WEST BANK: ISRAELI POLICE EVICT PALESTINIAN BEDOUIN TO MAKE ROOM FOR EXPANSION OF A JEWISH SETTLEMENT

Record ID: 399884

  • Title: WEST BANK: ISRAELI POLICE EVICT PALESTINIAN BEDOUIN TO MAKE ROOM FOR EXPANSION OF A JEWISH SETTLEMENT
  • Date: 27th January 1997
  • Summary: AIZARIYEH, WEST BANK (JANUARY 27, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV JAHALIN BEDOUIN SITE IN THE WEST BANK 0.06 2. SLV BULLDOZER DESTROYING HOME 0.08 3. SV PALESTINIAN CLASH WITH ISRAELI POLICE 0.12 4. SLV BULLDOZER DESTROYING HOMES (2 SHOTS) 0.41 5. SV PALESTINIANS CLASH WITH ISRAELI POLICE 0.52 6. TV WOUNDED ON GROU
  • Embargoed: 11th February 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AIZARIYEH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA6TEDV43LO2JJQALMVYA0F5UK2
  • Story Text: Israeli police have evicted Palestinian bedouin and flattened their West Bank encampment to make room for expansion of a Jewish settlement.

    Five Palestinians were hurt as police scuffled with bedouin of the Jahalin tribe on Monday (January 27) after they refused to leave their homes. Israeli bulldozers demolished about 20 wood and tin shacks and police removed one tent from the site.

    "Today we have evacuated four families from the Bedouin tribe of Jahalin. They were illegally settled on state-owned lands. We have transferred them to an alternative site which has been prepared with water and electricity," Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli civil administration in the West Bank, told Reuters.

    Human rights lawyer Linda Breyer said the Israeli government decided to evict the Jahalin tribe in order to build apartments for Jews in the colony of Ma'aleh Adumim.

    Israel has been trying to evacuate about 350 Jahalin bedouin, who live off grazing sheep and menial labour near the Arab village of Aizariyeh east of Jerusalem to make room to expand the Jewish settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.

    The Israeli military authorities say the bedouin are squatting on state land designated since 1981 for the expansion of Ma'aleh Adumim. The evictions came after the Jahalin tribe lost a legal battle in Israel's Supreme Court last September.

    Lerner said Israel had offered the bedouin to move to an alternative site fitted with electricity and water. He said each family would be given a plot of land to build a new home.

    But the bedouin, who say they have lived at the site since the 1950s, argue that the new Israeli-built site is located close to a garbage dump and would cause health hazards.

    Monday's evacuation began when police ringed the encampment and gathered the young men on a hill to prevent possible violence while workmen began clearing the site,witnesses said.

    Scuffles broke out after police dragged away bedouin who refused to leave. Police pushed four or five Palestinians over a five-foot high embankment and some of the men fainted as they fell.

    Medics treated them on the spot while workmen continued to haul the Palestinians' belongings into a truck.


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