| Aic in Spanish | Tue, September 07th |
| Aic in Spanish | Tue, September 07th |
35 homes demolished, 250 men women and children left homeless: Is this only the beginning?
Demonstration tomorrow, Friday July 30th, 1:00pm
Stop the violent destruction of the village of El Araqib!
Where: at the location of the village of El-Araqib.
Directions: drive through the Lehavim-Rahat junction towards Beer Sheva. Take the 2nd dirt/ insignificant road turnoff to the right. You will see ahead of you a Bedouin cemetery, signs, and many cars.
For more info: Halil el-Amour tel: 050 2700365
On Tuesday (27 July), 1,500 police people accompanied by about 20 tractors came to demolish and erase the village of El-Araqib. Women crying, children left to sit in the shade of the home's ruins under the summer desert sun.
It is difficult to describe the pain and horror when such force is used to destroy your roof. The helplessness. The forces arrived before dawn, at 5:30am. By 9:00am the meager dwellings were all just piles of rubble.
The Government of Israel has a plan for the "settlement of the Bedouin". As usual, no one in the Bedouin community is aware of the details, as it was, as usual, created for them and without them. So we are only left to guess. The plan is sitting on Netanyahu's desk waiting for his approval. It is the plan that is supposed to implement the Goldberg Commission's recommendations.
These recommendations were good on the declarative level: Recognize all the villages, the Bedouin are not squatters… but on the practical level – far less generous. One recommendation: Bedouin should not have ownership of land beyond a defined area – a "Badu-stan". A second recommendation: villages that their location does not conflict with governmental plans should be recognized.
However, 63 years of governmental plans that their intention was to prevent the possibility of recognition, do not leave many villages with this option. In effect it allows the decades of deprivation and coercion towards this weakened indigenous community to continue. Rumor has it that the new governmental plan includes the erasure and resettlement of at least half of the unrecognized villages, concentrating the population into a handful of to-be recognized other villages.
Is the attempt at erasing El-Araqib a first attempt at the erasure of all the villages? El-Araqib is outside the defined "Badu-stan", it is known as a village with strong leadership and a little more resources than most of the unrecognized villages. Its history includes forced re-settlement in the 1950's with an attempt of the people to return to the land ever since. It seems that this would be the right village for the government to start with to see what tactics can break a village's resolve not to be erased. Once they manage to break this village, it will be easier to continue and erase the others slotted for erasure.
During the 1948 war over 80% of the Negev Bedouin population were "convinced" to leave the country. In the 1950s the remainder was concentrated into a reservation area – the Siyag. Since then the government has refused to recognize the villages or the traditional land claims, leaving the population exposed to home demolitions and without the basic services of running water, electricity and much more. Now – the entirety of the land the Bedouin are living on and claiming is 3% of the Negev desert land. Is it not time that the Government stop the policies of demolitions and destruction, and allow the community to settle, and start healing from the six-decades long wounds it is suffering from?
If the village of El-Araqib holds against these policies of violence – there is a fighting chance for the entire community. So – YOUR HELP IS STRONGLY NEEDED!
How can you help:
Join us on the demonstration tomorrow!
Donate! Building and re-building is expensive, and this is the only way the community can stay on its ancestral lands.
Write! To your representatives, to the Israeli representative in your country, to your embassies in Israel. Demand that this harmful treatment of the Bedouin end, and instead that policies which view the Bedouin as an integral and legitimate part of Israel be implemented. Policies that bring about partnership, growth, based on governmental generosity and not policies of confiscation and deprivation.
For more information: Halil el-Amour, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it tel: +972 50 2700365
