EVICTION OF PALESTINIAN BEDOUIN COMMUNITIES FROM ISRAELI-OCCUPIED WEST BANK

That this House notes with deep concern that, despite being a clear and egregious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel advanced a 'relocation plan' that will see 7,000 Palestinian Bedouins and herders, 60 per cent of them children, who currently reside in 46 small residential areas, forcibly transferred and their homes demolished; further notes that, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, most families have pending home demolition orders, 85 per cent of which lack connection to electricity and water, and that two-thirds of Palestinian communities have experienced extreme settler violence creating a coercive environment that functions as push factors; affirms Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the International Committee of the Red Cross's legal interpretation, that mass forcible transfer and forced evictions of protected peoples in occupied territory is prohibited under international humanitarian law and human rights law; reminds the Government of its obligations to ensure that Israel, as an occupying power, abides by its legal obligation to protect the civilian population in the occupied territory and administer it for their benefit; believes that these plans will undermine Palestinian presence in the area, further disconnect Palestinian Jerusalem from the West Bank and disrupt the territorial contiguity of the occupied territory; urges the Government to condemn Israel's actions and policy as flagrant violations of international law; calls for urgent action to be taken to oppose these policies; and further calls on the Government to pressure the State of Israel to immediately scrap the outrageous relocation plans.