The Bedouin tribes are an important part of the Palestinian heritage as they have roamed Palestine for thousands of years (Figure 1). Today, the Bedouin way of life is under threat of extinction as a result of the constant harassment of the Israeli government . Since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the Bedouins have been subjected to numerous attempts to drive them out of their land. In recent years, the Bedouins have been under attack by the Israeli military in an attempt to carry out the development of West Bank colonies and to expropriate vast amounts of Bedouin land prior to the final status talks with the Palestinian Authority.

Figure 1: Bedouins life style

The Bedouin tribes are spread throughout the West Bank districts from the Hebron mountains in the south to the northern Jordan Valley (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Map showing the Bedouins distribution in Palestine.

These areas are rich in natural resources, such as water and grazing land, as well as many caves which have served as Bedouin shelters for millennia. This land has also been reasonably far from human civilization until recently. Traditionally, the Bedouin tribes have led a nomadic life, moving to the hills in early April and back down to the valleys in early September to escape the weather (for more detail Cilck here). Proximity to civilization severely limits their capacity to roam freely and graze sheep and cattle, their main means of living.

The establishment of Israeli colonies in the Jordan Valley initiated the confrontation between Israel and the Bedouin people (Figure 3). The reasoning behind the Israeli policy of colonization of the Jordan Valley is two-fold. Firstly, the Israeli government wishes to establish a buffer zone between the Palestinian people and the Green Line boundary of the West Bank along the Jordan River. This would serve to totally fragment Palestinians from Jordan, the current home of most of the Palestinian Diaspora. Secondly, the rich resource base of the Jordan Valley is very attractive to Israel. Water resources, mineral extraction from the Dead Sea, and tourism in the area currently provide a substantial revenue to the Israeli government.

Figure 3: Satellite image of Bedouins in the Jordan Valley showing neighboring Israeli colony

In order to facilitate this colonization process, the Israeli government has employed a number of forms of physical and economic harassment against the Bedouins. The most publicized case has been the removal and relocation of the Jahalin Bedouins from their homes in the Jordan Valley to an area adjacent the Jerusalem dumping grounds in Abu Dies (For more detail Click here). Similar cases of forced removal of Bedouin families by the Israeli military have also been reported (see Chronology of Recent Events below). Meanwhile, the price of fodder has doubled in recent years to US$ 210 per ton, while sheep and goat meat prices have decreased substantially.

Over the years, the various occupying powers who have held the Palestinian land captive have passed several laws to control the land from its aboriginal owners in order to exploit their natural resources. Two laws in particular have been dominant in their sum and substance regardless of the identity of the occupying power. These are:

1. The occupying power identifies itself as the official owner of the land it has subjugated.
2. Possession of the land is confined by its usage.

Through application of these laws, the occupying powers have been able to expropriate enormous amounts of land from the Palestinians . The Bedouins have experienced tremendous losses due to these laws as the majority of their land is employed for cattle and sheep grazing, which does not classify as land usage.

Since 1997, the Bedouins have been subjected to greater pressure to evacuate their land, and many have already been dislodged from their lands and homes. Although these Bedouins have presented solid proof of ownership that date back many years before the 1967 occupation, they have very little chance of winning an injunction in the Israeli courts to stop these actions. Jahalin Bedouins, among others, were exceptionally targeted during 1997. They have gone through several rounds with the Israeli Army struggling to defend their land.

Froush Biet Dajan as a case study

Froush Biet Dajan Bedouins became refugees after the Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1948. On 4 March 1997, the residents of Froush Biet Dajan in the Jordan Valley received a military order to once again transfer out of the land they had settled and built their lives around(Figure 4).

Figure 4: Location map Of Fruosh Beit Dajan

More than 5,000 Palestinians have moved to Froush Beit Dajan on the lands of Tammoun village since 1952, after being driven by the Israeli army from their original land in Al Samo' village. This new eviction was forced upon them in order to accomodate the expansion of the Jewish colonies of Beqa'ot and Hamra. This colony expansion is occurring despite the fact that they currently house half the number of inhabitants originally planned for the settlements.

Beqa'ot colony was founded in 1972 over the land of the Palestinian village Tammoun. Spread over 675 dunums, the colony was established in the Jordan Valley to hold a total number of 80 families. Currently, the total number of families in the colony reaches around 35 with a population about 150 colonist.

Hamra colony was established in 1971 after confiscating 690 dunums from the Palestinian village Beit Dajan. Today this colony holds 130 colonist from 35 families. The original town was planned for a capacity of 80 families.

The area at risk is a range land used for grazing more than 100,000 sheep (with an estimated value of US$ 15 million) and cultivated with fruit trees. The dairy products of these sheep are their only means of living. The area is already surrounded with Israeli military camps, and the Bedouin families are continuously subjected to harassment by the Israeli army and colonists. This is an example of the falsehood of the common Israeli excuse of settlement expansion due to natural population growth as a reason for the confiscation of Palestinian land.

Chronology of Recent Events

January 1997

Massive demonstrations were carried out by Jahalin Bedouins as the Israeli Army dislodged several families from their land. This was a first step of a plan to evacuate the rest of the families in order to expropriate all of their land. Later the same month, the Israeli Army forcibly evicted 380 Jahalin Bedouin, injuring many in the process.

February 1997

The Israeli army raided a Jahalin Bedouin locality and forcibly removed nine families of fifty individuals from their land. Many were wounded as the families clashed with the military and the police forces which came to carry out the expulsion.

March 1997

The Israeli police force evacuated the Ka'abneh Bedouins using bulldozers to force the people out of the dwellings. Tens of the residents were wounded. Ka'abneh Bedouins are another tribe that is unexpulsion threat. The Israeli government has accelerated the attack on the Ka'abneh Bedouins since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, using the pretext that the Bedouins are living on land classified as Area C.

The Israeli government served an order of eviction to the Bedouin residents inhabiting the Jordan Valley area ranging from Nablus to Jericho. They have been inhabiting this land for the past forty years. These Bedouin tribes include the Al-Khalileh, Al-Ta'amreh, Al-Ka'abneh, Al-Sawalmeh, Al-Tamahneh, Al-Tawabseh, Al-Jiftalak and Al-Hatoub, who together own more than 200,000 head of cattle.

June 1997

The Bedouins of Froush Biet Dajan in the Nablus district were attacked by Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army forced several Bedouin families to evacuate the premises.

August 1997

Many Jahalin Bedouin families were attacked by the Israeli army and police forces to evict them by force from their land in order to annex it to Ma'ale Adumim colony. The Bedouins organized in the same month a demonstration against the Israeli assaults on their land and property.

September 1997

September witnessed an increase in Israeli acts of land expropriation, house demolition, and colony expansion as the Israeli government handed out demolition orders to tens of Bedouins houses of the Ka'abneh and notices of eviction to more than 600 resident. At the end of September, the Israeli Army demolished 53 Bedouin houses east of Abu Dies, destroying personal property in the process. The Israeli army demolished a recently built elementary school built by the Palestinian Authority for the Jahalin Bedouins. The school had a significant impact on the lives of 40 students who had to cross 10 km to get to their previous school in the adjacent village.

October 1997

The expulsion of the Jahalin Bedouins continued as a part of extensive land confiscation in the West Bank which aims to expand the Israeli colonies, specifically around the Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim area where the majority of the Jahalin Bedouins live. The expropriation of Bedouin land is being done in order to implement the expansion plans set for Ma'ale Adumim colony and Kedar colony to the south.

November 1997

The Israeli Army demolished 20 lodgings for the Bedouins and transferred six Jahalin families located near the Israeli colony Ma'ale Adumim. The Israeli army continued its forceful eviction of the Jahalin Bedouins, and expropriated personal property, including livestock, water tanks, and farming equipment.

January 1998

The Bedouin committee repeatedly refused the Israeli government offers for resettlement at another site. The offers did not guarantee the rights of the Bedouins on the new land in terms of cultivating, building, expansion or utilizing it as they see fit to their best interest. The Israeli offers did not provide the Bedouins with any guarantees of financial compensation or grazing land areas for their livestock, which is the Bedouin's main source of income. The Israeli government responded by sending eviction orders to several Bedouin families inhabiting the area adjacent to Ma'ale Adumim.

February 1998

The Israeli High Court issued an order to cease any transfer or demolition procedures regarding the Bedouins residing near Ma'ale Adumim. A few days later, the Israeli army raided the same area, and forcibly evicted 35 families, destroying cowsheds and water tanks in the process. Colonists from Ma'ale Adumim began to fence the area in order to annex it and carry on with the expansion plans. The next day, the Israeli army brought bulldozers and police forces to expel them once again, destroying what was left of their belongings.

July 1998

In the Jordan Valley, one house was demolished at Kardalah village and several tents and shacks were also demolished in Froush Biet Dajan

Tens of Al-Rashaudeh Bedouins were injured after clashes with the Israeli army. The army attacked the Bedouins community located south of Bethlehem and confiscated a herd of sheep grazing in supposedly closed military area.

August 1998

n Nablus District, the Israeli army is leading an ethnic cleansing campaign on the Azazemeh tribe who inhabit the lands of Burqin village adjacent to the Israeli colony of Burqan. The land is allegedly classified as a closed military area.

September 1998

For the second time, the Israeli military forces demolished the tents (sheltering 13 people) of Suleiman Sayayleh from the Jahalin Bedouins near the colony of Maale Adumim to the east of Jerusalem.

November 1998

The Da'is extended Bedouin family in the Jiftlik area of the Jordan valley witnessed a massive raid by the Israeli army and the semi-military Israeli border guards who went on a rampage of destruction. They demolished the Bedouins' tents and confiscated them, as well as the inhabitants' meager belongings; ruined the cattle-pen and confiscated the goats; confiscated also the Bedouins single truck; and to cap it all, destroyed the water tank and spilled its contents into the sands. Sixty people- men, women, and children- were left under the open sky, with literally nothing left to them

December 1998

In Nablus District, forty-five sheep were killed as a result of spraying green fields with toxic materials in Tubas village (for more detail Click here).

The Israeli policy of eviction and relocation of the Palestinian Bedouins is destroying their way of life. The Bedouin eviction process is merely one of the many detrimental and destructive effects of the Israeli plan to expand the colonies in the West Bank and to build new ones. These policies are nothing short of an ethnic cleansing campaign within Palestinian land by the State of Israel (For more detail Click here).

February 1999

Al-Fakhir family , part of the Jahalin al Saray'a Bedouin clan, received a demolition order from the Israeli civil administration informing them that their eight modest homes and tents as well as seven small sheep and chicken pens must be destroyed.