Ministers Approve Bill That Will Displace Bedouin

A Bedouin village in Negev (Photo: Ronit Sela)

The Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs today (May 6) approved the draft Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev. The bill, which is based on the Begin Plan, is now expected to begin the legislative process through the Knesset.

According to Attorney Rawia Aburabia of ACRI: “Today the government approved a plan that will cause the displacement and forced eviction of dozens of villages and tens of thousands of Bedouin residents, dispossessing them of their property and historical rights to their lands, destroying the social fabric of their communities, and sealing the fate of thousands of families into poverty and unemployment. All of this while the government simultaneously promotes the establishment of new Jewish communities, some of which are even slated to be built on the fresh ruins of Bedouin villages. Rather than displacing these communities, the government should seek a true and just solution that facilitates the inclusion of Bedouin citizens into the civil and social fabric of the Negev by recognizing the unrecognized villages and acknowledging their legal ownership rights to their lands.”

Urban planner Nili Baruch, of Bimkom said in response: “The key to a solution to the issue of the unrecognized villages in the Negev is planning. A plan to formally recognize the unrecognized villages (such as the one initiated by the village residents themselves) will afford them their rights to education, health, fitting infrastructure, and sources of employment. Such a process would not only be the most likely to succeed, but also the most just, coming after years of neglect of the unrecognized villages, most of which have been in existence since before the state of Israel was established.”

Related Links

• Information Sheet: Israel Ignores Bedouin Needs with Begin Plan

• In-depth look at the problems with the bill (prepared by Bimkom and ACRI)

• Joint letter from ACRI and Adalah to the Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs on Begin Plan

• Read the Begin Plan in English (unofficial translation)

• Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights