On Monday 25 August, the Occupation authorities opened demolition procedures against 45 buildings in Palestinians Bedouin communities in the northern Jordan Valley.

These newest orders come less than a month after the Occupation opened demolition procedures against another Bedouin community in Abel Al Ajaaj/Jiftlik, further south in the Jordan Valley.

The new stop-work orders apply to 45 barracks and animal shelters, located in Area C in the communities of Farisiya, Al Hadidiya, Humsa, Al Malih and Khalit Mak’houl.

Increasing pressure on Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley

Bedouin families in the Jordan Valley are witnessing frequent incursions, harassment, threats and demolitions. In the past year the Occupation army has demolished homes and animal shelters in Humsa and Al Hadidiya 5 times. In June 2008, Occupation forces forcibly removed inhabitants from their homes in the middle of the night and transferred them out of the Jordan Valley on the pretext that their IDs did not state Jordan Valley residency and they therefore did not have the right to reside in their homes. In Khalit Mak’houl the Occupation is planning to establish a vast live-firing range where the Bedouin community is located.

All of the demolition procedures were initiated under the pretext of “building without a permit”. It is almost impossible for Palestinian landowners to get permits to build in Area C.

The targeted communities live close to the military site of Maskiot, where the Occupation wants to establish a new settlement to be inhabited by radical Gaza settlers.

With its policy of house demolitions, movement restrictions, land confiscation, and depriving Palestinians access to drinking water and other vital services, the Occupation tries to force Palestinians to ‘voluntarily’ depart from the Jordan Valley. As a lawyer, representing the targeted communities before the Israeli Military Administration put it: “It is a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing.”

Bedouin communities in Farisiya, Al Hadidiya, Humsa, Khalit Mak’houl and Malih located close to the military site of Maskiot, where the Occupation wants to establish a new settlement, received 45 stop-work orders on 25 August 2008.