[News] Israel’s war on its Palestinian citizens

Wed Feb 27 11:44:18 EST 2019

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israels-war-its-palestinian-citizens 

  Israel’s war on its Palestinian citizens

Tamara Nassar <https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar> - 26 
February 2019

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Israel plans to forcibly displace 36,000 Palestinian Bedouins in the 
Naqab (Negev) <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/naqab-negev> region 
of southern Israel to make way for a military training area and weapons 
testing facility, according 
<https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9677> to Adalah 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/adalah>, a legal advocacy group for 
Palestinians in Israel.

That’s one quarter of all Palestinian Bedouins living in the Naqab, all 
citizens of Israel.

The plan, which was announced 
<https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/The%20Strategic%20Plan%20for%20the%20Regulation%20of%20the%20Negev%20-%2014022019%20-%20FINAL.pdf> 
late last month, “overtly discriminates against the Bedouin population, 
and considers them an obstacle that must be removed from the landscape 
in order to clear a path for Jewish settlement and ‘development,’” 
Adalah stated <https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9677>.

Israel’s Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouins 
intends to transfer Bedouins to “poverty-stricken, government-planned 
townships,” violating both Israeli and international laws.

If implemented, Israel will sieze about 65,000 acres of land – an area 
about one and a half times the size of Washington, DC.

One of the plan’s projects is to establish the Ramat Beka 
<https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9644> military industrial zone.

Israel will move a weapons testing facility owned by leading Israeli 
arms maker Elbit <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/elbit> from the 
city of Ramat HaSharon 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ramat-hasharon> in central Israel 
to the Naqab.

The testing facility, which would be twice the size of Tel Aviv, poses 
“health, safety and environmental risks” to those living around it, and 
would require the forcible displacement of thousands of Bedouins and 
more than 1,200 of their structures.

Elbit has supplied 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/failed-british-politician-hired-leading-israel-lobbyist> 
white phosphorus munitions and drones that have been used during 
Israel’s attacks on Gaza. It also manufactures cluster weapons 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-funds-firm-supplying-israel-banned-cluster-weapons> 
for the Israeli army, helping it circumvent an international ban.

As part of the same plan, Israel intends to establish 
<https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9686> the Sde Barir phosphate 
mine, which requires the forcible transfer of thousands of Palestinian 
Bedouins as well.

The mine would cause serious health hazards to thousands more who remain.

Israel’s National Planning and Building Board and the Israeli government 
approved the plan on the basis of an environmental survey that Adalah 
says “ignores the existence of approximately 15,000 Bedouin citizens 
living in and around the area designated for construction of the mine.”

Adalah, along with 168 Bedouin residents of the most affected village, 
al-Furaa, and a number of human rights organizations, filed a petition 
<https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Al_Fura_phosphate_mine_petition_FINAL_20012019.pdf> 
with Israel’s high court demanding it stop the construction of the 
phosphate project.

A hearing is due on Wednesday.

“In order to Judaize the Naqab (Negev), Israeli authorities are 
implementing economic and military plans that are not intended to serve 
the Bedouin and, in fact, ignore their very existence,” Adalah attorney 
Myssana Morany stated.

Israel has long sought to get rid of the Palestinian Bedouin population 
in the Naqab.

It has forced 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-forces-umm-al-hiran-villagers-agree-expulsion> 
residents of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/umm-al-hiran> to agree to be 
expelled from their homes and resettled to the town of Hura 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hura> in the southern Naqab region 
under threats of violence.

Meanwhile, Adalah is demanding 
<https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9681> Israel provide accessible 
voting stations to 11 unrecognized Bedouin villages whose residents 
would otherwise need to travel up to 50 kilometers to vote in April’s 
elections.

    Segregated ghetto

Meanwhile in the north of Israel, hundreds of Palestinian citizens 
protested earlier this week against Israel’s plan to build an Arab-only 
city on private land east of Acre.

The new city, called Tantur, would be built on land Israel seized in the 
1970s.

Israel designated approximately 750 acres of confiscated land – or just 
over one square mile – for the project, which is set to include about 
15,000 housing units and house more than 70,000 Palestinian citizens of 
Israel, according 
<https://www.arab48.com/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1/2019/01/31/%D8%B7%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%88%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B9-%D8%A5%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A3%D9%85-%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%B7%D8%B7-%D8%BA%D9%8A%D8%AA%D9%88-%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AF> 
to the publication /Arab48./

About 170 acres Israel intends to use are privately owned.

Several government ministries have adopted the project, including the 
interior and housing ministries.

Palestinians protested in the city of Jadeidi-Makr, which lies east of 
Acre and close to the site of the planned city:

    — شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 23, 2019
    <https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1099391577162743808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

    مسيرة في جديدة المكر بالداخل المحتل رفضاً لمصادرة أراضي تلة الطنطور.
    pic.twitter.com/aPYZbakAO1 <https://t.co/aPYZbakAO1>

    — شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 23, 2019
    <https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1099368750694965251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Many held protests in Acre as well:

    أهالي قرية جديدة المكر الفلسطينية يتظاهرون ضد مخطط طنطور السلطوي
    الهادف إلى إبعادهم عن أراضيهم ومصادرتها. pic.twitter.com/mUbB71yi27
    <https://t.co/mUbB71yi27>

    — التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) February 19, 2019
    <https://twitter.com/AlarabyTV/status/1097835692384837632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Israeli forces attacked protesters, arresting some of them:

    #فييديو
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D9%81%D9%8A%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%88?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
    يوثق اعتداء قوات الاحتلال على المشاركين بتظاهرة جديدة المكر الرافضة
    لمصادرة أراضي تلة الطنطور فيها pic.twitter.com/NG6VnxpVkd
    <https://t.co/NG6VnxpVkd>

    — 48 الإخبارية (@48nnews) February 14, 2019
    <https://twitter.com/48nnews/status/1096087022316515329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Yousef Jabareen, a Palestinian member of Israel’s parliament for the 
Joint List, said that the construction of the new city is part of 
Israel’s plan to push Palestinians out of Jewish-majority cities and put 
them in ghettoes.

One purpose for the city is “to prevent the migration of Arabs to 
existing Jewish cities in the Galilee, including Upper Nazareth 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/upper-nazareth>, Karmiel and Tiberias.”

Jabareen added that Upper Nazareth mayor, Ronen Plot, is an advocate of 
this project, as he desperately seeks to limit the migration to the city 
of Palestinian citizens of Israel unable to find housing elsewhere.

Upper Nazareth was founded in the 1950s as part of Israel’s effort to 
Judaize the Galilee. As recently as 2012, its then-mayor Shimon Gapso, 
called 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-mayor-expel-palestinian-citizens-hostile-nazareth-gaza-opposing-war> 
for the expulsion of the Palestinian residents of the neighboring city 
of Nazareth to Gaza.

Gapso proudly admitted 
<https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/shimon-gapso-if-you-think-im-a-racist-so-be-it-1.5318153> 
to being a “racist” and, like his successor, vowed to do whatever was 
necessary to keep Upper Nazareth Jewish.

The Israeli government has long sought 
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/briefing-paper/palestinians-in-israel-democracy.pdf> 
to increase the number of Jewish residents in the Galilee, where 
Palestinians remained a sizeable population after the Nakba, the ethnic 
cleansing of Palestinians in 1948.

This has been achieved by building Jewish colonies on land belonging to 
Palestinian communities, preventing the natural growth and the 
establishment of new Palestinian towns and villages.

Last year, a town in the Galilee region suspended 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-town-halts-property-sales-after-realizing-most-buyers-were-palestinians> 
building tenders for a 2,200-household residential development after its 
mayor learned that around half of the buyers were Palestinian citizens 
of Israel.

Although the vast majority of its original population was forced out 
during the Nakba, Palestinians still make up a third of the residents of 
the coastal city of Acre.

But Jabareen says the construction of Tantur would “serve the process of 
emptying” Acre of its Palestinian population “in a deliberate and 
systematic manner.”

Acre, a historic port and world heritage city 
<https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1042>, has long been the target of 
Israeli efforts to force out 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-serves-eviction-orders-palestinians-world-heritage-city/13237> 
its remaining Palestinian population.

Israel’s tourism ministry, along with settlement groups, intend to 
convert Acre 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/resisting-cannibalization-palestines-heritage/13254> 
to a commercial center for Israeli Jews and tourists.

    Forced to demolish own home

Meanwhile, a Palestinian citizen was forced 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=782648> by Israeli authorities 
to demolish his own two-story commercial building on Saturday in Deir 
al-Asad in the Galilee.

Ibrahim Ali Badran carried out the demolition himself “to avoid the high 
demolition costs imposed upon him by Israel if Israel carries out the 
demolition instead,” Ma’an News Agency reported.

This video shows the demolition:

    بدعوى البناء غير المرخص .. فلسطيني يهدم عمارته بنفسه في دير الأسد
    بالداخل الفلسطيني المحتل، اليوم pic.twitter.com/wEpeEkfkGl
    <https://t.co/wEpeEkfkGl>

    — 48 الإخبارية (@48nnews) February 23, 2019
    <https://twitter.com/48nnews/status/1099199470842138625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Abdullah Jabarin, a Palestinian from the city of Umm al-Fahm 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/umm-al-fahm> in northern Israel, 
was also forced to demolish 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=782572> his own warehouse 
earlier this month after a similar order.

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