{"id":645,"date":"2019-03-03T14:23:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T14:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?p=645"},"modified":"2019-03-03T14:23:04","modified_gmt":"2019-03-03T14:23:04","slug":"ethnic-cleansing-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/ethnic-cleansing-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic cleansing the desert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In Israel\/Palestine there exist communities of what some call the \n\u2018Invisible Citizens\u2019 and with echoes of past justifications for the \nestablishment of Israel assert that the Negev desert where they dwell is\n vacant and undeveloped. These are the Bedouin who make up around 3.5 \npercent of Israel\u2019s population and thousands of Bedouin serve in the \nIsraeli army. Although sharing a common language and some traditions \nthere are significant cultural differences between the Bedouin and \nPalestinian Arabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bedouin comprise the youngest population in Israeli society \u2013 \nabout 54 percent of the Bedouin population is younger than 14 and in \n2003 the Israeli daily Ma<\/em>\u2019<\/em>ariv<\/em> published an \narticle entitled \u2018Special Report: Polygamy is a Security Threat\u2019, \ndetailing a report put forth by the Director of the Population \nAdministration at the time, Herzl Gedj, which described polygamy in the \nBedouin sector as a \u2018security threat\u2019 and advocated means of reducing \nthe birth rate. Israel outlawed polygamy but it is widespread among the \nBedouin. Israel is now trying to end the custom, prosecuting suspected \nBedouin polygamists. But it is seen only as a ploy to curb their \npopulation growth and criminalise their community members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s simple: polygamy means more Bedouin children, and that means \nmore demographic concerns from a Zionist perspective,\u2019 said human rights\n lawyer Rawia Aburabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed mass expulsion of Bedouin under the Prawer Plan raised \nconcerns from human rights groups. In 2013, the Israeli government \nshelved the plan to forcibly relocate about 40,000 Bedouin Arabs to \ngovernment designated towns. One of the plan\u2019s architects stated that \nthe Bedouin had neither been consulted nor agreed to the move. \u2018I didn\u2019t\n tell anyone that the Bedouin agreed to my plan. I couldn\u2019t say that \nbecause I didn\u2019t present the plan to them,\u2019 said the former minister \nBenny Begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Prawer Plan as originally conceived has been thwarted, \ndemolition of homes and the displacement of Bedouins has continued \nalbeit in piecemeal form through a process of \u2018development\u2019 and building\n \u2018infrastructure\u2019. Israel approved an $800 million redevelopment project\n in 2017 as it moved two huge military bases into its southern desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We\u2019re always hearing about billion dollar budgets but we only see \nmore demolitions, more police, and more Jewish settlements,\u2019 said \nBedouin lawyer Khalil Alamour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Housing and Construction Ministry launched a plan for housing \nunits in the Negev as \u2018a significant step towards realising the Zionist \nvision of settlement\u2019. The then minister Yoaf Galant said \u2018We must not \nlose our hold on the south. I have been in the southern sector for many \nyears. Today, when I come to the Negev and look at the surroundings of \nBe\u2019er Sheva, I am shocked by the amount of illegal Bedouin construction \nin recent years.\u2019 He stated that, \u2018For all of us, a national home is the\n Land of Israel. In addition to building houses, we in the Construction \nand Housing Ministry see as a mission the construction of the Zionist \nyouth spirit that builds and settles the land and I pin my hopes on our \nexcellent youth, who will lead the development and settlement of the \ncountry in all its parts.\u2019 He later told the Knesset: \u2018The south is \nunder attack not only from Gaza \u2013 the illegal and hostile construction \nin the rural Bedouin areas in the Negev\u2026 has spun out of control\u2026 The \nprogramme to reinforce Jewish settlement in the Negev constitutes a long\n term and stable solution for a Jewish hold over the region.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rafat Abu Aish told Al Jazeera how his home village of Laqiya is \nhemmed in by Israeli military infrastructure and the Jewish community of\n Carmit, \u2018leaving no room for the village to grow\u2026 Soon you will find \nthat between all the Bedouin communities are Jewish communities or army \nbases separating us from each other\u2019, adding \u2018it\u2019s very planned.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As many as 1,000 Bedouin Palestinian families are threatened with \nforcible relocation by government plans for a major new highway, Road 6.\n Originally 100 Bedouin families were to be moved but in December 2018, \nAgriculture Minister Uri Ariel declared he intended to take advantage of\n the situation to expel a further 900 families. \u2018The government is \ncommitted to demonstrating governance in the Negev,\u2019 Ariel declared, \ndescribing the construction of the road as an opportunity to \u2018return to \nthe state huge tracts of land\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several other large-scale infrastructure plans that will \ndisplace Bedouin, including a rail line that will swallow up extensive \ntracts of land and impact on the 1,400-strong Bedouin community of \nRahma. A new phosphate mine will also entail the forced relocation of at\n least 10,000 Bedouin citizens. The Israeli armament corporation IMI is \nlocating a massive testing facility in the Negev which will put some \n1,200 Bedouin homes and other buildings at risk of forced displacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli government policy towards the Bedouin has remained constant. \nThe Goldberg report described it as a three-part plan: \u2018No recognition \nof Bedouin rights over the land, a willingness to offer land claimants \ncompensation \u2018beyond the letter of the law,\u2019 and conditioning the \npayment of compensation on the evacuation of the land and transfer to \none of the recognised settlements\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s Bedouins have a daunting struggle to preserve their land, their homes and livelihood in the face of a formidable foe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALJO<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Israel\/Palestine there exist communities of what some call the \u2018Invisible Citizens\u2019 and with echoes of past justifications for the establishment of Israel assert that the Negev desert where they dwell is vacant and undeveloped. These are the Bedouin who make up around 3.5 percent of Israel\u2019s population and thousands of Bedouin serve in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}