A villager walks through the wreckage of the home of a Palestinian who killed three Israelis, after it was demolished by the Israeli army in Kobar in the occupied West Bank on August 16, 2017 (AFP Photo/ABBAS MOMANI)
RAMALLAH - 13 November 2017: The Israeli army has ordered some 300 Palestinians who have lived for decades in the northern Jordan Valley to remove all their property from the area, Haaretz newspaper reported.
This is the first time the army is using an eviction order against Palestinians based on a military order meant to enable the evacuation of unauthorized settlement outposts.
The order in question is known as the “order regarding unauthorized buildings.”
The order was not handed to any of the affected Palestinians. Instead, on Thursday morning soldiers simply left it on the road near their houses, which are located near the village of Al-Maleh.
The notice, dated November 1, was signed by the commander of the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Roni Numa. Officially known as a “declaration of delimited land,” it bars anyone from entering the specified area for purposes of construction and mandates the removal of all property from that area within eight days of the day the notice was posted.
The order does not specify how many people will be evicted or give their names. But judging by the accompanying map, it applies to an area of about 550 dunams (136 acres) in which some 300 Palestinians live in two herding communities, Ein al-Hilweh and Umm Jamal.
Both villages are within the jurisdiction of the Al-Maleh rural council.
The herders are raising some 4,000 sheep, 200 camels and 600 cows. All the land in question is either privately owned by Palestinians or owned by the Catholic Church.
The “order regarding unauthorized buildings,” on which the eviction notice is based, states in paragraph 6(b) that it does not apply to “anyone registered in the area’s population registry,” meaning Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
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