Adalah and Meezan Appeal Israeli Court Ruling to Prevent Eviction of Bedouin Residents of Al-Bqea’ah, an Unrecognized Village in the Naqab

On 7 October 2024, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and Meezan Organization for Human Rights (Nazareth) filed an appeal to the Be’er Sheva District Court, challenging a ruling by the Be’er Sheva Magistrates’ Court that approved an eviction lawsuit filed by the Israel Land Authority (ILA) against residents of Al-Bqea’ah. Adalah and Meezan are representing the village residents in their fight against state-initiated eviction lawsuits that threaten to uproot the entire community.  

The appellants argued that the case of Al-Bqea’ah is unique among other eviction lawsuits, as there is no public interest and no urgent need to evacuate the residents from their land, making it effectively "eviction for eviction's sake." They further contended that the ILA, as an administrative body, does not have the authority to order the evacuation of a Bedouin village whose residents have lawfully lived on the land for decades without any pressing public necessity. The appellants asserted that such an eviction would be unreasonable, unjust, and unconstitutional, failing to comply with administrative norms. The appeal is scheduled to be heard on 5 February 2025.

Background on the village:

Al-Bqea’ah is located between Arad and the Masada National Park, near the tourist site of Kfar Nokdim in the Naqab (Negev). In 2022, the ILA filed 18 eviction lawsuits against 290 residents of the village and their families, presenting them as “trespassers'' on the land. 

The residents of Al-Bqea’ah primarily belong to the Al- Janabeeb tribe, who, before the establishment of Israel, lived in the Kurnub area, near the present-day Jewish city of Dimona. In the 1950s, Israeli military authorities displaced the Al-Janabeeb people from their lands in Kurnub, ordering them to relocate to the area of the Al-Jahalin Tribe— who had previously been expelled, largely to the occupied West Bank. This area became the present-day location of Al-Bqea’ah. Since then, the residents of Al-Bqea’ah have built their homes, raised their families, and fostered a close-knit community with a strong social and economic foundation. In the 1980s, the residents embraced a tourism initiative that invited visitors to stay in the village, an endeavor that eventually evolved into the renowned Kfar Nokdim tourist site. Many residents of Al-Bqea’ah have since worked at Kfar Nokdim, as well as at the nearby Masada National Park. Today, the residents of Al-Bqea’ah face the threat of a second displacement.

The eviction lawsuits:

In its lawsuits, the ILA claimed that the residents are trespassers on land registered to the state, and therefore must be evicted. However, the ILA provided no alleged public need for displacing the community and presented no plan for alternative use of the land. This means that the eviction is driven solely by government policy to forcibly resettle and concentrate Bedouins into state-planned urban townships that disregard their needs, preferences, and traditional way of life. This case exemplifies eviction as a goal in and of itself.

Throughout 2023, Adalah and Meezan gathered affidavits from the residents, collected state archival materials, prepared expert opinions on alternative planning solutions and submitted defense arguments in all 18 lawsuits. 

In the defense arguments, Adalah and Meezan contended that the residents hold and use the land legally, with the state’s permission and prior knowledge, making all claims of trespassing or illegal possession baseless. For decades, the residents have lived in the village with both the explicit and implied consent of the state. Until 2022, the state had not made any claims against their holding of the land or raised any objections to their presence on it.  In fact, Israeli authorities have connected the village to the Masada water pipeline, and sought their help in search and rescue operations of lost tourists in the dessert area. 

The organizations argued that the impending evictions violate the residents' constitutional rights to dignity, property, housing, and equality, and disproportionately discriminate against them based on nationality. They emphasized that evicting the residents would leave them homeless, as the state has not offered any appropriate, consensual, immediate, or available housing solutions. The organizations further contended that the primary goal of these lawsuits is to pressure residents into forcibly leave their village and homes, asserting that the state filed these lawsuits in bad faith, based on irrelevant considerations, and in a misuse of the legal process.

Another indication of bad faith lies in the state’s decision to file 18 separate lawsuits and its opposition to the residents’ request to consolidate these cases, arguing that each family “cluster” holds  separate “land”. The ILA further claimed that consolidating the cases would complicate negotiations and reaching agreements with individual families. This stance disregards the reality that the residents of Al-Bqea’ah form a unified community, not a “diaspora,” and that the state’s legal strategy is designed to drain the community’s resources and those of the defense team, weakening the community’s resilience through a “divide and conquer” approach. 

In October 2022, the magistrates’ court rejected a motion submitted by the Adalah and Meezan to consolidate all 18 cases, permitting only three of the lawsuits to be unified.

The magistrates’ court ruling:

The first evidentiary hearing took place on 24 December 2023, with Adalah and Meezan submitting their closing arguments on 28 March 2024. Subsequently, most judges froze hearings on the remaining cases, pending a decision in this one.

On 20 June 2024, the magistrates’ court delivered its decision, upholding the state’s authority to evict the residents and imposing a total NIS 25,000 (approximately USD $6,667) in expenses on them. The court accepted the residents' argument that they had lived on and used the land for decades with the state’s implicit consent, as evidenced by the provision of basic services, and therefore they were not trespassers. However, the judge ruled that, based on prior precedents, such permission could be revoked. Given the residents' long-established presence and the absence of immediate public interest in the land, the court set an eviction deadline within two years, by 30 June 2026.

The judge also criticized the ILA's choice to be represented in these cases by private lawyers instead of the state attorney’s office, noting that these lawyers continue to argue that the Bedouins are trespassers despite clear legal precedents establishing that they are not. The judge emphasized that eviction lawsuits against Bedouin communities are complex and require collaborative, innovative solutions, involving multiple governmental bodies, including planning authorities, to achieve fair agreements. A private lawyer lacks both the mandate and the incentive to pursue such efforts. 

Ultimately, following a pre-hearing on three cases held on 3 November 2024, the magistrates' court decided to apply this ruling to all remaining cases and to any future decisions on these cases.