?E-1 Looming

In early May, Palestinian media reported that dozens of Bedouin living in the area adjacent to Maale Adumim – the area slated for the eventual construction of the settlement projects known as E-1 – were being evicted.  Reflecting the apparent seriousness of the situation, on May 21 OCHA issued an unusually strong statement: UN Officials: Israel must halt plans to transfer Palestinian Bedouins.

The potential eviction of Bedouin from the E-1 area comes in the context of broader eviction/displacement trends Israel, following the High Court’s decision to uphold the eviction of Palestinians citizens of Israel from the village of Umm Hiran in the Negev (to make way for a new Jewish-Israel village to be called “Hiran”) and to uphold the eviction and destruction of the West Bank Palestinian village of Susya (to make way for the expansion of settlement control in the area).  See report on both, from Human Rights Watch, here. Also see the report from Haaretz: It’s 1948 again for Bedouin tribe.