DaysofPal- The Israeli pressure on Bedouin communities in the Negev continues to intensify through systematic plans ranging from sweeping demolition orders to court rulings mandating evacuation and forced displacement.
The latest target is the village of Ras Jaraba, east of Dimona in southern occupied Palestine.
After years of legal battles, the Israeli Supreme Court on 12 November 2025 approved a ruling to forcibly remove around 500 Palestinian Bedouins within 90 days, rejecting an appeal filed by residents against a previous decision by the Beersheba District Court.
Ninety-year-old Farij Al-Hawashleh, one of the oldest residents of Ras Jaraba, refuses to leave the land where he was born, long before the establishment of the Israeli occupation or the construction of the city of Dimona.
“We will stay here. This is the land of our fathers and grandfathers,” he told Sanad News Agency. “We were here before the Israeli occupation, and we will remain no matter what their decision is.”
His son, Hasan Al-Hawashleh, said the community pursued every legal avenue available, but the courts “stand against Arabs and Bedouins,” offering neither solutions nor alternatives.
“We were born here; we know no other home,” he said.
He added, “This is a racist ruling that serves Ben-Gvir’s settlement expansion projects, the same policies that began when Dimona was built on our family’s land.”
Residents are calling on Arab members of the Knesset and political groups to support their planned popular protests against the displacement.
Ras Jaraba lies within the municipal boundaries of Dimona and is home to roughly 500 residents from the Al-Hawashleh, Abu Slib, and Al-Nasasira families.
Historically, the land belongs to the Al-Hawashleh tribe and is known as al-Sha’iriyya or Markabat al-Hawashleh. The territory extends from the Kurnub area to Umm Dimna, which includes the ancient well around which the first homes of Dimona were established.
Years of Eviction Orders Leading to a Final Ruling
Activist Suleiman Al-Hawashleh said the crisis dates back to 2016 when Israel’s Land Authority distributed evacuation orders, claiming residents were “intruders.”
Since then, the case has moved through multiple legal stages — from magistrate courts to district courts and finally the Supreme Court.
Despite nearly a decade of proceedings, the final ruling was “surprising and unjust,” he said, mandating the displacement of residents and the demolition of 80 homes without any proposed alternatives.
He noted that the ruling is part of a wider escalation targeting all Negev villages, similar to the ongoing demolition campaigns in the village of Al-Sirr.
Atiyya Al-Asam, head of the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, viewed the ruling as part of an Israeli plan to annex Ras Jaraba for expanding Jewish Dimona — even though the village predates both the city and the Nakba.
He warned of future rulings that could target 10 additional villages, home to roughly 10,000 residents, describing Israeli courts as “tools in the hands of extremist parties” working to uproot Arab communities in the Negev.
The legal advocacy group Adalah condemned the Supreme Court ruling, noting that the Beersheba Administrative Court had previously canceled the expansion plan in June due to “serious flaws,” including ignoring environmental impact and failing to examine options for integrating the village into the planning scheme.
Adalah said the Supreme Court disregarded these findings and granted legal cover to a displacement order unsupported by any valid development plan, thereby reinforcing “an apartheid system” and giving the state judicial approval to seize Bedouin land.
The center added that the state offered no viable alternatives to residents, speaking only of “temporary housing” or rental assistance, reflecting what Adalah says is the Israeli view of Bedouins as “obstacles to settlement expansion rather than an indigenous community rooted in its land.”
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