Press Releases

Mr. President,

On 18 January 2017, Israeli forces completely demolished fifteen Palestinian structures in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran. During the operation, Palestinian Bedouin resident Abu al-Qi’an was shot dead by Israeli forces while driving his car, subsequently causing him to fatally injure an Israeli police officer by driving over him.

In 1956 the residents of Umm al-Hiran were expelled from their original village by an Israeli military order and were forcibly relocated in their current location. In accordance with Israel’s discriminatory policy targeting Palestinian Bedouins by denying them a wide range of human rights, the village remained unrecognized. Sixty years later, in 2017, Bedouins are expelled again from this location, in order to establish a new Jewish-Israeli town called ‘Hiran” in its place.

BADIL strongly condemns this racist double standard policy favoring Jewish-Israeli citizens. The evacuation of Umm al-Hiran has been done before sunrise, by fully equipped forces, using lethal weapons and bulldozers. In comparison, the so-called Amona outpost has been evacuated during daytime by unprotected forces carrying any weapons. BADIL recalls that the right to adequate housing protects all people against forced evictions and the arbitrary destruction of one’s home.

Mr. President,

BADIL calls for the immediate end of this continuing and daily Nakba, which has forcibly displaced Palestinian population since 1948. Expelling the residents of Umm al-Hiran is a grave violation of the right of adequate housing protected by many international conventions including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

BADIL is deeply concern that 2016 has been a record year for property destruction with 1,089 Palestinian demolished or seized structures throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing 1,593 Palestinians. Forcible transfer is considered as a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute. 

BADIL calls on the international community to pressure Israel to immediately stop this global policy of forcible displacement that Israel is leading both in the oPt and in its own territory especially in the Naqab, where Arab Bedouin are expelled from their ancestral land.

I thank you Mister President

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