Jerusalem Governorate: Systematic Campaign of Displacement Targeting 33 Bedouin Communities Surrounding the Governorate

SadaNews - The Jerusalem Governorate has warned of the serious escalation being carried out by the occupation forces and settlers against the Bedouin communities scattered around the governorate, numbering 33 in total. It affirmed that these systematic policies constitute a gradual uprooting campaign targeting the Palestinian presence in the eastern areas of the governorate, as part of a broad colonial scheme aimed at suffocating daily life and deepening the suffering of citizens.

The Jerusalem Governorate confirmed in a statement today, Thursday, that what is happening has severe social and economic repercussions threatening the stability of Bedouin families and placing them at risk of forced displacement, which contradicts international humanitarian law.

The governorate added that the Bedouin communities stretching between Mukhmas in the north and Wadi an-Nar in the south are facing escalating violations, starting with depriving the residents of infrastructure and basic services, and escalating to land and property seizures, and daily assaults by settlers that include attacking residents, cutting water lines, stealing livestock, and damaging wheat and barley crops. These communities are also surrounded by 21 colonial pastoral outposts used as pressure tools to expel residents and prevent them from accessing their natural pastures. Additionally, the severe water crisis forces residents of communities like Wadi Sinisil and Wadi al-Awaj to buy one cubic meter of water for ten shekels, which is double the price imposed on citizens, in a policy aimed at economically exhausting the communities and pushing them to leave.

In light of this reality, the suffering of residents deepens with the collapse of living conditions and a decline in sources of income, as herders can no longer access their pastures. Many families have lost a significant part of their livestock and agricultural wealth due to continuous assaults. The occupation authorities also prohibit any developmental or service projects for Palestinian and international institutions within these communities, in an attempt to create a complete living void that drives residents towards forced emigration without issuing official deportation orders, replicating the "slow erosion" method used in colonial expansion policies.

The Jerusalem Governorate added that the 33 Bedouin communities, home to more than 7,000 Palestinian citizens, form an integral component of national identity and rooted Palestinian existence, especially since their strategic location lies within the targeted areas of the "Greater Jerusalem" project and the E1 plan, through which the occupation aims to separate Jerusalem from its eastern surroundings and sever the geographic continuity between the northern and southern West Bank.

The Jerusalem Governorate called for an urgent official and popular national action to protect the Bedouin communities, through supporting the agricultural sector and livestock, providing fodder, and exempting residents from exorbitant water debts, as well as forming protection committees for the besieged communities and providing job opportunities for youth, and organizing official and popular visits to break the isolation imposed by the occupation. The governorate also urges international and rights organizations to intervene immediately to protect more than 7,000 citizens facing the risk of forced displacement, to highlight the magnitude of violations against them, and to compel the occupation to respect its legal obligations, emphasizing that protecting the Bedouin communities is protection for what little remains of the vital extension of East Jerusalem and for the future of Palestinian existence there.