Israel demolishes Bedouin village
Forty-five Bedoiun villages are not recognised
by Israeli authorities
Israeli authorities have demolished the homes of about 300 Bedouins in a village in the southern Negev desert.
The entire village of al-Arakib was bulldozed on Tuesday, with many of the former residents' cattle, trees and belongings lost.
Al-Arakib, which had about 40 homes, is one of 45 Bedouin villages not recognised by Israeli authorities.
This is not to be confused with the story i shared just last week of a Palestinian village in the West Bank that was destroyed. No, different week, different village. Those Cat bulldozers, sent with US-funding, are busy, busy, busy.
Some background:
Before 1948, it is estimated that 65,000-90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev area (Falah 1989). The main source of livelihood for this semi-nomadic population was cattle, herds, rain-fed agriculture, and commerce (Yiftachel 2004; Meir 1997). During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, 80-85% of the Naqab Bedouins population became refugees. Like other indigenous peoples, the Naqab-Negev Bedouins underwent forced relocation – the 11,000 that remained inside Israel’s borders were moved in the 1950s and 60s from their ancestral lands into a restricted zone called the siyag (closure), located in the northeastern Negev and known for its low agricultural fertility (Hamdan 2005; Yiftachel 2004). This area constituted only 10 percent of the Bedouins land prior to 1948 (Abu Sa’ad 2004). Joining the six tribes that already dwelled in this area were twelve additional tribes from various areas of the Negev. Because no permanent building (stone or concrete) was permitted by the authorities in the siyag, most residents were forced to erect shacks and tents.
The Negev Bedouins, like the rest of the Arabs remaining within Israel’s borders, lived under military rule until 1966. During this time, Bedouins life was dramatically transformed: "From controllers of the desert region, they became fringe dwellers of a growing, modernizing Beer-Sheva city region" (Yiftachel 2004, p. 12). With less space for agriculture and grazing, their source of livelihood was disrupted. In addition, because of restrictions imposed by the military government, they were not permitted to compete with the Jewish labor market of the new Israeli State. During these 18 years, the processes of dislocation, subsequent sedentarization and partial modernization worked to destroy the indigenous Bedouins culture and way of life. In fact, this was the Israeli policy...
The foregoing comes from Dukum, a human rights organization.
Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality - Dukium
In 1997 a group of Arab and Jewish residents of the Negev (the southern part of Israel) established the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality. Its aim is to provide a framework for Jewish-Arab collaborative efforts, in the struggle for civil equality and the advancement of mutual tolerance and coexistence.
The Forum is composed of a core of 30 volunteer activists, both Arabs and Jews, who dedicate time and effort on a weekly basis to this mission. In addition to this core, there are also around two hundred people who join in on selected activities and about a thousand who are continuously updated on issues of interest to the Forum and on the Forum's activities.
There is concern that there is brewing an "offensive" against the Bedouins.
Of late someone is pushing for a violent resolution of the many years of conflict between the Bedouins in the Negev and the state. Voices are heard of a new tsunami rolling toward us, it is already a major offensive, against the Bedouins wherever they may be.
Each day settler associations working against us pop up, such as Regavim (the movement for the protection of national lands – AIC). The State Attorney's Office comes out against academics who "cooperate" with the Bedouins. And it appears that an orchestrated campaign to uproot the "unrecognized" villages is beginning.
The campaign is not a surprise, there were such things in the past. However, unlike the past, our detractors are not making due this time with an attack against the "invasion" of "national" territory. The campaign is also coming out against state authorities with the contention that "you distributed land generously and permitted the Bedouins to do as they wish."
Where are the Bedouins in this discourse? Not surprising to discover that they are not there. The discourse is being conducted between the state and itself. We were transparent when they planned the future of our villages. We were invisible when they transformed our homes and lands and the surroundings in which we lived for hundreds of years into an airport, a settlement for Jews only or a forest. We were present absentees when they didn't count us in the regional council elections.
We were not part of the discussion when they decided to "advance" us and "settle" us in "permanent" areas. They planned and "established" for us a living area according to their standards and not ours. They expected that we come as a herd at the end of the day and settle in our pens. And now they are angry that not all the herd was gathered. And that the herd even has demands...
You can again try to cram us in. You already tried and failed. Yet if you want to solve the 'problem', come talk as equal human beings. Enough of trampling our dignity. It is best to try and act differently.
If the government wants a solution, it must immediately halt the plans for displacement that are being crystallized and display some sanity before the big mistake that will be impossible to correct....
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This all sounds strangely familiar. Doubtless there will be those that will point US history when indigenous people were treated as less than people, people without human rights or worthy of dignity or respect, since they did not fit in what many described as a "white nation" (though it was not, and is not). In some ways that continues today.
I would suggest, however, that US treatment of indigenous people is not something that should be emulated.
UPDATEThe Jewish National Fund a "non-profit" will be planting trees on village lands to prevent the original inhabitants from moving back, according to reports. This is an historical tradition for the Jewish National Fund. See here.