The Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on Thursday against the IDF, demanding that the military provide for the humanitarian needs of residents of the Palestinian Bedouin hamlet of al-Farisiyah in the northern Jordan Valley.

The petition was filed on behalf of 10 residents of the hamlet following a seizure operation conducted by the IDF on Monday in which the military confiscated tractors, water tanks, and the private vehicles of the residents of al-Farisiyah on the grounds that they were used inside IDF firing zones where the Bedouin are not authorized to enter.

Four similar seizure operations were conducted against other Palestinian communities in the region, which left them, as well, without the basic means of survival.

ACRI asserted in its petition that the seizure of the water tankers and other vital equipment was to all intents and purposes a depopulation order, since it left the residents without the capacity to sustain their lives in their villages.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in response that the seizures were conducted “in order to prevent entry to firing zones which are necessary for military training and activities,” and that the operations were also focused on “apprehending trespassers, evicting unauthorized residents, removing illegal construction, and confiscating vehicles that were used in violation of orders and procedures in the area.”

The 30 residents of al-Farisiyah have suffered from incessant harassment by radical settlers from illegal settlement outposts in the region, as well as repeated intervention by IDF forces in the area on behalf of the settlers. 

Al-Farisiyah is one of the last remaining Bedouin villages still populated in the northern Jordan Valley, as a result of settler harassment against other such communities in the region.

On Monday, the IDF confiscated two of al-Farisiyah’s water tankers, a tractor used to pull them, and the private vehicle of one of........

© The Times of Israel