A Palestinian Bedouin community is under threat from a demolition
order within days, to make way for Israeli settlement expansion,
the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Liz Throssell said that the imminent destruction of
buildings used by Khan al Ahmar al Helu residents comes after the
Israeli High Court ruled against any further delay.
“The community is home to 181 people - more than half of them
children,” Ms Throssell told journalists in Geneva, noting that
it is “at high risk of forcible transfer” owing to Israeli
practices and policies “that coerce people and communities to
move”.
The Khan al Ahmar al Helu community has spent the last decade
opposing the move in a part of the central West Bank called Area
C.
In total, around 7,000 people from 46 Bedouin communities live
there “and we are concerned about all of them”, the OHCHR
spokesperson said, noting that the community is located near
existing “large Israeli settlements”.
Describing Israel’s planning policy as “discriminatory” and
incompatible with international law, Ms Throssell explained that
“most properties are considered illegal” because planning permits
are not granted to Palestinians in the area.
In an appeal to the Israeli authorities, the OHCHR spokesperson
said that if the demolitions went ahead, “people would lose their
homes, children would lose their schools” and residents “would
lose their community”.
Such a development would “likely amount to forced evictions” and
violate the community’s right to housing, Ms Throssell said.
She added that once demolitions take place, the community is
expected to be encouraged to move about 10 kilometres away to a
suburban area on the outskirts of East Jerusalem.
Such a move is “not really appropriate for a community that has
animals and needs grazing”, Ms Throssell said, adding that this
had happened before, affecting 150 Bedouin Palestine refugee
families between 1997 and 2007.
“The demolition itself may not amount necessarily to forced
eviction – the people may try to stay in the area,” she said.
“But as you can imagine, it really increases the risk of forced
transfer, so our main call to the Israelis, is not to proceed
with the demolition of this community.”
Ms Throssell added that international humanitarian law prohibits
the forced transfer of the population of an occupied territory,
regardless of the motive.
