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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-negev-court-removal-village-build-jewish-neighbourhood">middleeasteye.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli court orders removal of Palestinian Negev village to build Jewish neighbourhood</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Lubna Masarwa in Jerusalem and Nadda Osman - July 28, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><img src="cid:ii_lkmnfgbv4" alt="image.png" width="392" height="220"><br>
<font size="1">Palestinian boys walk towards the 'unrecognised' village of Umm al-Hiran in southern Israel's Negev desert (Reuters)
</font><p>An <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israeli</a> court has given <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestinian</a>
families in the Negev (or Naqab) until March of next year to destroy
their homes and leave their village to make way for the expansion of a
nearby Israeli city. </p>
<p>The decision will affect 500 native people from the Ras Jrabah
village, who have been left in a state of shock after the decision by
the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court on Monday. </p>
<p>Residents of the village, which predates the establishment of the
state of Israel in 1948, say the news fell on them like a "thunderbolt"
and was difficult to process.</p>
<p>"Young people have been calling me since the morning, telling me
about their concerns for the future," Musa al-Hawashleh, a resident of
Ras Jrabah, told Middle East Eye.</p>
<p>"We don't know where we will go. We have been here before the state
of Israel and now we will be expelled from our homeland," he added.</p>
<p>The Ras Jrabah case began in 2019 when the Israel Land Authority
(ILA) filed 10 eviction lawsuits against 127 residents of the village
and their families.</p>
<p>The government body argued that the presence of Ras Jrabah - which is
unrecognised as an official village by the state - hindered the
expansion of the nearby city of Dimona. </p>
<p>Dimona was built on land owned by the nomadic indigenous Palestinian
tribe of al-Hawashleh, which also owns land in the adjacent Ras Jrabah
village. </p>
<p>The government wants to remove Ras Jrabah - an area of around 34
hectares - and replace it with a new neighbourhood for Jewish citizens
called Rotem, which will include thousands of housing units. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>'We have been here before the state of Israel and now we will be expelled from our homeland'</p>
<p><em>- Musa al-Hawashleh, Ras Jrabah resident </em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Earlier this week, a magistrate's court ruled in favour of the
government and ordered the Palestinian families to leave the village
they've lived in for generations, giving them a deadline of 1 March
2024. </p>
<p>The families were also ordered to pay a sum of 117,000 shekels ($31,700) to cover legal expenses. </p>
<p>Adalah, the Haifa-based legal centre for Arab minority rights, which
is representing the Palestinian residents, said they will appeal against
the decision. </p>
<p>It argued that the court "disregarded" the residents' arguments in its judgment. </p>
<p>"Since the Nakba, the state of Israel has employed a range of tools
and policies to forcibly displace the Bedouin residents in the Naqab,"
Adalah said in a <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10864" target="_blank">statement</a>. </p>
<p>"Their livelihood has been confined to restricted areas and
segregated townships, and they have been subjected to harsh living
conditions, with no regard for their basic needs and way of life.</p>
<p>"The forced displacement of Ras Jrabah's residents to expand the
Jewish city of Dimona, which was built on the residents' lands, serves
as clear evidence that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid
against its Palestinian citizens."</p>
<h3>'Judaisation' of the Negev</h3>
<p>Hawashleh says that while residents will protest against the decision
and fight it all the way in the courts, they have little hope in the
current ultranationalist government, which has placed the acceleration
of the "<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-negev-galilee-new-government-plans-judaize" target="_blank">Judaisation</a>" of the Naqab at the heart of its <a href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Position_Paper_New_Government_19_April_2023.pdf" target="_blank">guiding policy</a>. </p>
<p>"The new government is worse than the one before, they want to
demolish the village to build a new neighbourhood… The government has
not offered alternative suggestions," Hawashleh told MEE. </p>
<p>"It has been difficult to process and explain to the younger people. I
worry about them, their future and where they will go," he added. </p>
<p>According to Adalah, Ras Jrabah residents suggested that their
village be integrated into the newly planned part of Dimona, a request
that was turned down. </p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/2022-01-12T112811Z_1693563215_RC2LXR95HJAX_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-BEDOUINS%20%281%29.jpg" alt="Palestinian women gesture as they stand by an Israeli policeman during a protest against government expulsions in the village of Sawe al-Atrash in the Negev on 12 January 2022 (Reuters)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="220"></p>
<font size="1">Palestinian women stand beside an Israeli policeman during a
protest against government expulsions in the village of Sawe al-Atrash
in the Negev, on 12 January 2022 (Reuters)</font></div>
<p>The village is one of around 30 unrecognised Palestinian villages in the Negev region of Israel's southern territory.</p>
<p>Almost 100,000 Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship live in
these unrecognised villages, which are denied any infrastructure or
support from the government. </p>
<p>There are no means of transportation, no roads, no schools, and
Israeli authorities don't collaborate with their local leadership. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-citizens-who-explained" target="_blank">Palestinian citizens of Israel</a>
are the descendants of the native population which was violently
displaced by Zionist militias during the creation of Israel in 1948.</p>
<p>Today there are almost two million Palestinian citizens of Israel,
who are estimated to make up 20 percent of the country's population. </p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-negev-palestinians-empty-plans-revealed-new-documents" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/Arab%20Israelis%20and%20members%20of%20the%20High%20Follow-Up%20Committee%20representing%20them%2C%20gather%20in%20front%20of%20the%20Israeli%20prime%20minister%27s%20office%20during%20a%20cabinet%20meeting%20in%20Jerusalem%20on%20January%2030%2C%202022%2C%20%20AFP.jpg.webp?itok=nelQRjC5" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="392" height="245"></a></p><p><font size="1">Historical documents reveal Israel's plan to empty Negev of Palestinians</font></p>
</div>
<p>At least 300,000 live in the Negev region, and say that Israeli
authorities have attempted to force them out and destroy their nomadic
way of life for decades, through various tactics.</p>
<p>These include <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-negev-palestinians-empty-plans-revealed-new-documents" target="_blank">confiscation of lands</a> from native Palestinians and turning landowners into tenants. Additionally, the Israeli government has been <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-negev-plans-build-two-towns-ultra-orthodox-secularist" target="_blank">accused</a> of preventing the expansion of Palestinian villages and encircling them with new Jewish settlements.</p>
<p>"The goal of the Israeli government is to take control over Arab land
in the Naqab and to expel entire communities from their land," Youssef
al-Atawneh, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament with the
Hadash-Ta'al coalition, told MEE. </p>
<p>"This has been ongoing since 1948 and some families have been displaced twice," he added.</p>
<p>The MP said he is collaborating with a Negev-based committee to
organise a large-scale protest over the expulsions and projects taking
place. </p>
<p>"People are very angry over the racism that is taking place," he said.</p>
<p>"But despite the difficult circumstances, fines and displacements,
people are remaining steadfast and strong," he added, predicting that
the recent court decision will likely inflame tensions in the Negev.</p>
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