Dozens more shepherding communities live under the threat of expulsion
Yesterday (Monday, 10 July 2023), the Bedouin shepherding community of al-Baq’ah was forcibly transferred from its seat east of Ramallah. In recent weeks, the community has suffered daily settler attacks originating from a nearby settler outpost, one of the seven new ones established after the Turmusaya pogrom on 21 June 2023. Last Friday, a home in the community was torched. The family was out at the time for fear of exactly such violence.
The community has a total population of 33, including 21 minors. The residents who dismantled the community’s homes and animal enclosures yesterday told B’Tselem field researchers they had no choice but to leave as they were afraid for their lives and had no one to protect them.
The Palestinian community of al-Baq’ah forcibly transferred 10/7/23
Al-Baq’ah joins the nearby communities of Ras a-Tin and ‘Ein Samia, which have already been driven off their lands over the past year under the same circumstances: Israel’s policy creates oppressive, unreasonable living conditions that leave residents of these communities with no choice but to abandon them. Relying on more official means (settlement building, extreme restrictions on Palestinian construction, a prohibition on infrastructure and demolitions), and on less official ones (settler violence against Palestinians), the policy has one goal: taking over more and more Palestinian lands and handing them over to Jewish hands, and it is applied against other communities still living in the area.
Forcible transfer is a war crime, even if the state perpetrates it not by forcing people onto trucks but by putting so much pressure on them that their lives become unbearable and they cannot help but leave their homes and lands.
11 July 2023
Source: btselem.org