A senior United Nations humanitarian official on Wednesday called
on Israeli authorities to halt plans to demolish
Palestinian-owned structures and cease plans for the relocation
of Palestinian Bedouin communities in the West Bank.
“We are monitoring the situation in Khan al Ahmar closely and are
deeply concerned by what we see here, and in the scores of other
vulnerable Bedouin communities,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator
Jamie McGoldrick said.
Mr. McGoldrick visited the Khan al Ahmar-Abu al Helu, located on
the outskirts of East Jerusalem in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, with Scott Anderson, the UN Relief and Works Agency’s
Director of Operations in the West Bank, and Palestinian
officials.
“We call on the Israeli authorities to respect their legal
obligations, as the occupying power, including through stopping
the demolition of Palestinian-owned structures and ceasing plans
for the relocation of Palestinian Bedouin communities,” Mr.
McGoldrick stressed.
Khan al Ahmar-Abu al Helu is home to 181 people, 53 per cent of
whom are children and 95 per cent of whom are Palestine refugees
registered with the UN agency.
It is one of 46 Bedouin communities in the central West Bank that
the UN considers being at risk of forcible transfer, due to a
coercive environment generated by Israeli practices and policies,
plans to move the communities from their current locations and
other reasons.
Eighteen of these communities, including Khan al Ahmar, are
located in or next to an area slated in part for a settlement
plan – reportedly aimed at creating a continuous built-up area
between Ma’ale Adumim and East Jerusalem.
Nearly all of the Khan al Ahmar community’s structures risk
demolition by the Israeli authorities, including the school,
initially built with donor support that serves some 170 students
from the community and four surrounding ones, according to the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“The entire community of Khan el Ahmar-Abu al Helu, the vast
majority of whom are Palestine refugees and who are amongst the
most vulnerable Bedouin communities in the West Bank, is facing
the risk of demolitions of their structures and relocation,” said
Mr. Anderson.
For years, the residents have insisted on the right to return to
their original lands, in what is now southern Israel, and, until
this occurs, asks for international support to remain in their
current location.
“The humanitarian impact of home demolition is severe and long
lasting. It is well documented in previous instances that the
transfer of Bedouin communities into urban settings is socially
and economically non-viable. The Khan al Ahmar-Abu al Helu
community has repeatedly called for the provision of suitable
planning solutions and services in its current location,” Mr.
Anderson added.
The visit came in advance of next week’s Israeli High Court of
Justice case, which may determine the fate of the structures and
Israeli relocation plan.
