The Praver Plan is now a new bill: Confiscation of Bedouin Lands Bill
Negev Bedouin
The Praver Plan is now a new bill: Confiscation of Bedouin Lands Bill – to be passed soon in the Knesset.
By Dr. Yeela Raanan.
On January 3rd the Government of Israel published the memorandum of a bill named "Regulation of the Bedouin settlement in the Negev", in which in states the steps to be implemented in order to relocate the overwhelming majority of the residents of the unrecognized villages and confiscate about 2/3s of the land remaining in their possession. As can be expected, the Government of Israel is anticipating resistance to this new bill, so within the bill are violent measures to ensure its implementation. This bill is currently going through the legislative process in the Knesset, and soon will become law.
You can read about the bill in more detail in the attached file. In the meantime, in a nutshell, this is what the Bedouin are now facing:
· The bill's main aim is to force the Bedouin to give up the little land they are still holding onto.
· In order to do so, the bill spells out an intense, violent and destructive process, utilizing family pressure, bulldozers, and incarceration.
· The bill is written in a confusing manner, so that the majority of the Bedouin community are incapable of even understanding what the government is putting before them. Ironically, they are expected to give their comments via the web...
· The government is spending a very large amount of money in order to send emissaries to "convince" the Bedouin that accepting this bill is in their benefit. At the same time the media is cooperating with the government and remaining silent regarding all protests and criticisms against this dangerous bill. Thus, the two amazing demonstrations of the Bedouin – of over 10,000 in Beer Sheva and another 6,000 in Jerusalem was not covered at all by the Hebrew media. The media machine the government is utilizing of course also covers the Jewish community, so that even the friends of the Bedouin do not understand why the Bedouin community is not accepting this new bill with open hands…
Demonstration against the Praver plan and the new bill. Beer Sheva, January 25th, 2012.
Just a couple of items from the bill will show you the monstrosity of it:
1. Cynically utilizing family pressure in order to force more Bedouin to accept the bill:
Members of the Bedouin community are not interested in monetary compensation for their lands, they want the land itself. A person can receive up to 50% of his land in land compensation – IF – he convinces ALL his siblings and cousins to enter the process of the bill and sign that they are giving up their land claims too (again for 50% in land compensation.) however, if any of the siblings feels that he does not wish to play along with the government's plans, and is not willing to sign his land over to the government, then ALL other siblings will receive less land in compensation, and instead some insignificant monetary compensation.
What does this mean? It means that there will be strife in all the Bedouin families. As all Bedouin are people… they will not always agree. Therefore one person will receive far less land because his brother will refuse to sign his land away. From this point on, they will not speak to each other for generations... and to think that the government is creating this kind of strife within families – is horrendous.
2. According to the bill, when it is time to "clear" a piece of land from Bedouin this is the process:
· The prime minister signs that this specific area is now to be cleared.
· The Bedouin have two weeks in which to clear out everything: structures, animals, trees, people and movables.
· The government may then demolish anything in the area and incarcerate for two years anyone remaining in the area.
· The bill also prevents the intervention of the courts, as it states that there is no need for a court injunction to demolish the structures, and that the court may at the most postpone the "clearing" by one week.
This process will be implemented upon the entire area of the unrecognized villages within five years.
Where will the people go to? It is not specified. Does the gov't need to provide those it is clearing out with another place to go to? It is not specified. Do the residents of the villages, as they are being cleared off, have any say in where they will have to move to? It is not specified…
Nowadays the Bedouin do not have sufficient land in order to live their lives in ease. A stark statistic is that each Bedouin that lives in an agricultural community has an average of 1/2 acre of land for agriculture. In comparison every Jewish person living in an agricultural community in the Negev has over six acres. And it is important to remember that many more members of a Bedouin agricultural community actually make a living from agriculture than of the Jewish communities. This bill, if it succeeds, will reduce the 1/2 acre of agricultural lands to 0.001 of an acre per person … meaning this is an end, a total destruction, of Bedouin traditional life and the ability to live off the land. Taking into consideration that about 20% of the Bedouin today live from agriculture… it is devastating.
Demonstration against the Praver plan and the new bill. Beer Sheva, January 25th, 2012.
What can you do to help?
1. First of all – contact your representatives, and ask them to ask Israel difficult questions regarding the policies towards the Bedouin. You have quite a lot of information here and in the file attached. Please feel free to use it.
2. Help spread this information. Since the Bedouin are a weakened community, the government of Israel feels it can do anything it wishes to this community, and no one will care. Let's show them we care!
3. Start bombarding the government officials with your faxes, emails, phone calls… Here are the important figures right now:
· Minister Binyamin Begin. He is the person the gov't assigned to listen to the community and make amendments to the bill according to the needs of the community. (Unfortunately, all he is doing is trying to convince the Bedouin that this is the best deal for them and they must join the process, and officially forgo their land claims…) Email: bbe...@knesset.gov.il ; Tel: 02-6408022, 02-6703382; Fax: 02-6703386
· Yehuda Bahar, the one in charge of implementing the plan, head of the Authority for the settlement of the Bedouin. Tel: 08-6268735; Fax: 08-6268729; Email: Yeh...@moch.gov.il
· Our Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, tel: 02-6705512; fax: 02- 5664838
· The Israeli Ambassador in your area.
· Your Ambassador in Israel.
We call to the Government of Israel to take measures concerning the integration of the Arab-Bedouin community of the Negev into the region based on the principles of partnership, equality, human rights, and a future of prosperity for all the Negev residents.
For more information: Dr. Yeela Raanan, negevb...@gmail.com
