Lobby the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond

The village of Umm el-Hiran in Israel faces immiment destruction to make way for a Jewish-only settlement. Why are they being subjected to this treatment? Although they are Israeli citizens, and should be accorded their full set of rights, they face discrimination and destruction because they are Palestinian Bedouin.

20% of Israel's population is Arab; some 220,000 are the Bedouin Israeli citizens of the Negev in southern Israel. Some 90,000 of them live in agricultural villages. They are full Israeli citizens but the state has refused to recognise their villages, which are not shown on maps or regional plans. Instead Israel is trying to force the Bedouin to relocate into urban “townships” and free up the land, for instance to build new Jewish-only villages, or for the planting of forests by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). At least 30,000 Bedouin face forced displacement.

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I am writing to express my great concern about Israel's treatment of a sector of its own citizens, the Bedouin Israeli citizens of the Negev, and to call on you to inform your counterparts that this treatment falls well below international standards expected of a State, and that they UK must protest against these ongoing outrages. 
The case of Al Arakib, the village completely demolished some 70 times since 2010 because the state refused to recognise it, has been reported from time to time and indeed our own ambassador Matthew Gould went there himself after the 37th demolition in 2012 and spoke with the inhabitants. The 500 people of Umm el-Hiran are set to follow the same fate imminently, so that Jewish settlers can take over the very same land, which is why I am writing to you urgently.
The villagers of Umm el-Hiran originally came from more fertile lands which they owned to the west, from which they were displaced by a Kibbutz in the early years of the Israeli state. In 1956 they were ordered to move to their present location, where they remain until today, and were leased land for residence, agriculture and grazing. They built houses, paved roads and constructed wells themselves, although state policy is not to provide them with piped water or an electricity supply, so this they have to organise for themselves. The village now consists of two centres, Umm el-Hiran and Atir. Atir is under separate threat of demolition to allow for expansion of the JNF “Yatir Forest”.
Since 2001 the Israeli state has been seeking to remove Umm el-Hiran village and establish a new Jewish-only village (also called Hiran) in its place. Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights, has fought a long court battle on behalf of the Bedouin, as documented in their publication <a href="http://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/eng/publications/Nomads%20Against%20their%20Will%20English%20pdf%20final.pdf">"Nomads against Their Will"</a> . The last appeal against demolition of the village has failed in the courts, and demolition could be imminent. A final appeal against the eviction of the population is yet to be heard, but will have little meaning if the houses have gone.
In contrast to the situation of the Bedouin, a core of Orthodox Jewish settlers have been provided with all facilities in nearby temporary camp so that they can build their community ready for taking over the land of Umm el Hiran. This discriminatory treatment by the state of what should be two identical groups of their citizens would be unthinkable as government policy in the United Kingdom.
The Bedouin of Umm el-Hiran seek only to be allowed to remain in the agricultural village which they set up for themselves where the state placed them in 1956. They have no desire to be forcibly relocated to an urban township where their traditional way of life and culture will be destroyed. In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlgU6oLswv0">video interview</a> the village leader can be seen inviting the new Jewish settlers to live nearby as neighbours, but not to displace them from their established village. Indeed there is much land nearby which the JNF has forested and could be made available for Jewish use.
May we urge most strongly that the UK bring all possible pressure to bear on the Israeli government to allow the village of Umm el-Hiran to remain where it is and to revoke the demolition orders? The proposed elimination of this Bedouin village in order to build a Jewish settlement over its ruins is the clearest example of racial discrimination. Indeed it damages the reputation of Israel, in the same way as the West Bank land grabs and settlement building that were mentioned in the Backbench debate of 13 October 2014.

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Lobby the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond