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href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8956">https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8956</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">State opposes final appeal against
demolition of Umm al-Hiran; bulldozers set to move on Bedouin<br>
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<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">21/11/2016</div>
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New Jewish town of 'Hiran' to be built on ruins of Arab
Bedouin village in Israel's south; demolition to move
forward despite court recognition residents are not
illegal trespassers.</p>
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<p>The Israel Land Authority (ILA) has notified Israel’s
Execution and Collection Authority (ECA) that the
demolition of the Arab Bedouin village of Atir-Umm
al-Hiran is slated to begin tomorrow, Tuesday, 22
November 2016.</p>
<p>In response to a request filed by Adalah – The Legal
Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel seeking to
freeze the demolition process, the ILA's legal
representative responded, "the evacuation is set for 22
November 2016, this coming Tuesday." The ILA also
announced it has hired a private contractor to carry out
the demolition at the cost of NIS 119,000 (~US $30,760)
(not including tax) and that "the costs of enlisting
police officers, the as-of-yet-undetermined cost of
bolstering forces, security, sealing of the perimeter,
and coordination of vehicles for the purposes of arrests
and curbing opposition must also be taken into account."</p>
<p>Adalah responded to the ILA today, 21 November 2016:
"In parallel to the Israeli government's efforts to
legalize the Amona settlement in the West Bank – in
direct violation of international law and Israeli
Supreme Court rulings – the government is moving to
demolish a village of Arab Bedouin citizens of the
state, without offering them any suitable alternative
housing. Even though the Supreme Court ruled that
residents of Atir-Umm al-Hiran are neither illegal
trespassers nor criminals, the state insists on
demolishing the village as the sole option."</p>
<p>In 2015, after a 13-year legal battle, the Israeli
Supreme Court decided by a 2-1 majority to authorize the
state's plan to demolish Atir-Umm al-Hiran and forcibly
displace its approximately 1,000 residents for the sole
purpose of establishing a new Jewish town named "Hiran"
over its ruins. Earlier this year, the Court rejected
Adalah's request to re-consider this judgment and to
hold a second hearing on the case.</p>
<p>The case of Atir-Umm al-Hiran is a clear example of
dispossession and displacement for strictly racial
reasons;the only reason the village is being demolished
is to allow the state to establish of a new Jewish town
with accompanying range of land.</p>
<p>The state initially expelled residents of present-day
Atir-Umm al-Hiran from their original lands in the
village of Khirbet Zubaleh by military order in 1956.
The Court has recognized that residents, members of the
Abu al-Qi’an Bedouin tribe, were not illegal trespassers
– as initially claimed by the state – but were indeed
moved there by the state. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court
ruled that, because the village residents are on "state
land," the state could retake it and do with it as they
wished. The Court did not question why the new Jewish
town had to replace the Arab village, when there exists
vast and empty lands in the surrounding area. The Court
also ignored the Bedouin residents’ political, social
and historical roots to the land.</p>
<p><strong>RELATED LINKS:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8550"><strong>#Save_UmAlHiran</strong></a></p>
<p><a
href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/Dangerous-Implications-SCT-Atir-Umm-al-Hiran-updated-Feb-2016.pdf"><strong>ADALAH
POSITION PAPER: The dangerous implications of the
Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to allow the forced
displacement of Atir-Umm al-Hiran for the remaining
unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Naqab (Negev),
February 2016</strong></a></p>
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