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<h1 class="article-title">Thousands of Palestinians to be Forcibly
Moved for Settlement Expansion</h1>
<div class="article-subtitledetails">
<span class="article-details">
<span class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part1.04040006.07080102@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> Tuesday September 16, 2014 09:07</span><span
class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part2.09010701.08040306@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> by Alternative Information Center (AIC)</span></span>
<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.imemc.org/article/69143">http://www.imemc.org/article/69143</a></small></small></b><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="article-intro">Israel is planning to forcibly
transfer thousands of Palestinian Bedouins from their West Bank
communities into a designated township to free up land for
settlement expansion. Local and international groups are urging
world leaders to pressure Israel to stop this violation of
Palestinian rights. </blockquote>
<p class="article">The Israeli government publicized, last week, six
plans to move Palestinian Bedouins out of their communities around
Jericho, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. The plans include moving
Bedouins out of the politically sensitive area referred to as the
Jerusalem Periphery or “E1,” where Israel has long-intended to
demolish 23 Bedouin villages in order to expand and link
settlements. Settlement expansion in this area would cut the West
Bank in two, further disrupting movement and social and economic
ties between major Palestinian cities and limiting the little
access Palestinians in the West Bank have to Jerusalem.<br>
<br>
All of the Palestinian Bedouin communities slated for transfer are
located in Area C, the 60 percent of the West Bank where Israel
maintains full civil and military control. There are already
around 341,000 Israeli settlers living in more than 100
settlements throughout Area C. Although Area C is within the
internationally recognized 1967 borders of the occupied
Palestinian territory, Israel only allows Palestinians to build on
1 percent of it.<br>
<br>
International humanitarian organisations have noted that this lack
of authority to build makes Palestinians vulnerable to home
demolition, displacement, and forcible transfer and limits their
ability to realize their rights to water, to adequate shelter, to
education, health, and to livelihood.<br>
<br>
Over 40 local and international agencies have called on world
leaders to pressure Israel to cancel these plans.<br>
<br>
In recent months, the government of Israel has used coercive
tactics to heighten the pressure on Palestinian Bedouin
communities, issuing eviction orders and demolishing homes and
livelihood structures. Aid agencies report that Israel has also
obstructed them from delivering assistance to these communities,
including by seizing and destroying emergency shelters that
international donors provided for families whose homes were
demolished and confiscating a swing-set and a slide for a Bedouin
school.<br>
<br>
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(UNOCHA) reports that Israel has already demolished more than 350
Palestinian homes or livelihood structures in Area C in 2014,
while demolitions in the Jerusalem periphery and E1 area have hit
a five-year high, displacing 170 Bedouins, 91 of whom are
children. </p>
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