Responses to Allegations about the Relocation of the Bedouin in the Negev
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MYTH: The Prawer Bill that enables the internal deportation of Bedouin from their villages contravenes international human rights law
RESPONSE: Israel like any country has every right to remove squatters from land they have illegally settled on. This is pure demonisation to say it contravene international human rights law, which it obviously doesn’t.
Of the 90,000 Bedouin today squatting on State owned land the Begin Bill (not Prawer Bill) rewards their illegal behaviour by letting them stay put. Some Bedouin will have to be moved from the land they illegally occupied but in most cases this would be a few kilometres at most and compensation plus free plots of land is being offered.
The known group of 15,000 is due to health concerns as they have settled illegally within the danger zone of the Ramat Hovav Toxic Waste Disposal Facility. Given the threat to their health, and even lives should there be an incident at the facility, the government of Israel has an obligation to relocate these families.
Where the government has decided not to allow some others to stay due to logistical problems of supplying services or strategic importance of the land, i.e. army base etc. again, they will receive full compensation (even though they acted illegally in the first place by settling there) and land close by.
MYTH: The Bedouin are Israeli citizens. They have been living in the Negev region for generations, from long before Israel existed. Their villages will be demolished and their lands given for new, racially exclusive, Jewish settlements and farms.
RESPONSE: Again, not correct. the only racially exclusive towns in Israel are Arab/Bedouin towns that by law Israeli Jews cannot live in.
MYTH: The Jewish National Fund will take control of the land as the owners are evicted. Its “Blueprint Negev” aims to move 250,000 Jewish residents into the area. Expansionist settlers call it “the next frontier”. One village, Al Arakib, has already been demolished over 50 times, and rebuilt in dogged resistance.
RESPONSE: Al Arakib is a small illegal village that law courts have ruled against. Final appeal is now before the Supreme Court. Since when has there been a problem with Jews living in concensus areas such as the Negev. The only sinister plot here is the idea that there is something wrong with Jews living in the Negev.
RESPONSE: Israel like any country has every right to remove squatters from land they have illegally settled on. This is pure demonisation to say it contravene international human rights law, which it obviously doesn’t.
Of the 90,000 Bedouin today squatting on State owned land the Begin Bill (not Prawer Bill) rewards their illegal behaviour by letting them stay put. Some Bedouin will have to be moved from the land they illegally occupied but in most cases this would be a few kilometres at most and compensation plus free plots of land is being offered.
The known group of 15,000 is due to health concerns as they have settled illegally within the danger zone of the Ramat Hovav Toxic Waste Disposal Facility. Given the threat to their health, and even lives should there be an incident at the facility, the government of Israel has an obligation to relocate these families.
Where the government has decided not to allow some others to stay due to logistical problems of supplying services or strategic importance of the land, i.e. army base etc. again, they will receive full compensation (even though they acted illegally in the first place by settling there) and land close by.
MYTH: The Bedouin are Israeli citizens. They have been living in the Negev region for generations, from long before Israel existed. Their villages will be demolished and their lands given for new, racially exclusive, Jewish settlements and farms.
RESPONSE: Again, not correct. the only racially exclusive towns in Israel are Arab/Bedouin towns that by law Israeli Jews cannot live in.
MYTH: The Jewish National Fund will take control of the land as the owners are evicted. Its “Blueprint Negev” aims to move 250,000 Jewish residents into the area. Expansionist settlers call it “the next frontier”. One village, Al Arakib, has already been demolished over 50 times, and rebuilt in dogged resistance.
RESPONSE: Al Arakib is a small illegal village that law courts have ruled against. Final appeal is now before the Supreme Court. Since when has there been a problem with Jews living in concensus areas such as the Negev. The only sinister plot here is the idea that there is something wrong with Jews living in the Negev.
