes have been destroyed.
• In addition to 200 nuclear weapons, it almost equals the nuclear power of the UK (see this video) 

So these are the reasons why Arabs do not recognize Israel, aren’t they right? Why should they recognize a state that continues to aggress on their lands and people? And what Israel should they recognize? The Israel of 1948? 1967? Or 2007? Or what? Israel does not have even a constitution, wonder why? It is just because Zionists want to steal more and more lands. A constitution needs a clear drawing of the map of the state, but they can’t just accept the 1967 borders. They want, as in the flag that has the stolen Arabic star called “David’s Star”, the big Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates (that what the Israeli flag refers to).

How can we achieve peace? Israel is the very only one that has the key of peace. Without the real good will towards the Palestinians and the neighboring countries, I think it is hard to talk about peace.

For the recent reasons that I’ve talked about, many people have real concerns and doubts about the solution of two states, Palestine and Israel, while the solution of one state is rising among the new generations, which has worked before in places like South Africa.