The DA says at least 70 or so people live in the Bedouin community, including 41 children, against a move in the Humsa Al-Baqaia area.
The United Nations and European members of the Security Council on Friday called on Israel to halt the demolition of Bedouin settlements in the Jordan Valley, and for humanitarian access to the community living in Humsa Al-Baqaia.
In a joint statement at the end of the Security Council’s monthly session on the conflict in the Middle East, Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom, they said they were “deeply concerned about the recent collapse and including EU – funded structures and grants made by the Israeli authorities at Humsa Al-Baqaia in the Jordan Valley. “
They said the concern also targeted the 70 or so people living in the Bedouin community, including 41 children.
“We reiterate our call for Israel to halt demolition and occupation,” the statement said.
“We also urge Israel to grant the community in Humsa Al-Baqaia a full, sustainable and unauthorized humanitarian opportunity.”
Humsa al-Baqia sits in the Jordan Valley, a fertile and strategic piece of land that runs from Lake Tiberias to the Dead Sea, which has emerged as a flashpoint in the struggle over the West Bank. .
There are about 60,000 Palestinians in Jordan Valley, according to the UN, but nearly 90 percent of the land is part of what is known as District C, the three-fifths of the West Bank, which is completely under Israeli control. .
It includes closed armed areas and about 50 agricultural settlements of about 12,000 Israelis.
Building construction
Palestinians are barred from these areas and from their territories. It is forbidden to dig wells or build infrastructure of any kind without hard-to-obtain military permits.
From 2009 to 2016, less than 2 percent of more than 3,300 permit applications were successful in District C, according to Peace Now, an anti-Israeli settlement group, citing official statistics.
Anything built without permission, from home extensions to tents, animal pens and irrigation networks, is in danger of being demolished by the Israeli military.
Israeli militants demolish a Palestinian house inside C-area near Yatta in the southern district of the West Bank town of Hebron in November last year [File: Hazen Bader/AFP]
Nearly 800 Palestinians, including 404 young children, have already lost their homes in 2020.
Over the previous year, 677 lost their homes – up from 387 in 2018 and 521 in 2017.
On Friday, the DA’s ambassador for the region, Tor Wennesland of Norway, expressed his concerns about demolition and land seizure.
He said Israeli security forces had “demolished or removed 80 structures” in the Bedouin community “in a designated Israeli firing zone in the Jordan Valley”.
He said the actions had “disrupted 63 people, including 36 children several times, and followed a similar demolition in November 2020”.
“I urge Israel to stop the demolition and seizure of Palestinian property across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to allow Palestinians to destroy their communities. development, “he said.