Is this a farewell to the Negev?

Indeed, for decades, the Negev has been under assault, as Bedouin have been plunking themselves down along the length and breadth of the area with no regard for such mundane matters as property rights or building permits. Nonetheless, rather than enforcing the rule of law and preventing encroachment on state-owned lands, the government shamefully capitulated to law-breakers.

Michael Freund..
Fundamentally Freund/JPost..
30 January '13..

This past Sunday, the largest act of organized theft in the Jewish state’s history took place.

And the perpetrator was none other than the government of Israel.

At its first session since last week’s elections, the outgoing cabinet convened to approve a plan ostensibly aimed at settling the long-standing issue of illegal Beduin settlements in the Negev.

As anyone who has driven through the desert east or south of Beersheba can attest, the landscape is overrun with illicit Beduin dwellings, many of which have mushroomed into full-fledged unlawful communities. Some even sit adjacent to the Nevatim Air Base, a strategically vital military site, hugging its outer perimeter on all four sides. Just take a quick tour of the area on Google Earth, and you will see the extent to which unauthorized Beduin housing dots the terrain.

Indeed, for decades, the Negev has been under assault, as Beduin have been plunking themselves down along the length and breadth of the area with no regard for such mundane matters as property rights or building permits. Nonetheless, rather than enforcing the rule of law and preventing encroachment on state-owned lands, the government shamefully capitulated to law-breakers.

IN ITS decision, the cabinet approved a proposal put together by Minister Bennie Begin which would legalize the majority of the Beduin communities that have been set up over the years, in effect rewarding land-grabbers with most of the land they sought to grab.

Bringer - Stealing Their Way to Statehood - Part 5

Gil Bringer..
03 June '12..





This is Part V of a meticulously researched article that describes in detail how Bedouins of the Jordan Valley are used by the Palestinian Authority to take over territory in Area C surreptitiously.

Read Part I here.
Read Part II here.
Read Part III here.
Read Part IV here.

Eighth Stop: A School as an Outpost

In the year 2009 the residents of Kfar-Adumim served a petition against the construction of the Italian regional school that was in the process of being built below their town. The school was intended for the children of the Bedouin tribes that had settled in different outposts in the area and is located right on Route 1. It serves not only the local people: the PA subsidizes transportation for students who live in more distant locations. It seems that here too, the PA endeavors to create facts on the ground using the Bedouin settlements and is willing to spend money towards that goal. The school that was created in that location is not a means to an end - it is a goal in and of itself, which is a declaration of sovereignty on the area.

A demolition order that was issued regarding the place years ago was never implemented, and this, despite the proximity of the school to a main traffic artery and its location in a firing zone, facts that were supposed to have propelled it to the highest priority for implementation. But these are, of course, exactly the same facts why the PA so much wants to leave the school right where it is.

Bringer - Stealing Their Way to Statehood - Part 4

Gil Bringer..
27 May '12..





This is Part IV of a meticulously researched article that describes in detail how Bedouins of the Jordan Valley are used by the Palestinian Authority to take over territory in Area C surreptitiously.

Read Part I here.
Read Part II here.
Read Part III here.

Sixth Stop: Private Initiative

The only ray of light in the whole story is the Regavim Movement (regavim = clods of earth), which repeatedly takes over legal activity where the state should have been involved. Regavim now participates as a friend of the court in the Abu-Hindi case.

"This is just one example of many similar cases showing how the Palestinians implement Fiyad's plan, in an orderly and well-thought-out way, down to the smallest detail. This is how they intend to unilaterally establish the infrastructure of the Palestinian state by circumventing the need for negotiations with Israel", claimed Betzalel Samotritch, General Manager of Regavim. "The impressive logistical preparations, the precise timing, doing it during the intermediate days of the holiday when the overseer's unit isn't working, the perfect execution of the "operation", the lightning-quick construction of dozens of buildings, topped off with an appeal to the High Court immediately after the holiday - all of this tells us that we are up against a well-oiled and well-funded machine, which operates professionally to establish facts on the ground and to present Israel with a reality that will severely limit its political maneuverability.

Confronted with this dangerous activism most of the Israeli authorities still react like amateurs, perhaps even with criminal negligence. The Israeli failure to take action in the face of the hyperactive activity of the Palestinians is turning the current political discussion in Israel about whether to establish a Palestinian state into a farce. The Palestinian state is being established right in front of our eyes and the way back is becoming more difficult and dangerous from day to day.

The Israeli High Court serves, knowingly or unknowingly, as a tool for the implementation of the Palestinian aspirations for a state. By easily approving the interim injunctions and because the Prosecutor's office neglects its obligation to defend the demolition orders and react to petitions promptly, political facts on the ground are established and you don't hear a peep from anyone.

In response to our questions, the Ministry of Justice delivered this message: "The prosecutor has not yet received the IDF's reaction to the petition. We suggest that you appeal to the spokesman of the IDF."

Bringer - Stealing Their Way to Statehood - Part 3

Gil Bringer..
20 May '12..

This is Part III of a meticulously researched article that describes in detail how Bedouins of the Jordan Valley are used by the Palestinian Authority to take over territory in Area C surreptitiously.

Read Part I here.
Read Part II here.

Fourth Stop: A Representative of the New Israel Fund

The ineffectiveness of the Israeli authorities in dealing with the Palestinian course of action, which does not hide the intention to seize every parcel of land that remains in area C, has become an accepted fact. And despite the fact that this openly declared Palestinian strategy is contrary to the policy of Israel, law enforcement agencies drag their feet.

An obvious example of this is the petitions regarding the settlement in Masua. In the year 2002, Bedouins began squatting in private areas of the farming community Masua, which is situated in the foothills of Mount Sartava. Masua was established as the fourth outpost of the "nachal" program in the Jordan valley in the beginning of the seventies and was defined as part of the "The continuous defensive wall of the Hebrew settlement". The infiltration into Masua is another fresh crack in the wall of Israeli sovereignty . The Bedouin families set up just next to the hothouses of the community and began working the land parallel to the Israeli hothouses.

Every time the Bedouins widened their infiltration into Masua, the civil administration came out with a new demolition order on the section where illegal building was added. And every time the Bedouins requested from Attorney Tawfiq Jibran a restraining order to prevent the destruction . Every time, their request was granted.

Contrary to the Bedouin tribe which infiltrated the territory of Masua, Jibran, a graduate of the Legal Program of the New Israel Fund, did not come out of nowhere. The Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat al_Jedida (The Modern Life) published an interview with Marwan Tubasi, governor of Tubas, at the end of last January (2012) in which he remarked, "The Palestinians will continue to cling to their land and will ensure that all the Israeli plans to Judaize the Jordan Valley will fail, because the concerned parties that are responsible for the activities of the the district and the Office of Matters dealing with the Wall and [Jewish] Settlements have begun to work energetically to obtain injunctions to prevent the demolition of buildings ". The work is done, remarked Tubasi, "In cooperation with Attorney Tawfiq Jibran on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in order to monitor the destruction of buildings and to represent the citizens in the Israeli courts."

Later he proudly told Tubasi that the PA had established a fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars to compensate the Bedouins in case buildings were, nevertheless, destroyed. It is not always possible to depend on Jibran to deliver the goods - so it's good to have something on the side. The Palestinian package that is given for the Bedouin settlement is paid for. It includes equipment for water, buildings, legal support and compensatory funds.

The four requests for temporary injunctions that were served by Jibran were all accepted by Israel's Supreme Court. In contrast, the only request that the community [Masua] served, which was to consolidate files in order to deal with the whole subject at once and put an end to the delays, was rejected. And so, the issue is suspended, and has been stagnant for ten years, during which time the Bedouin outpost continues to develop, and the residents of Masua, watch with astonishment the painfully slow process of the prosecutor's office in dealing with the squatters.

The endless dragging out of the procedures sends to the PA the undeniable message - Israel does not really intend to fight their squatting. Gone are the days when the settlement in the Jordan Valley was seen as a "Hebrew Wall". It is no wonder that recently, on Israeli land, in the territory of Masua, the PA put up a sign of the Palestinian Agricultural Office. On this sign is written, "Successful restoration" - in English and Arabic. Another project to the glory of the emerging Palestinian state.

Incidentally, in order to acquire water for agriculture the Bedouin squatters didn't even have to steal from the pipes or use water trailers. They can drill into the ground illegally and get water on the spot. In the absence of proper oversight, the Bedouins have established an outpost outside of Masua that enjoys the support of the Palestinian Agricultural Office, and they have begun to drill within the territory of Masua.

Bringer - Stealing Their Way to Statehood - Part II

Gil Bringer..
08 May '12..

This is Part II of a meticulously researched article that describes in detail how Bedouins of the Jordan Valley are used by the Palestinian Authority to take over territory in Area C surreptitiously. Read Part I here.

Second Stop: Operation Pesach

On the day before Pesach (Passover) last year the folks of the Civil Administration, like most of the people in Israel, took a vacation for the duration of the seven-day holiday. The Bedouins of the Al-hajaya tribe, who live in the Abu-Hindi wadi below Kedar (a Jewish settlement), were waiting for this opportune time. Using a method that calls to mind almost one-to-one the "wall and tower" operations used by Jewish settlers of pre-state Israel, the Bedouins established a new settlement just a few meters from the Eastern boundary of Kedar. The first houses went up just beyond the fence. During the time between the first day and the last day of the holiday, trucks from Palestinian factories arrived from the area South of Mount Hebron. These trucks unloaded their equipment and from nowhere appeared eighty identical residential buildings spread over a vast area. Three here, seven there, on one side fifteen and in another corner, ten. Later about twenty additional units were built and in the next phase the number of buildings reached one hundred and twenty. The new city "Abu-Hindi", was a fait accompli.

A senior official who participated in the latest tour of the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Security in the area informs "Makor Rishon" that the head of the unit that oversees the civil administration, Marco Ben-Shabbat, confirmed that the buildings were brought to the place by people of the PA (Palestinian Authority). One glance at the buildings that sprouted up overnight below Kedar is enough to see that we're not talking about a local initiative. Anyone who chose to set up a home in Abu-Hindi during the days of Pesach received a housing package that included a double house-trailer that had a bathroom on one side, connected to the plumbing and next to it a large water tank. Not really the usual building standards of a traditional Bedouin settlement.

People of the Civil Administration who strive to come to an agreement with the PA and to act with full cooperation with it saw in this act a ringing slap in the face and immediately came out with an order to destroy the buildings. The Bedouins, for their part, were already prepared with a temporary injunction to prevent the destruction. One can only guess that whoever supplied the water, the trucks the buildings and the equipment also took care of the legal support. What is the PA's motive?

Bringer - Stealing Their Way to Statehood - Part I

Gil Bringer..
03 May '12..

This is Part I of a meticulously researched article that describes in detail how Bedouins of the Jordan Valley are used by the Palestinian Authority to take over territory in Area C surreptitiously.

While in Israel they are still talking about renewing negotiations, in the PA they are establishing facts on the ground. The goal, which was declared a long time ago, is to take over areas in the C region and create territorial contiguity. The method: establishing and developing Bedouin settlements with the legal and monetary support of the residents, who increasingly identify with the idea of a Palestinian state. The National Prosecutor's office closes an eye and the civil administration ignores it as well, and conducts a policy of double standards of justice towards the Jews and the Arabs. The Palestinians: Jerusalem is the Gate to heaven and the Jordan valley is the gate to Palestine.

They come from all over, equipped with vehicles and water trailers, they slow down near the Rimonim Checkpoint, pull over and park next to the Mekorot* pumping station. Higher up, in the guard post, a soldier on watch sees them filling the water trailers by means of a water pipe that awaits them at the spot. No one at the guard post stops them. This is the procedure and this is how the soldiers are instructed to act. From here the Arabs continue onward. They return to their small outpost, situated in a bend in the road. During the journey on Vered Road, which stretches from Rimonim to Jericho they wave to a family member traveling in the opposite direction. He is also making his way with an empty water tank, towed behind his vehicle. He is also on his way to a pumping station. He will also return to the illegal outpost that he lives in with a container of water that was filled courtesy of the government of Israel. This is routine in the realm of the Jordan Valley.

Appelbaum - On the Road Again

Diana Muir Appelbaum
Jewish Ideas Daily
16 November '11

http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2011/11/16/main-feature/1/on-the-road-again

The chronically tense relations between the Israeli government and Bedouins in the Negev—where unrecognized villages are built, razed, and built again—are certain to grow even more tense with the Israeli Cabinet's recent approval of a plan that will recognize about half these villages but demolish the other half, sending their 30,000 residents to existing Bedouin towns.

But if the Bedouins were to vanish, magically replaced in the Negev by the Irish Travelers (Gypsies) who were recently evicted from their unauthorized settlement at Dale Farm in the United Kingdom, Israeli authorities could be forgiven for failing to see any material difference.

In the 1980's, the Council of Basildon let a few Travelers pitch caravans at nearby Dale Farm when they were not on the road; but the Council denied permission for further settlement in what is part of England's "Green Belt." Last month, after years of lawsuits, the Council got permission to clear 86 families from Dale Farm—and did so, not without raucous protests, unfavorable media attention, and a mediation offer from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Like Bedouin culture, traditional Traveler culture is itinerant. Both groups regard their way of life as superior to that of farmers and town dwellers. Both hold honor dear and define honor in strikingly similar ways: A husband protects and provides for his women. A wife obeys her husband and does not work outside the home. Girls regularly drop out long before the legal school-leaving age and are often married by sixteen. A man gains status by fathering many children, especially sons, and engaging in traditional occupations like animal breeding. Factory and service jobs are scorned.

Job prospects in the animal-breeding business aren't what they used to be, but modernity has otherwise been surprisingly generous to Travelers and Bedouin. In both the United Kingdom and Israel, government welfare benefits, including monthly payments to parents for every child, provide significant income support. New opportunities, some in what may euphemistically be called the non-regular economy, have also contributed to unprecedented prosperity. And modern medicine means that 10 or 12 children in a family can grow to healthy adulthood. In sum, Travelers and Bedouin have unprecedented resources with which to achieve the large family ideal. In fact, these circumstances have helped make polygamy far more widespread among the Bedouin than it was in Ottoman times, when few men could afford a second wife.

Israel "Ethnically Cleansing" Bedouin Arabs?

The demolition of an unrecognized Bedouin settlement in the Negev attracts some foreign media looking to fit the story into their own one-sided agenda.


Honest Reporting
Media Critiques
28 July '10

It had all the elements that the foreign press in Israel could have hoped for - a mass eviction accompanied by the destruction of homes, a large Israeli police presence, the potential for confrontation and, even better, the fact that those being evicted belong to the Arab minority within Israel.

So it was that CNN, BBC, AFP and the LA Times saw fit to cover the demolition of an unauthorized Bedouin settlement in the Negev region. Indeed, irrespective of the rights or wrongs of the issue, such scenes are never pleasant and involve some level of human suffering. The foreign media, however, based on the quotes of non-governmental organizations, managed to portray a complex story in very black and white terms.

Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free, notorious anti-Zionist academic Neve Gordon, not even bothering to address the wider context of the demolition, even went as far as to state that he

suddenly understood how far the state is ready to go to accomplish its objective of Judaising the Negev region; what I witnessed was, after all, an act of ethnic cleansing.

While the rest of the media did not sink to Gordon's level of vitriol, most of them certainly did nothing to dispel a one-sided narrative that portrays Israel as the usurper of Arab land. The status of the Bedouin in Israel is far more complex, as is this particular case of the demolished unrecognized village. As the Jerusalem Post explains:

(Read full critique)

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