Bedouin Tribal Displacement in Palestine

‘Area C’ in the West Bank is under full Israeli civil and military control, however it is home to hundreds of Palestinians and Bedouins communities enduring harsh living conditions in extreme poverty. Bedouins are an important fabric of Palestinian society, they can be defined as nomadic Arabs of the Desert, people that travels from place to place to find fresh pasture for its animals and has no permanent home. Due to the displacement of people and occupation of land Bedouins have been reduced to live by roadsides in shanty towns with no electricity or running water, no sewage disposal systems and very little infrastructure despite this being their ancestral land.

We visited the village of Khan al-Ahmar in the Judean desert, where 140 Bedouins live in tents and huts, The majority of these Bedouins have come from the Jahalin tribe who were expelled from the Negev by the Israeli military in 1952 and have lived here for 60 years. They have never been granted building permits, hence they have made do with building with whatever materials they could lay their hands on, it may be an eyesore, but this is home to many familes most of which are children. Any access to markets where meat and milk can be sold for income by the farmers is cut off. Their animals are not allowed to graze on land, many have had to be sold at low prices to help pay the high costs of this legal struggle. It is one of the few villages left in area E1 which connects the north and south of the West Bank making it strategically a very important area, the Israeli authorities are trying to take control of. If the Bedouins where to leave or re-locate it would connect illegal Isreali settlements through expansion.
Khan al-Ahmar is located approximately 0.5 KM away from the villas of Kfar Adumim, very sophisticated illegal Israeli settlement which of course has running water, electricity and has luxurious interiors.  I’ve even seen rooms here for holidaymakers advertised as hotels here online. Just to clarify, these settlements are built on confiscated Palestinian land illegally by the Israeli settlers, yet there are no demolition orders for them.
Among the village there is a famous, ‘Tyre School’ built of plastic bottles and old tyres held together by mud, this school has now become a symbol for Bedouins and their non-violent resistance fighting for their future. It was built by an Italian Non Government Organisation – Vento Di Terra (Wind of Earth) . The purpose of this school was to give children of the neighboring villages a place to go to receive an education, this is the only school in the area, and had to be built without a permit because they were never granted one even though many applications were made.  If this is demolished the children will not receive any education and it will undoubtedly affect their future. The Israeli authorities insist this school has been built for ‘political’ reasons, but I can only see children wanting to learn to read and write. Attacking the right to an education is tactic often used by oppressors to deprive future generations of personal development, this can clearly be seen in Palestine this being one of the most prominent examples. Hearing about the demolition threats on this school was one of the most disgusting for me personally.

Walking through the school, there are paintings of Palestinian flags and peace doves and other Palestinian symbols on the walls, it really does feel like a place of love, a haven in the harsh desert of oppression and solitude, where children can come together and play. The facilities are very basic, I can imagine it getting very hot inside during the summer and cold in the winter months. The children bring us tea and we are a very large group, I’m extremely humbled to be greeted with such a warm welcome from the most vulnerable people I met in the West Bank. Once again people who have very little but give so much, the hospitality was overwhelming.

We are told stories by some of the residence of the village. It’s difficult to hear that even when this school is running, it is hard to find teachers who will travel this far to teach as they can receive the same salary with a teaching job much closer to home. I know the Palestinians want to support each other, but the realities of the occupation make that very difficult when they have to survive and support their own families, though many I met do make these sacrifices in order to never give up hope.

I went for a walk around the school, looking at this empty classroom made me feel so privileged to have an education, to have been able to continue to a higher education. These children are fighting for their basic rights to even learn to read. It’s sad as a child growing up I would complain about having to go to school whereas these children will cry as they will soon have no school to go to. Life is funny like that sometimes, we learn to appreciate what we think are the ‘little thing in life’ which mean so much more to other people in the globe. I feel very grateful for my blessings in life and I feel so much outrage for these children. the school is not perfect but they have done a great job with what little they could get.
There are EU flag stickers on these buildings, international support is clear, but they are often removed. Another NGO called Future for Palestine, donated solar panels to provide the village with electricity. However sadly, the Israeli Civil Administration confiscated these.
I met some of the children who go to this ‘Tyre School’ they smiled at me, happy to see international support and it really saddened me that they will soon be deprived of an education, every child should have a right to an education. I also wondered what will happen to them if this village is displaced, will they be left homeless in the desert between illegal luxurious Israeli settlements? Where is the justice in that?
Up until recently these ‘shanty towns’ had been left undisturbed due to the pressure by European and American diplomats, unfortunately, this is now changing with more than 40 demolition orders being issued for these villages. Where are these hundreds of families supposed to go? There is no answer to that. Not only are demolition orders being issues but they are expected to pay for it too. This is like rubbing salt into open wounds but nothing can be done, ridiculous legal loopholes are to blame. These actions have been condemned by the United Nations as a breach of International Law under the Geneva convention. These actions have also been condemned by the British government.
We meet Angela Godfrey-Goldstein and Israeli activist and Jahalin Bedouin Advocacy Officer from the Palestinian rights group – Jahalin solidarity. This brave woman is very passionate about the rights of Palestinians, I can only imagine the backlash she receives from Israelis for supporting the cause. Even when we were driving through Palestinian Areas, the guards at the checkpoints all know here and will give her stern looks, they know she knows she is not allowed in Palestinian controlled land. For me meeting this women further confirms this is not a religious war or one about Arabs and Jews, but about colonization and people.
Angela translated a very heartfelt talk from Eid abu Khamis a resident of and spokesperson for the village of Khan al-Ahmar who was born here, this is his home. He has seven children and talks about how they have been denied building permits, and have to deal with settlers coming threatening them with weapons. Eid is a very active in fighting for the Bedioun rights, and was recently invited to talk at the New York Peace Festival to do a Q&A after the screening of, “Nowhere Left to Go.” However he was denied a VISA by the USA. Angela was prepared to talk on his behalf, but Eid was able to talk via Skype.

I can’t imagine how stressful life is for these Bedouins, not feeling safe or knowing when they will have their homes destroyed without any other solution to re-house them appropriately. The Israeli authorities have suggested a re-location to Nuwei’ma, in the Jordan Valley, however this is too close to Israeli settlements and other tribes for the Bedouin life to continue for the Jahlin tribe it was therefore rejected this forcible transfer. Children fear the sound of cars not knowing if it’s the civil administration coming to close down their school and take their homes. Approximately 60% of land in the West Bank has been taken illegally by Israeli authorities.

Bedouins are denied any building permits so these homes and school are seen as, ‘illegal’ buildings, therefore under threat of destruction. However this seems like a preventative measure to stop any Palestinian occupation of land, and this will cut off any access to Jerusalem for Palestinians. Here is a list of the legal violations:

• International law on the illegality of settlements (Article 49(6) Fourth Geneva Convention) and
• Unlawfulness of demolitions of public and private property (Article 53 Fourth Geneva Convention),
• considered a war crime (Article 8(2)(a)(iv) of the Rome Statute).
• The UN is closely monitoring the risk of forcible transfer faced by Bedouin communities in the West Bank – which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 49(1) and 147),
• Crime against humanity for the purposes of the Rome Statute (Article 7(1)(d) and 7(2)(d)).

On returning to England, I heard the ‘village’ we had visited had been given demolition orders and would be destroyed within 5 working days. I was devastated, thinking about the children we had seen and immediately wrote to Boris Johnson at the Foreign and common wealth office expressing my outrage.