ISRAELI ARMY MOVES IN AGAINST JAHALIN BEDOUIN

TWO FAMILIES EVICTED, REMAINING FAMILIES AT RISK

14 January 1997

This morning at 9:30 a.m., over a hundred Israeli army and police, accompanied by bulldozers, destroyed a small Jahalin Bedouin encampment near Abu Dis. This encampment is part of the larger Jahalin group who have been living in the Abu Dis area for 40 years, and who have been served eviction orders by the Israeli high court to make way for the illegal expansion of the Jewish settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. It is believed that the eviction of the Jahalin has been timed to take place at the same time as the signing of the long-awaited agreement for Israeli army re-deployment in Hebron, in the hopes of escaping international attention.

Two families of eight people have been displaced by the destruction of this encampment, their belongings left in a bulldozed heap to the side of the hill. The Ali Hussein Salayla and Khalil Hassan Abu Asida families will be moved to the alternative site, located some 500 meters from the Jerusalem municipality garbage dump. Several hundred people will be affected by this forced eviction, as the other encampments included in the eviction order wait for the bulldozers to arrive.

LAW - the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment condemns this brutal eviction as a grave injustice to the Jahalin, and a violation of both the letter and spirit of the Oslo Accords. Removing an Arab presence to make way for illegal settlement expansion changes the status quo of the area, and serves to cleanse areas of the West Bank of Palestinians. In addition, evicting the Bedouin from their home of 40 years to small inadequate plots of land near the Jerusalem municipality garbage dump site furthers the injustice done to them. LAW calls on the international community to denounce immediately this act as contrary to the hopes of peace, by faxing to Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu (972) (2) 566-4838 and Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai (972) (3) 691-6940.

LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAW is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.