Thursday, December 05, 1996: The Jahalin tribehave been, and are being forced off the land upon which Ma'ale Adumim has been, and still is being built.

The Government of Israel has claimed that this is "state land" according to hearings held in 1981 in
military tribunals. In a High Court hearing on 30th October, 1996, when asked to bring these records, the government legal representative announced that they had been destroyed. Later the spokeswoman of
the Ministry of Justice announced that the destruction was according to the "law of the area."

In a petition to the High Court this week, concerning the land upon which the expansion of the settlement of Efrat is to take place, the government submitted records of hearings of military tribunals from 1981. These records date from the time of the Jahalin records. They have not been destroyed according to the "law of the area.

The Society of St Yves is submitting a petition today to the High Court of Justice in the name of the
Jahalin arguing that the destruction of the 1981 files concerning the Jahalin was done as a deliberate act to obstruct the course of justice. The petitioners claim that this was done because the government had no proof that the land upon which the Jahalin have been living for more than forty years is "state land."

The High Court is being asked to repeal its decision in file HCJ 2295/95 based on the hearing of 30th
October 1996, and the military tribunal decision in files 88/94 and 94/94 and to issue an injunction
forbidding the removal of the Jahalin bedouin from their dwelling places in Abu-Dis - now called Ma'ale
Adumim.

The petitioners are also requesting the Court to send this information to the Ministry of Police, now
known as the Ministry for Internal Security, to begin a criminal investigation into the matter. The Society
of St Yves will be forwarding this material to the Legal Advisor of the Government, the State
Comptroller and all the Bar Associations. If lawyers for the government have been complicit in this
destruction, then they also must be held responsible.

Former Minister of Justice Ya'acov Ne'eman has been charged with suborning a witness in the trial of
former Minister Deri. In the case of the Jahalin, all the evidence has been destroyed by the government
on its own cognisance - a move which is leading to the destruction of a community.