Israeli government to forcibly relocate Negev Bedouins

The Israeli Cabinet approved a plan on Sunday to relocate tens of thousands of Bedouin from their villages into settlements with official state status. The proposal will forcibly transfer more than 40,000 Bedouin citizens into government-planned townships in the Negev desert. The Bedouin currently reside in unrecognised villages in the Negev. The Israeli government refuses to recognise villages that fail to meet minimum levels of population density, contiguity and economic sustainability. The Israeli plan follows the release of the Prawer Report. As part of the plan, the Bedouin will be moved into settlements including Rahat, Khura and Ksayfe. Those relocated will be compensated and given new plots of land. The program is estimated to cost the state NIS 6.8 bn ($1.8 bn US). The report has angered Bedouin communities and their supporters, who claim say that the plan is discriminatory and ignores the Bedouins’ historic connection to the land. Oppponents claim that there is no justifiable reason for the government’s decision. "This stupid government will be responsible for a Bedouin Intifada in the Negev," said Arab MK Taleb al-Sana. Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, also slammed the plan as a major violation of basic rights. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, who submitted its objections to the Prawer Report in June, argues that the conditions required for the recognition of Bedouin villages are prejudicial and flout the principles of equality and justice in the distribution of resources. "If the same criteria were applied to the Jewish population, whole settlements - including community settlements, observatories, kibbutzim and moshavim - would be doomed," the association notes. Moreover, the group alleges that the new Bedouin villages have been planned without giving consideration to the population, who is largely rural agrarian, rather than urban. It also opposes making planning for the Bedouin community conditional on the settlement of land ownership disputes.