NO to deporting indigenous Palestinians from Khan Al Ahmar
(Harare, 10/7/2018) After the War of 1948, several groups of indigenous Palestinians, comprising 41 Bedouin families, had taken refuge in the region of Khan Al Ahmar at the periphery of Jerusalem. They have lived there until today, in makeshift shacks under inhumane conditions and extreme poverty.
The successive Israeli governments have prohibited these families from constructing houses worthy of human life. Now, the unrelenting criminal war machine of Israel has begun an operation of forced deportation of these Bedouin populations, in defiance of international conventions protecting indigenous and tribal populations.
These deportations are another step in the process of the colonialist plan of “Grand Jerusalem”, and to make the vision of a sovereign, viable and independent Palestinian state into an idea that is distant, unrealistic, and unattainable. This is the result of laxism and hypocrisy of the international community, which is content with condemnations and decisions without follow-up, without applying international law in this conflict full of violations, genocides, and deportations.
We, in La Via Campesina, the international peasants’ movement embracing several indigenous communities of the world, are in solidarity with indigenous Palestinians in their right to land and peace. We call on the international community to save the rest of its honor by preventing the deportations of Khan Al Ahmar.
Long life to the indigenous struggles, in Palestine and in the world !
NO to the deportations targeting the indigenous populations !