(CAMERA-UK) Adam Levick - A Nov. 5 article by the Guardian on Israeli forces demolishing a tent-dwelling Bedouin shepherding community in the Jordan Valley omitted important context that would have provided readers with a much clearer understanding of the story. It failed to note that the encampment was in Area C, the part of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and military control per the Oslo Accords. The IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said authorities had carried out an "enforcement activity... against seven tents and eight pens which were illegally constructed in a firing range. Israel's Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the residents have no property rights in the location (i.e., the land does not belong to them). Moreover, previous Israeli court cases on the same issue were heard in 2011 and 2014, and the petitioners lost in both cases. The Guardian also failed to note that at least some of the structures in the illegal encampment were built via foreign funding - including from the EU and UK.
2020-11-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive