Israeli court approves displacement of Bedouin Palestinians to expand city

An Israeli court this week approved the eviction of Palestinian Bedouin residents of a Naqab (Negev) village in order to expand a nearby city.

Monday's verdict, which will affect over 500 residents, reinforces an eviction notice handed to residents of the village of Ras Jrabah in May 2019 by the Israel Land Authority following a bid to grow the Israeli city of Dimona. 

Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which represents the residents of the village, said the decision was "part of a system of Jewish supremacy that was constitutionally enshrined in the Jewish Nation-State Law, which prioritises 'Jewish settlement' as a value that all state bodies are mandated to promote". 

The Jewish Nation-State Law, which was passed in 2018, enshrined the Jewish identity of Israel into its constitution, removing Arabic as an official language and emphasising the necessity of developing Jewish settlements.

"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, and urgent international intervention is necessary to halt it," Adalah said.

The court verdict means that Bedouin residents will have to leave their home village and demolish their houses by March 2024 to allow for the development of a new neighbourhood of Dimona. They will also have to pay 117,000 shekels (approximately $31,581) to cover legal fees.

Ras Jrabah's inhabitants - who say they hold rights to the land - wanted the village to be integrated into the city so their houses would avoid demolition.

Israel's Bedouin Development and Settlements authority rejected Ras Jarabeh's appeal and said they would only resettle the residents to the Bedouin town of Qasr Al-Sir.

The court alleges that there was insufficient evidence that the area was permanently settled prior to the 1970 Land Law that registered the land as state-owned.

It also claimed that there was not concrete evidence that military governors gave authorisation for the Palestinians to reside on the land in the 1950s.

Ras Jarabeh's residents will therefore have to leave the village and repurchase newly developed property in the neighbourhood, the court said.

The court also dismissed Adalah's assertions that the evictions reinforce racial segregation because residents were not prevented from purchasing land built on their old village. It also refused to examine that the refusal to incorporate the village into the city constituted racial segregation.

Adalah said it plans to appeal the decision.

Local activists say the displacement is part of broader Israeli plans to change the Negev's make-up.

"The authorities wants to concentrate us in one area in order to expand settlements," Muaqel el-Hawashleh, from the Regional Council of Unrecognised Villages of Negev, told The New Arab.

"The case of expulsion is not new. There's no justice".