Over 3,000 Americans demand immediate end to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Al-Naqab

Al-Naqab (QNN)- Over 3,000 Americans have signed a petition demanding US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “publicly” and “immediately” call the occupation state of ‘Israel’ to halt its ethnic cleansing in Al-Naqab Desert, south of the 1948-occupied Palestine.

“Since 1948, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has been planting trees to displace Palestinians from their lands,” the petition launched by Code Pink, a women’s organization that supports Palestinian rights, read.

The signatories have asked in the petition that the US administration “publicly call on the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and state of Israel to immediately halt their afforestation activities” in the Al-Naqab.

About two weeks ago, for over three days, hundreds of peaceful Palestinians took part in large demonstrations in several villages of the Al-Naqab against Israel’s demolition and bulldozing works in their lands.

The Higher Follow Up Committee of Arabs in the Naqab, a local umbrella body that represents Palestinians in the area, announced a general strike in response to the Israeli demolitions.

“We took the decision to undertake proactive measures, beginning with adopting a cumulative resistance programme over a period of six months that will lead to a regional general strike and a massive demonstration outside the prime minister’s office, and the internationalisation of the issue to expose the racist practices [of Israeli authorities] before international institutions,” the committee said in a statement.

The general strike was announced in villages facing the threat of Israeli demolition including al-Atrash, al-Sawa, al-Zarnouq, al-Ruwais, Beir Haddaj and Khirbet Watan.

However, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the Palestinian villages in the Al-Naqab desert and started violently attacking and arresting the peaceful protesters who gathered to denounce the demolition work.

The Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs directly and intensively towards the protesters to disperse them, resulting in the suffocation of dozens of them due to gas inhalation.

They also used skunk water cannons to disperse the nonviolent protesters.

Israeli occupation forces attacked peaceful Palestinian protesters demonstrating against Israeli apartheid in the village of Al-Atrash in the Al-Naqb desert, south of 1948-occupied Palestine. pic.twitter.com/0YwWiqnCUZ

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 13, 2022

Watch | Israeli occupation forces use skunk water cannons and tear gas canisters to disperse nonviolent Palestinian protesters in the village of Al-Atrash in the Al-Naqab desert, according to local sources. pic.twitter.com/7YZQ17zj50

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 13, 2022

Watch | Israeli occupation forces brutally detain a female Palestinian protester demonstrating against Israeli apartheid in the village of Al-Atrash in the Al-Naqb desert, south of 1948-occupied Palestine, according to local sources. #SaveNegev pic.twitter.com/o7tzJfOvNj

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 13, 2022

This all started on January 9, when the Jewish National Fund (JNF) began several days of the so-called “planting trees” on disputed land in the Al-Naqab.

For over three days, the Israeli bulldozers carried out demolitions on lands of local Bedouins used for cultivation.

The forces closed off the villages and prevented the residents from entering their lands. Thus, the Palestinian residents moved their protests to the entrance of the villages.

During and following the protests, Israeli forces arrested over 140 Palestinians from the Al-Naqab, including minors.

The Israeli demolitions in al-Naqab are part of a controversial Israeli plan, led by the JNF, to plant trees in the region.

Last month, Israeli forces attacked Palestinians in six villages: al-Mashash, al-Zarnouq, Bier al-Hamam, al-Ruwais, al-Gharaa, and Khirbet Watan, destroying crops and excavating soil.

The JNF and the Israel Land Authority (ILA) were planning to plant hundreds of trees on lands from the six Bedouin villages, which had all received demolition orders and faced the displacement of thousands of residents “in the name of developing the area.”

‘Israel’ has used the forestation projects as a tactic for land grabs and to prevent Palestinians from returning to lands from which they have been displaced.

The residents say that such policies are an attempt to pressure them into being internally displaced despite Bedouins having lived on or near these lands prior to Israel’s establishment in 1948.

There are almost 100,000 Palestinians live in 35 Bedouin villages in the Al-Naqab and are all unrecognized by the Israeli occupation government who views the Bedouin residents of these villages as illegal squatters and does not provide them with basic services or infrastructure, including electricity, water, sewage systems, roads, schools or hospitals.

The Israeli occupation government considers those Palestinian villages “unrecognised,” and therefore they are under threat of demolition.

“The project’s aims and consequences are the displacement of the communities from their lands,” the signatories said, noting that the “destructive actions of the JNF are nothing new.”

“Founded in 1901, the JNF was established to buy and develop land for Jewish settlement in Palestine. In the years leading up to the establishment of the state of Israel, the JNF played a central role in the plans to expel Palestinians from their lands.”

“They meticulously charted topography, roads, land, and water sources and profiled the entire Palestinian population by age, political affiliations, and hostility to the Zionist project. Known as the Village Files, these documents became a crucial military tool for Jewish militias, who in 1948 burned villages, carried out massacres, and drove around 750,000 Palestinians out of their homes and villages, making them refugees.”

“After the war of 1948, or Nakba (catastrophe), as Palestinians refer to it, the JNF planted pine trees on the ruins of destroyed Palestinian villages to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes. From its earliest days, the JNF, registered as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, raised money abroad with its “Blue Box” campaign. In 2018 alone, it raised $72 million.”

“After Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, the JNF, through its subsidiary, Hemnutah, assisted in seizing Palestinian properties that had belonged to Jews before 1948. One example is the purchasing of properties in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan where Palestinian families were resettled after being displaced from their West Jerusalem homes in 1948.”

“Throughout January 2021, Palestinian Bedouins, about a third of them children, have been arrested protesting the JNF’s afforestation/ethnic cleansing project. They need your help.”

The Signatories have urged Blinken to use his “position as Secretary of State to pressure Israel and the Jewish National Fund to cease their afforestation project in the Negev/Naqab and other efforts to displace Palestinians from their homes and lands.”