Israel fucks over the Bedouins

[the_future_modernes]

Move threatens homes of Israel's Bedouins

2010 Uprooting the Bedouins of Israel

Despite the fact that it was the seventh demolition since last July, this time the destruction of the Bedouin village Al-Arakib in the Israeli Negev was different. The difference is not because the homeless residents have to deal this time with the harsh desert winter; nor in the fact that the bulldozers began razing the homes just minutes before the forty children left for school, thus engraving another violent scene in their memory. Rather, the demolition was different because this time Christian evangelists from the United States and England were involved

I know this for a fact because right next to the demolished homes, the Jewish National Fund put up a big sign that reads: “GOD-TVFOREST, A Generous donation by God-TV made 1,000,000 tree saplings available to be planted in the land of Israel and also provided for the creation of water projects throughout the Negev.” GOD-TV justifies this contribution by citing the book of Isaiah: “I will turn the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs.”

The Jewish National Fund’s objective, however, is not altruistic, but rather to plant a pine or eucalyptus forest on the desert land so that the Bedouins cannot return to their ancestral homes. The practice of planting forests in an attempt to Judaize more territory is by no means new. Right after Israel’s establishment in 1948, the JNF planted millions of trees to cover up the remains of Palestinian villages that had been destroyed during or after the war. The objective was to help ensure that the 750,000 Palestinian residents who either fled or were expelled during the war would never return to their villages and to suppress the fact that they had been the rightful owners of the land before the State of Israel was created. Scores of Palestinian villages disappeared from the landscape in this way, and the grounds were converted into picnic parks, thus helping engender a national amnesia regarding the Palestinian Nakba.

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June 17, 2011 Israel plans to forcibly transfer 40,000 Bedouin citizens

A new Israeli proposal that would forcibly transfer more than 40,000 Bedouin citizens into government-planned townships in the Negev (Naqab) desert has raised the ire of Bedouincommunities and their supporters, who say that the plan is both discriminatory and ignores the Bedouins’ historic connection to the land.

“[The Israeli government thinks] that the Bedouin are now like enemies, not like citizens or humans. We feel really like criminals,” said Dr. Awad Abu Freih, the spokesperson and resident of al-Araqib, one of approximately 45 so-called unrecognized villages in the Negev.

“Now we are very angry and we reject this plan. We will not accept it. We are working all the time to explain to our communities that this plan is very dangerous, it’s not good for us and not good for the Jews, not good for the state, not good for anybody. It’s very, very stupid; [it’s] a stupid plan,” Abu Freih told The Electronic Intifada.

Prawer Report a continuation of previous displacement schemes

The Prawer Report — named after Ehud Prawer, the Director of Planning Policy in Israeli Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, who headed the committee that wrote it — is an implementation plan of the findings of another Israeli governmental report released in 2008.

Known as the Goldberg Commission, the 2008 report examined the issue of so-called “Bedouin settlement” issues in the Negev. It found that “there is no justification for the state to treat the Bedouin residents in these communities differently from the way it treats the rest of the citizens of the state” and suggested legalizing most the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev so long as the location of these villages didn’t overlap with existing land settlement plans for the benefit of the Jewish population.

Unrecognized Bedouin villages don’t receive basic services from the state, including access to water, electricity, paved roads, education and health care. It is estimated that 90,000 persons — nearly half of the total Bedouin population of the Negev — currently live in unrecognized villages.

Despite its mandate, the Prawer Report veers away from the recommendations of the Goldberg Commission. Instead of promoting recognition, it suggests relocating 40 percent of the Bedouin population presently living in unrecognized villages and moving them into expanded areas of the seven Israeli government-planned Bedouin townships.
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March 03, 2011 Bedouin reject compensation offer, accusing Israel of land grab

The Israeli government is trying to wedge a divide within the Bedouin community in the Negev in order to seize its lands, Bedouin representatives said on Thursday, in response to a reported government initiative to settle the issue of unrecognized Bedouin settlements in southern Israel.

Earlier Thursday, a government team, assembled to review the recommendations of a state-ordained panel on the Bedouin lands, was reported to have prepared a plan according to which Bedouins who can prove a historical link to their land could receive financial compensation for some of their lot, which they would be able to continue cultivating.

If the Bedouins accept this offer, the extent of land that could be included in such a deal would reach approximately 150,000 dunams (about 40,000 acres), which amounts to less than half of the land the Bedouins lay claim for.

Dr. Awad Abu Farih, spokesman for the local committee for the unrecognized settlement of al-Arakib, criticized the reported deal, saying: "How can someone discuss the lives of tens of thousands of people in the Negev without involving them at all?"MORE