Description

Photos:
Police demolish a mosque in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev on November 14, 2024 (The Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev). Published by The Times of Israel

Israel Police preparing to demolish a mosque in the village of Umm al-Hiran, Thursday.Credit: Israel Police Spokesperson Office. Published by Haaretz

Umm al-Hiran 2017. Wikipedia

The demolished village of Um Al Hiran, this week.Credit: Unrecognized Villages of Negev Regional Council Spokesperson Office. Published by Haaretz
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By Noam Lehmann for The Times of Israel
Today, 10:50 am

Police demolish the last remains of the unrecognized southern Bedouin village Umm al-Hiran to make way for a planned Orthodox Jewish Jewish community called Dror.

The demolition ends a more than 20-year legal battle and carries out a 2015 High Court of Justice ruling that the Bedouin have been illegally squatting on land that belongs to the state.

Efforts to convince the roughly 300 residents to move to plots prepared for them in the nearby Bedouin town of Hura largely failed.

Many of the residents opted to demolish their homes themselves. Police on the scene today raze a mosque that still stands, according to video released by the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev, a nonprofit that represents the impoverished southern communities.

The group says three members of Umm al-Hiran’s leadership were detained ahead of the demolition and their whereabouts are unknown.

A spokesman for the Council calls the demolition “another chapter in the ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Arabs in this country.”

In a statement, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir hails his “strong policy of demolishing illegal homes in the Negev,” saying he has overseen a 400% rise in demolition orders there since the start of 2024.

A previous 2017 demolition in Umm al-Hiran resulted in police shooting and killing a Bedouin driver, causing his vehicle to run over and kill a policeman. He was falsely accused of being a terrorist.

The 37 unrecognized villages in the Negev house some 150,000 people, or roughly a third of Israel’s Bedouin population, according to the Council. Israel decided in the 1990s to raze some of the illegally built villages and build authorized communities in their stead.

According to the Council, the plan will see some 9,000 Bedouins in 14 villages lose their homes.
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from Twitter

Oren Ziv
@OrenZiv
10:26 PM · Nov 13, 2024
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Now: police raid the Bedouin village of Um Al Hiram in the Negev, ahead of the demolition of the entire village. In recent days the residents were forced to self demolish their one houses. A Jewish village is expected to be built on the village’s land
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Nour Odeh
@nour_odeh
12:14 AM · Nov 14, 2024

This demolition and mass displacement is happening inside Israel, to Israeli citizens - because they are of Beduin Palestinian descent.
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Israel Police Complete Eviction of Unrecognized Bedouin Village With the Demolition of Its Mosque

'It is inconceivable that a government authority is openly boasting a racist policy' a rights group said. Residents of the village received notices to evacuate several months ahead of its demolition to make way for a new Jewish community

by Eden Solomon & Jack Khoury for Haaretz
Nov 14, 2024 7:28 pm IST

Israel Police and the Israel Land Authority demolished the local mosque in Umm al-Hiran in southern Israel, the last structure left standing in the unrecognized Bedouin village, completing its eviction on Thursday. This comes ahead of the planned establishment of a new Jewish community there. In recent days, villagers tore their own homes down, as well as most structures in the village, leaving only the mosque.

According to the community, hours before the eviction, extensive police forces arrived in Hura, where most villagers have relocated, and arrested three former Umm al-Hiran inhabitants. Police says they were arrested on intelligence received indicating they could disturb the peace. "They knocked on doors at three in the morning and arrested them," Mariam al-Kiyan, the wife of one of the detainees, told Haaretz. "Somebody said something about disturbing the peace."

"I don't understand, they were sleeping at home, what disturbance of the peace are they talking about?" she questioned. The attorney for the three detainees, Shehade Ibn Bari, said he went back and forth between Ha'ayarot police station and the Be'er Sheva jail, but has so far failed to ascertain where the three are held.

About three months ago, authorities notified Umm al-Hiran villagers that they must vacate their homes ahead of the unrecognized village's eviction and subsequent establishment of the Jewish community, to be called "Dror" in its place. This comes after a lengthy struggle against the government to uphold their rights over the land.

A few weeks ago authorities notified the villagers that, if they do not tear down their own homes, government employees will carry out the demolition, and that they will be charged with the costs. As a result, in recent days, Umm al-Hiran residents tore down the village's structures themselves, leaving only the mosque standing.

The Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages in the South of Israel said in response to the eviction and demolition that: "It is inconceivable that a government authority is openly boasting a racist policy." The council also said that destroying the village in order to establish the "Dror" community is "part of a plan to replace populations in the south of Israel," and also that "the democratic Jewish public must overturn this evil, that defaces the country."

The Israel Land Authority said that the evicted people, families of the al-Kiyan clan, were offered housing solutions in Hura, as well as adequate compensations, but they say "contacts with the Bedouin Authority came to nothing."

The Steering Committee for the Arab Public in the Negev said in response to the eviction that "The Netanyahu-Ben Gvir government has declared war on Arabs in the south of Israel," and that establishing a Jewish community on the remains of the village is "a crime against humanity according to international law."

The committee announced it will hold a "day of solidarity with Umm al-Hiran, the village that was damaged by the government's fascist policy" on Saturday, and that it intends to set up tents on the demolished houses "to emphasize the failure of the policy of expulsion through house demolition and to make sure that we are staying in our villages and our Negev, and we will never give it up."

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said after the eviction that "every single illegal house is doomed for destruction." He further said that "since early 2024, there has been a 400 percent increase in demolition orders for illegal houses on government land in the Negev."