#Palestine / Ras Jrabah Villagers Appeal Eviction to Expand Dimona City
The Bedouin village of Ras Jrabah, located next to the Jewish city of Dimona in the Naqab (Negev) desert, is facing imminent displacement. Tomorrow, the District Court in #Beersheba will hear an appeal by the village's 600 residents against the state's intention to evict them from their historical family lands belonging to the Al-Huwalah tribe.
The residents have been served eviction orders to vacate the area, consisting of over 10,000 dunams (2,500 acres), to make way for a new neighborhood called Rotem that will be annexed to Dimona. Last year, the lower court ruled that all Ras Jrabah residents must relocate to the Bedouin towns of #Arara or #Kssayir, ignoring their demands to determine their own place of residence.
The villagers have expressed their desire to be integrated into the new urban expansion of #Dimona, either as an independent village under its jurisdiction or as a designated neighborhood catering to their lifestyle. Many Ras Jrabah residents work in Dimona and rely on services provided by the city.
The Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages calls this a case of "ethnic displacement and forced segregation" incompatible with democratic values. They urge solidarity with the villagers at the appeal hearing.
Adalah, the legal center representing Ras Jrabah, views the case as illustrating Israel's #apartheid land regime that systematically segregates and displaces the Palestinian population to facilitate Jewish settlement, violating international law. Previous rulings have shown that constitutional rights in Israel fail to protect Palestinians from such racist policies entrenched in the Nation-State Law.
[…] “Dimona was established on the lands of the Al-Huwalah tribe. It is named after the Al-Huwalah tribe's water well called Umm Dmanah. Initially, there were about 10 people living in huts there, and a #Bedouin boy guarded them for two or three months. They would ask us to bring them water from the well..."
In the photo: The village of Ras Jrabah, in the background the city of #Dimona which is forbidden for Arab residence (Photo: The Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the #Negev)
Original publication in Hebrew from: 17 May, 2022 https://www.adalah.org/he/content/view/10626
H/t Zoha
@palestine
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