District Court Rejects Appeal against 33 Home Demolition Orders in Arab Bedouin Village of Umm el-Hieran in the Naqab
On 19 March 2014, the Beer Sheva District Court rejected Adalah’s appeal filed in December 2011on behalf of Arab Bedouin residents of the unrecognized village of Umm el-Hieran in the Naqab (Negev) desert against 33 home demolition orders. Although Judge Ariel Hazak accepted the appellants’ argument that the State of Israel had moved them to the village in the 1950s, he did not find that this fact justified their “illegal” building of structures there. In other words, the judge found that the state could decide to destroy these citizens’ homes, although the state had moved them to this village. The judge ordered that the demolition orders should be frozen for nine months, so that the people could "manage their own affairs." Adalah will appeal against this decision to the Supreme Court.
The court’s decision comes 10 years after the initial issuance of the demolition orders in 2003. It paves the way for the implementation of government’s plans to demolish the village, and to build on its ruins, the Jewish town of "Hiran". Another case to try to prevent the eviction of the villagers and the demolition of Umm el-Hieran is pending before the Israeli Supreme Court. (See Appeal 3094/11, Ibrahim Farhood Abu al-Qi'an et al. v. The State of Israel).See Adalah’s Newsletter, Can Israel demolish an Arab village to build a Jewish one?”, November 2013.
Adalah Attorney SuhadBishara, who is representing the residents of Umm el-Hieran stated in response that, "The court's decision does not give any meaning or legal weight to the presence of people and their lives in this area, especially since they have been moved there based on orders by the state. The judge does not see a problem in uprooting an Arab village and building a Jewish town in its place; hedoes not consider this step as racist or unacceptable."
Attorney Bisharaemphasized that the court, "did not see the movement of the people of the village to this area by order of the military governor as a justification for building in the village, and he rejected the linkage between the two issues. But what doesthe state expect the people to do? Should they live in the open without houses or to stay for all of these years without a roof over their heads? The court’s decision lacks the most basic concern for humanitarian standards and human rights.”
The military governor moved the people to the village in 1956, after the state confiscated their land and expelled from their ancestral village of Khirbet Zubaleh. While the state moved them to Umm el-Hieran it did not give them permits to build, and the village remained “unrecognized.” In 2002, the government planned to establish a Jewish town to be called “Hiran” and to build a forest on its sister village, Atir. In November 2013, the Israeli government approved the acceleration of the construction of four new Jewish towns in the Naqab, including Hiran, despite the fact that several cases remained pending in the courts against the demolition of the village and the evacuation of its people.
Case Citation: Beer el-Sabe District Court, 507611-01-12, Abu el-Qian Musa, et al. v. The State of Israel (appeal denied 19 March 2014)
For more information, see: Adalah, “Nomads Against their Will”, September 2011
