Relocation Plan Threatens Israel's Bedouin Community
Israel has announced a relocation plan for its Bedouin community which may displace thousands, writes Jillian Kestler-D'Amours.
JERUSALEM — As Israel approved minor changes Sunday to a plan that is expected to forcibly displace tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens, local residents and human rights groups worry that vague language, a lack of transparency and inequalities in planning procedures will soon lead to serious violations of Bedouin rights.
“The Begin Plan seeks to restrict the Bedouin to a specific area and to implement this policy forcefully,” said Rawia Abu Rabia, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
“If it is carried out in its current format, such steps will uproot dozens of villages and displace tens of thousands of Bedouin residents, dispossessing them from their property and historical right to their lands.”
Israeli Minister Benny Begin presented his revisions to Israel’s “Law for the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev” on Sunday, after months of public consultations with Bedouin citizens and organizations at the behest of the Israeli government.
