These are activities going on in Israel this week to help people learn about the plight of the Bedouin people. I hope you will learn from them.
Living under a Threat: Demolition Orders on all homes in A-Sire by Hallil el-Amour.
Hallil was on his way home last Thursday when he received a phone call from his neighbor: they are here – the Ministry of Interior clerks – posting Demolition Orders on all our homes. More than 60 homes. More than 500 people. More than 400 years...
Since last year, after receiving the demolition Warnings, Hallil and the rest of the village leadership have been writing and communicating with everybody who might be involved, in order to halt the warnings. After many communications, including from several MKs Dudu Cohen, the director of the Negev District at the Minstry of Interior answered in a three-line-letter: the land has been confiscated for military use. Hallil and the other leaders turned to the Nevatim Air Force Base commander, a base which was erected close to their village, and asked if this is true. The commander answered that the base does not need their village lands... They were sent to the Authority for the "Advancement" of the Bedouins, to Ilan Sagie, the director of the supervision on the building unit. They asked: "Where are we expected to go?" His answer was: "My job is only to demolish..."
With demolition orders on their only homes in their historic village of A-Sira, with no possible place to move to, they are now living everyday with the threat that the government bulldozers will arrive and demolish their homes.
For more information: Hallil el-Amour. ycantmeetu@hotmail.com
Recognized
A documentary film by Ori Kleiner
Israel/USA 2007. 61min.
Hebrew and Arabic w/English subtitles
Written, Directed, Edited and Produced by Ori Kleiner
Additional Camera: Natasha Dudinski
Original Music and Sound Editing: Grundik Kasyansky
This presentation was on July 10, 2007 at 21:30 at Ben Gurion University, Building #26, 2nd Floor.
Bedouin usually appear in the Israeli collective consciousness as either "ethnographic" or "demographic" issues. Their representation by means of various objects—coffee, camels, tents, carpets—keeps most Israelis from grasping Bedouin as subjects with wishes and wills, frustrations and fears; as possessing not only a past, but also a future. The film Recognized is made up of documentary moments that trace the uprooted experiences of Nuri al-Ukbi, Salman Abu Jlidan, Eid Al-Athamin, Ibrahim Abu Afash, and Samaher Abu Jlidan whom history has cast in the roles of protagonists antagonized by a State that established itself upon their ancestral lands.
Recognized is not a film about Bedouin, but about people forced into the role of Bedouin—the only identity the State of Israel allows them, the very identity it systematically denies them. Substandard citizenship, coupled with daily existential obstacles posed by the State, are what this film is about. Recognized was filmed entirely on location in the Negev desert in the summer of 2006.
Bustan L'Shalom Negev Unplugged Tours: Um el Hiran – where the government demolished 28 Homes two weeks ago! Listen to people from all sides of the issue. On July 12, 2007, all day.
Join BUSTAN's upcoming Negev Unplugged Tour on July 12th as we study the politics of planting, uprooting, and the multiple uses of forest at the edge of the Israel's Negev desert. Today, Yatir forest is the largest of Israel's forests. The future of the forest portrays the future of the Negev, namely the relationships of: Bedouin/Jews, development/ preservation, tradition/progress, Israeli law/civil rights - a vast range of relationships and conflicts, which exist within this ecosystem.
We'll start in the recognized township of Hura we'll learn why this township ranks at the bottom of every socioeconomic indicator in Israel, and is held up by the state as a solution to the Bedouin 'problem,' as Israeli authorities work to relocate Attir villagers to Hura.
Next, we'll visit the unrecognized village, Attir Um Alhiran, to meet Bedouin who have just faced a massive wave of house demolitions, destroying their village. We'll meet with BUSTAN Green Guide, Rayid Abul Ghiyan, who represents Attir at the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages (RCUV). We'll have a traditional lunch and offer financial support for families who until now were practicing dry-farming of wheat/barley - living without running water, electricity or paved roads – and are now homeless.
Finally we'll learn about plans for expansion and developing 'open space' in this area for Jewish use, with the creation of the new neighborhood Hiran. We'll tour an established Jewish settlement, Shani-Livna, and learn about Jewish 'single-family-farms' created to 'prevent Bedouin encroachment.'
In 1964 Yosef Weiss, then director of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) arrived in the barren lands of southern Mount Hebron and stated: "Here shall stand a forest!" Thus, under the motto of "making the desert bloom," tens of thousands of non-indigenous pine trees were planted and against all odds flourished, today forming southern part of the 'Green Line'. We'll meet with a JNF representative, eager to attract Zionist pioneers not just to plant trees, but to plant roots and settle the 'Last Frontier.'
We'll debrief with an environmental scientist, how does the construction of new neighborhoods, and the destruction of old villages impact the ecological balance of the forest? What is the significance of the forest, and tree planting in Israeli society?
BUSTAN’S Negev Unplugged Tours expose people to the realities of the ‘Last Frontier’ through the eyes of its residents and leadership. We expose you to industrialists and environmentalists, students and educators, government authorities and grassroots organizers to study the impact of development on the Negev and its people. BUSTAN believes that change is rooted in knowledge and awareness of facts created on the ground.
Thank you.
Yeela Raanan, Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages.
yallylivnat@gmail.com +972 54 748 7005