“Hot-Shot Hotline”: New Regavim-Bedouin Cooperative Initiative

Regavim enables residents of Arab and Bedouin communities, who are victims of rampant violation of firearms regulations but are afraid to lodge formal complaints with the Israel Police, to file complaints discreetly and receive legal counsel: Complaints may be submitted through Regavim’s new Hebrew-Arabic “Hot-Shot Hotline” Facebook page, called “Stop the Shooting.”

https://www.facebook.com/WeStopShooting

Regavim.org..
July '18..

The problem of illegal guns in the Arab sector hits the news every so often, bringing with it a new wave of discussion, criticism, and the usual hand-wringing (see our coverage from 2016 here). Unfortunately, it usually ends there; no one seems to have found a way to deal with the problem systematically.

The most recent round was brought on by a series of videos that innocent bystanders posted on social media, capturing masked gunmen shooting automatic weapons from vehicles speeding through Beer Sheva’s Ohalim Junction and in residential areas in Segev Shalom and Rahat. The videos went viral, and the entire country was, once again, talking about the problem.



Almost immediately, a resident of Rahat sent an uncensored version of one of the videos to Regavim’s Facebook Messenger inbox. In this version, the license plate numbers of the vehicles involved in the shooting spree were plainly visible, and the frightened citizen who shared the footage asked for Regavim’s help to file an official complaint with the police.

Residents of Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities live under the shadow of the free-for-all of illegal firearms and random shooting in the streets of their towns, committed by local criminals. Although the innocent, law-abiding residents have been suffering from this nightmarish reality for years, they do not file complaints with the authorities, for fear of reprisals.

Time to Stop the Silent Surrender of the Negev

Only when the government of Israel is determined to restore the rule of law to the Negev will the Beduin understand they have something to lose, and only thus will it be possible to speak of a historic compromise and successful settlement.

Ari Briggs..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
19 September '12..

When Israel realized that it could no longer ignore the massive spread of illegal Beduin settlement in the Negev, it developed generous programs to regularize the situation. In 2007, it established the Goldberg Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Goldberg. Following the publication of its recommendations, the chairman of the Policy Planning Division of the Prime Minister’s Office, Ehud Prawer, was appointed to lead a committee to convert those recommendations into a viable government program. In 2011 the committee’s report was published, and approved by the government.

The Prawer plan calls for a massive initial investment of NIS 1.2 billion and the legalizing of many of the illegal Beduin settlements established in the Negev. For those 20,000-30,000 Beduin whose settlements cannot be legalized, it offers generous gifts of land of up to five dunams per family, thus rewarding the Beduin’s illegal behavior with private land in the land registry.

The next step was to propose legislation based on the Prawer plan, and so, a few months later, the government published, for public comment, a memorandum of law prepared for the Justice Ministry. The government charged Minister Bennie Begin with the important task of completing the process and converting the proposals into law. He initiated a review process that included opening his door to any and all comments on the program, and extensive meetings with Beduin in the field. He heard the many reservations of the “trained” Beduin representatives – “trained” by the likes of NIF’s Shatil, NCF and ACRI – with regards to the program and the law. Boiled down to two words, the “training” is to “just say no”; Israel will always come back with a better offer.

Obviously the procedure of “listening” brought the government bureaucracy to the conclusion that the Beduin do not intend to cooperate with the program. An amended memorandum of the law has not yet been published, but reports from behind the scenes tell of severe erosion of the original positions of the program, as predicted by the “trainers.”

The government bureaucracy has apparently despaired, and is unwilling to apply red lines and confront, if necessary, the Beduin population. They are now attempting to remove every barrier and eliminate any conditions prescribed in the past, in order to appease the Beduin population.

(Video) How to disrupt an IDF tank exercise. Unbelievable.

RegavimEdu..
26 August '12..






Using fast ATV's the Bedouin steal metal from shells and casings under the noses of the Army. Working with Channel 2 News, Regavim exposes this to the public in an effort to get it stopped.



Also from Regavim: Bedouins, Tower and Stockade settlements, Version 2.0

The mission of Regavim is to ensure the responsible, legal & environmentally friendly use of Israel’s national lands and the return of the rule of law to all areas and aspects of the land and its preservation.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
.   

MEQ - Are the Negev Bedouin an Indigenous People?

Fabricating Palestinian History

Havatzelet Yahel, Ruth Kark, and Seth J. Frantzman..
Middle East Quarterly..
Summer 2012..

In the last two decades, there has been widespread application of the term "indigenous" in relation to various groups worldwide. However, the meaning of this term and its uses tend to be inconsistent and variable. The expression derives from the interaction of different cultures—the meeting between the original inhabitants of a specific region (known variously as "first nations," "natives," "indigenes," or "aborigines") and new, foreign "settlers" or "colonizers," who imposed their alien value systems and way of life on the indigenous populations.[1]

In Israel, the indigenousness claim has been raised over the past few years by the country's Bedouin citizens, a formerly nomadic, Arabic-speaking group centered in the southern arid part of the country, the Negev. They argue that Israel denies their basic indigenous rights such as maintaining their traditions and owning their own lands.

Does this claim hold water? What are its implications for Israel as well as for other nations?