Beer-Sheva court rejects last week a state’s appeal and cancelled demolition orders against Arab Bedouin village of Alsira in the Negev. Judge Tali Haimovich wrote in her decision: “The appeal revolved around a village that was built before the establishment of the state, and has existed since without any problems…there would need to be a strong and genuine public interest to justify the need for uprooting 350 people from their homes and displacing them.”
MK Hanna Sweid (Hadash) at a meeting with residents of Alsira (Photo: Bustan)
Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara, who has represented the villagers in legal proceedings since 2006, commented on the news: “Adalah welcomes the court’s ruling, which protects the residents’ right to live in their village that has existed since before the establishment of the state, but which has faced the looming threat of demolition for nearly a decade. We see the decision as setting an important legal precedent, and we hope it will guide the courts to issue similar decisions to cancel the demolition and eviction orders in the villages of Atir and Umm al-Hiran, which have existed for more than 50 years and are also faced with the risk of destruction. We hope that the decision will serve as a model for the courts in other cases relating to demolition and evictions.”
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