Stop the Brutal Transfer of Bedouins, Citizens of Israel

Yeela Raanan, Jan. 18th, 2011.


The Israeli Governments' actions in El Araqib right now are new and terrifying…


In a nutshell: On Sunday and again on Monday the police helped the JNF people in "clearing out the area", which included beatings, bullets, injured, arrested: both of the village and activists, leaving several activists in jail overnight, some people injured and in hospital, the police remained in the village "clearing out" the rubble for hours, thus the village people for most of the day were "imprisoned" in the village cemetery. We have not witnessed this level of violence against Israeli citizens in the past few decades. And so far there is silence, and the Government of Israel knows it may continue...

For photos and more info on what is going on in El-Araqib you can see:

http://www.tarabut.info/en/home/  
 
http://www.dukium.org/index.php?newlang=english

For photos (and Hebrew info):

http://baduannaqab.wordpress.com/

Short background: The ownership of the lands of the unrecognized Bedouin village of El-Araqib in the Israeli Negev are under dispute, and right now are being contested in Israeli courts. This process will take time. But the Government of Israel, one of the sides in the land dispute, is not willing to wait until the case is concluded, and wishes to ensure that the members of the Bedouin community will not have access to these lands, even if they do win the court case. To achieve this, the government and its ally – the Jewish National Fund (JNF) are foresting the village lands – preferring a "forest" in the desert to an agricultural village for the disenfranchised Bedouin community. Anything is better, in the view of the Government of Israel, than Arabs having access to lands in Israel. This is the reason behind the extreme violence the government is using.

But we have reason to be even more concerned. The Government of Israel is planning to transfer another 20 Bedouin villages, another 40,000 citizens of Israel will be treated with similar violence if we do not succeed now in passing a clear message to the Government of Israel, that it cannot cross these red lines, that there is a limit to how much violence can be used against people, citizens, and human rights activists.

El-Araqib and the other 20 villages sit on the totality of less than 200,000 dunams: 1.5% of the Negev lands. Desert lands that the government has no use for them. That is why the ridiculous plans are for a forest – in the desert.

We must right now do all we can do to stop this. How?

Insist that your ambassadors in Israel demand that the Government of Israel stop this, and also demand that the Israeli embassies in your countries explain these horrific actions.

The message must be clear – only solutions that are born out of dialogue and agreements are acceptable. For example – recognize these villages and the villagers' land rights. Violence – and violence of this level – in order to achieve the government's goals – is NOT acceptable.

Please do all you can to stop this escalation in government brutality.

For more information (if they are not arrested, again) Haya Noah 052-4269011; Prof. Gadi Elgazi 054-5884851.