How desolate sits the city that was full of people,
How she has become as a widow that was great among the nations–Jeremiah 1:1
This is the month of Av, the saddest of the Jewish year because the 9th of the month commemorates the destruction of the Holy Temple. On this fast day, we read Jeremiah who provides a powerful keening narrative of the destruction.
So it seems only fitting in a perverse sort of way that today, the Israelis government crossed a new threshold of horror and despoilation. The Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb, consisting of 40 families and 300 people, and which has existed in this place for hundreds of years, was erased by Israeli bulldozers. 1,500 soldiers armed with tear gas and water cannon, along with helicopters mounted their assault on the defenseless place. How desolate sits the village that was full of people.
They rounded up these indigenous Israeli citizens, among the poorest of all in Israel, and placed them in collection points much like Jews were herded from their own shtetls into ghettos during the Holocaust. The only difference is that Israel isn’t going to send them to the gas. Instead, it will merely leave them to their own devices in the midst of the barren desert. This won’t be a death sentence for them though since these are the people of the desert.
They will merely wait for the bulldozers and soldiers to leave and then rebuild what has been wrenched from their grasp. Much like the Hilltop Youth who rebuild illegal outposts after they are demolished, with the major difference that the Bedouin have inhabited this place for centuries and predating the State’s founding. And with the further difference that so far the Bedouin have not stoned anyone or burned anything or beat up anyone or killed anyone. But if this dreadful policy isn’t stopped that all could change in a heartbeat.
Inexplicably and even more horrifically, CNN is reporting that eyewitnesses say the police brought busloads of Israeli Jews who cheered the destruction. Is this really possible? Or is this a sick joke? Is this what Israel is coming to when the State buses in cheerleaders for its policies of Bedouin ethnic cleansing.
The village had appealed the government eviction order and won a stay from the Israeli Supreme Court. So I’m not sure how this happened, except to say that court rulings in Israel are different than here. They’re more advisory than compulsory. And it appears that yet again the State was able to evade the rule of law.
What gives Israel the right to do this? What gives Israel the right to determine that these native people who’ve lived in this precise spot since before the existence of the State, must leave simply because the State determines that this area much be Arab-rein? Yes, the government has decreed that only Jews can live in this part of the Negev. In fact, the JNF plans to aid and abet this ethnic cleansing by planting one of its famous forests where the village stood. It must hope that it can eradicate all traces of the place, just as it has done with hundreds of similar Arab villages which were emptied and destroyed during the Nakba.
But such an attempt at erasure of history will not work this time. The world has seen and taken notice. The story has been on CNN already. Jewish Voice for Peace’s blog features a heartbreaking interview with an eyewitness activist which you can hear here. I’m also working on translating from Hebrew another powerful eyewitness account featured on Facebook.
I am sorry to say that this is not a one-off event as Israel eradicated a West Bank village a few days ago in a similar fashion. In this case, it simply declared the village a military zone and–poof–it was gone. 30 other Bedouin villages have the same status as Al-Araqeeb and face the same potential fate unless the numbskull bureacrats who devised this policy are shown the error of their blockhead ways.
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- Bedouin village razed in Israel (bbc.co.uk)
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Can you say “ethnic cleansing?”
I knew you could.
RE: Can you say “ethnic cleansing?” – mary
MY REPLY: Bibi is determined to make the most of his “window of opportunity” during the period leading up to the U.S. elections in November!
I do not profess to supprt this action and I will leave all comment on it aside. I would like to say that YOU go through much trouble to set rules for your commenters about abusive and offensive language yet you yourself pull no punches in your screed. Personally I think this style of yours minimizes your desired effect especially since you have rules that warn your blog commenters from employing this same language. I respect your rules. I even think some of them are legitimate. However, these rules should be applicable to you in some way or another.
You write…
“They rounded up these indigenous Israeli citizens, among the poorest of all in Israel, and placed them in collection points much like Jews were herded from their own shtetls into ghettos during the Holocaust. The only difference is that Israel isn’t going to send them to the gas.”
And
“What gives Israel the right to determine that these native people who’ve lived in this precise spot since before the existence of the State, must leave simply because the State determines that this area much be Arab-rein?”
Then you have rules that state
“7. comments which abuse the Holocaust and Holocaust terms (‘Judenrein,’ etc.) for propaganda purposes may be deleted. Also, use terms like ‘anti-Semite,’ ‘anti-Israel,’ ‘genocide,’ and ‘Nazi’ VERY carefully as they are quite often misused. Calling the Gaza withdrawal “ethnic cleansing” is incendiary propaganda and not legitimate argument. Terms like “zionazi” are not permitted.”
On the one hand, I understand what you are doing. By employing this language you are driving home a point with your fellow jews and awakening some of that “Jewish guilt and sense of morality” we all have inside of us.
On the other hand you open up the flood gates for Israel haters to start with even more venomous references of Israel to the Nazi’s.
You raise pts. worth considering.
I am trying to do something different than those pro Israel advocates who invoke the Holocaust in order to defend Israel’s worst policies. I am not trying to create fake sympathy or guilt on Israel’s behalf. As you note in yr comment, I am trying to sensitize my readers to the similarity in the suffering bet. Arabs & Jews. Israel’s advocates are all too ready to create distinctions & walls bet. the 2 peoples. I want to break down walls & make people see similarities.
As I wrote in the post, destroying this village is micro ethnic cleansing. And what does the term Judenrein mean but ethnic cleansing of Jews? That is why I use the term & feel justified doing so. What does rounding up the residents of the village at collection points to ferry them off to God knows where remind a Jew of? This incident cries out for a comparison to that horrific time in Jewish history.
Now, I think I’m very clear in my post that there are dissimilarities as well & I don’t believe (as many pro Israel or anti ZIonist advocates do) in making ironclad or absolute comparisons. This symmetry bet. Jewish & Palestinian suffering needs to be considered in a nuanced fashion. I don’t believe in calling Israelis Nazi & hate terms like “Zionazis” & don’t allow them to be used here.
Fair enaough…a few questions and observations.
1. I have been commenting here for quite some time, I believe I have been through the process of “moderation of my comments”. I am writing this at 5:00pm EST. I am interested to see when it gets published since two of my other posts from earlier this morning are languishing in a state of cenorship in the post about Danny Seaman.
2. Please reference which pro-Israel advocates invoke the Holocaust in order to defend Israel’s worst policies. Just one reference would be more than adequate.
3. In your post at no time did you use the term “micro ethnic cleansing” you stated “In fact, the JNF plans to aid and abet this ethnic cleansing by planting one of its famous forests where the village stood.” Also, Can you please show documented plans by the JNF to plant a forest over this site? I happened to find this on the JNF website. http://www.jnf.org/work-we-do/blueprint-negev/working-with-bedouin.html I hope the JNF does not fall under your list of propoganda websites.
4. Based on the weblink in #3 I think the Isreli govt and JNF is hardly looking to make the area “Arab-rein”. Furthermore, in your reply to my post you state that “What does rounding up the residents of the village at collection points to ferry them off to God knows where remind a Jew of? This incident cries out for a comparison to that horrific time in Jewish history.” So pray do tell Mr. Silverstein. Where did these people get “ferried off” to?”
Moderation is not censorship. Don’t confuse the two. Censorship is if I refuse to allow you to comment without good reason or if I edit your comments because you express an opinion w. which I disagree, none of which I’ve done to you. As for waiting for comments to be published, I’m afraid this isn’t all I do in life & you will have to wait a few hrs till I approve yr comments. I’ll consider yr request to be removed fr. moderation which is what I think you were requesting without actually doing so.
Shimon Peres: “an Iranian nuclear bomb would be a flying Holocaust.”
Alan Dershowitz: “Returning to 1967 borders would be Auschwitz borders” (quoting Aba Eban)
Just as a ferinstance. There are scores, even hundreds more references which you may find for yrself.
All over the web my friend both in the English & Hebrew language press. A representative of the Israel Lands Administration accompanied the troops who did the eviction. The land is under their administration & considered State lands even though they have belonged to the village for generations. But now a forest will attempt to erase their former possession.
Yes, the JNF is one of the chief hasbara sites as they are part of the apparatus seeking to maintain dispossession of Israeli Palestinians. They only allow Jews to live on lands they administer, an out & out racist proposition.
As I wrote, only Jews can live on ILA-JNF administered lands. So yes, I’m afraid they are.
You conveniently neglected the phrase that followed the one you quote in which I said they would be left in the barren desert to fend for themselves, which is no doubt what happened. Luckily, again as I wrote these are people of the desert so no doubt they have alternatives you or I would not have had the Israeli armed & hooded goons torn down a home we built in the desert.
Perhaps the common concept that unites all these seemingly (to you) opposing points, is that these appalling events took place in the absence of compassion or empathy. Rather than being ‘soft’ or ’emotional’ states, it is these qualities by which psychiatry measures psychopathic states of being.
In the community of the world, Zionist Israel acts like a psychopath. Where this monster’s fate lies is either monumentally terrible or optimistically: revolutionary.
Hope lies in the actions of each individual in the Israeli community to influence change, in its neighbourhoods and institutions; by recognising that cultural, personal, political, or other acts that lack compassion and empathy, are the both the weapon and the enemy of themselves.
Everything has to be examined by the collective psyche: egos, beliefs, rhetoric, denial, post-traumatic disorders and their effects, betrayals from within; joy and love. The ordinary people of the world are urging your success. As the anti-Zionist movement reclaims ground both within Israel and the world, humanity takes back a part of itself.
Oh, and by the way: Richard has only reiterated what CNN reported about the ‘cheerleaders’, and has even expressed his doubts. So when you insinuate that he ‘claimed’ such a thing, it is in fact you who is the liar.
Sorry, the above reply should have gone to “ichdontlikeyou”‘s post.
Who can doubt the Nakba now?
Richard, you have crossed all red lines. You are an outright liar and a fraud. Most of all, you a king of hypocrisy.
The town Al Araqib is an ILLEGAL settlement. ILLEGAL, meaning against the law. You, who day after day claim that is Israel should be respecting the law surely cannot condone such illegal activities.
The law is very clear. If you want to build a house, you need to own the property. You need to request a building permit and have a proper house built which matches the national building standards. I have not heard of issues with Bedouins being denied building permits in proper villages and most of them live happily. Furthermore, these SAME Bedouins that were evicted complain day and night that the country does not want to build infrastructure (sewage, running water, power) and they are therefore being discriminated (of course, even in Israel is discriminated). You cannot eat the cake and keep it complete. If you want to have infrastructure and organized villages with public services, you need to do it by the law. I do not hear the residents of Rahat (the largest Bedouin village) complaining…I wonder why.
And here is why you are a hypocrite. I am positive that you did not shed even one tear when the JEWISH settlers were evicted and their homes destructed. If anything, you would define that as justice being served. Yet here, you cry out for the Bedouins who are similarly illegal settlers on land that does not belong to them for the simple reason that they did not bother for the past sixty years to request such permits. Israel has been too nice with them and did not bother enforcing the law which is does for many Jewish settlers.
This is a poor and fraudulent attempt to slander Israel by making a big mish-mash of partial truths and false arguments. Most Bedouins have absolutely no problem with the state of Israel and live peacefully side by side with the Israelis. Many of them even proudly serve in the “evil occupation forces” and become officers out of their own choice (thus pledging allegiance to the “terrible” Jewish state).
If you want to make a case for the Palestinians, be my guest. It is a shame that you attempt to mix two completely unrelated topics and ethnic groups in order to make yet another argument against Israel, as this only serves to lower your credibility in the eyes of your readers.
And the claim that Israel had supplied buses for “cheerleaders to observe the spectacle” is not even worthy of response. I am amazed and appalled at how low you can go with the lies in order to slander Israel.
How strange that we live in a world where land “does not belong to” people who have lived on it for literally thousands of years.
…whereas the land that Israel claims belongs to it was actually stolen by force of racist laws put in place after 1948.
Richard does not have a credibility problem with me, and I’m one of his most faithful readers. What you see is fraudulence is in fact, courage – the courage to speak truthfully and according to his beliefs.
Oh of course Mary, I wouldn’t dare to think otherwise.
.I will attempt to explain precisely why this is the case.
You are innocent and naïve. Your critical thinking abilities are infinitesimal. You will automatically assume that Richard’s words are correct and “courageous”, not because he is in any way an accurate or brave reporter, but because he is a contrarian. A justice fighter, defender of the weak and helpless. This is at least what he wants you to think. The truth is that he gets all warm and fuzzy and aroused from “going against the grain” and receiving criticism. The criticism, the hate mail, the aggressive comments…all provide immense gratification and relief from his otherwise meaningless life. His pseudo-liberalism and progressiveness is only a thick mask covering up the real motivation behind his posts and tongue lashing: the excitement of voicing a different opinion. Of being unique. Of gaining attention.
He chooses to fill his universe with fantasies of the secret thought-police and endless Hasbara agents who he is fearlessly battling. The reality, however, is much scarier. Not one person of significance actually cares about who he is or what he says. No one is after him. It is all the product of his wild imagination.
Despite the motivation behind his posts, I would by default give him at least some respect if he proved to be a credible reporter. I have not seen any evidence as of yet that renders him an authority on the conflict or on Israel. He is a free agent spreading his own personal opinion just like thousands have done before him. He is in no way an innovator or pioneer. He has not even been a personal witness to any of the events he covers with such great confidence (and “courage”, I must add). Exactly what courage is required to blurb your personal nonsense from a cozy couch in Washington? courage is in fact the last thing I would attribute to Richard. He is just like any teenager (mentally and emotionally, not physically) who is making a juvenile attempt at swimming against the flow and being one of the “cool kids”.
If Richard was indeed courageous, like you claim, he would deal with the facts (all of them) and have a sincere discussion while acknowledging the faults of ALL sides involved (since no one, not even the Palestinians or the Hamas, are perfect). If he were courageous he would make an attempt to reply to the various educated and documented posts that others (more knowledgeable and rigorous than myself) have left on his blog. Posts that empirically and logically refute his claims and conclusions. Many of those he deliberately ignored. Maybe even, “rahmana litzlan”, he would admit on occasion that he is wrong. That takes true courage.
There is a saying in Hebrew which I will attempt to translate:
“When [people] spit on you, you say that it is raining”. The meaning of this saying is that instead of basing your opinions and ideals on reality, you decide to reject reality and substitute it with your own distorted reality, one that agrees with your preconceived notions. (credits to Adam Savage for the original quote). Reality has no function in your thinking process as long as it doesn’t conform to your ideals.
I can only imagine what will happen if there ever arises a discussion about the color of the sky. Everyone will agree that the sky is blue. Richard will claim that according to his “strategically placed informants”, the sky, in reality, is green! I assume you will then proceed to commend him on his courage for going against the grain and standing behind his ideas.
I will now give you a more practical example: Ms. Greta Berlin was the organizer and spokesperson for the “free Gaza” flotilla. In the morning after the raid, when the picture was still very blurry and no confirmed information had been released, she was interviewed by many radio and television stations and claimed with 100% confidence that the terrorist commandos of the Israeli Occupation Forces (my addition a-la-Silverman) stormed upon the boats while the passengers were sleeping. This claim was later proved to be an outright lie. You may argue that the Israeli response was disproportional. You may argue if the activists had used deadly force or not. Those facts are all debatable to some extent. You absolutely cannot claim that the “poor peace activists” were fast asleep when there are multiple videos (by both sides) showing them wide awake and engaging in violent clashes with the soldiers. If that is how they sleep they must be zombies.
And what happened as a result? Nothing. Greta Berlin was and is a free agent. She was not representing any legitimate, reputable organization and she is therefore not held accountable for her fraudulent statements. This does not change a thing for her followers. I am positive that next time you sit in front of the TV and see Ms. Berlin speaking about the humanitarian crisis in gaza or some other topic you will say to yourself “you go Greta. What a courageous and wise woman you are” while completely ignoring her lies that were spread just weeks ago. Again, this is not courage. And for this matter, Richard Silverstein is no different than Greta Berlin.
Wow, you sure spend a lot of time attacking Richard, and now you’re calling my reasoning abilities “infinitesimal,” which is quite laughable. I could speculate as to why you feel compelled to make personal attacks on people, but I won’t waste my time. I’ll just say, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. I won’t respond to the rest of your nonsense.
Iris has a good pt regarding this. She notes that Israel makes a vague claim to indigennousness going back 2,000 yrs. Of course, the claim is based on history rather than property deeds or even physical possession since Jews lived in Israel in very small numbers for centuries after the Roman conquest.
“The town Al Araqib is an ILLEGAL settlement.”
So what?
Laws are to be respected if they are built upon human rights. The relevant Israeli laws in this case are quite obviously not.
“If you want to have infrastructure and organized villages with public services, you need to do it by the law.”
Unless, of course, you are a Jewish settler in the occupied territories. But you of course know that.
“Yet here, you cry out for the Bedouins who are similarly illegal settlers on land that does not belong to them”
Their families were there long before the state of Israel. That’s by the way also a key difference to almost all settlers on the West Bank (save maybe some very few who have some legitimate family connection to pre-1948 Jewish inhabitants.)
“Most Bedouins have absolutely no problem with the state of Israel and live peacefully side by side with the Israelis.”
Now what is wrong with that sentence? Nice Freudian slip, by the way.
What sort of “law” dispossesses indigenous peoples who inhabited the land before the State existed?? No, this is not “law.” This is, as Niv Eyal wrote in his blog post “law by theft.” Theft is not legal. It is dishonest, immoral, a violation of human rights. Israeli law is in conflict with international law on this matter. I choose the latter. You choose the former.
Jim Crow too was “law.” Segregation was “law.” Was this moral? Humane? No.
“If you want to build a house, you need to own the property. ”
These are native peoples. They lived on this land for centuries w/o deeds or means of proving ownership. In fact, they are a nomadic people used to living on the move & not in fixed villages. Israel’s attempt to herd them into such fixed abodes is also racist.
The very way you formulate this statement proves yr racism or at best abysmal ignorance about how your fellow citizens live. And yes, the Bedouin are Israelis, your fellow citizens. And you act as if they are aliens fr. another planet. For shame.
“you did not shed even one tear when the JEWISH settlers were evicted and their homes destructed…”
Indeed I didn’t. I don’t shed tears for settler Jews who have no claim to the land they settle and steal it literally from those who’ve lived on it far longer than they. I will never shed a tear for such outright theft. You are not indigenous to Israel, nor are they. They personally do not have a history of living in their settlement since centuries before the State began. Gimme a break.
“Israel has been too nice with them”
I find this comment to be deeply offensive & racist. This is a first warning. Your next violation of comment rules will result in your comments being moderated.
“Most Bedouins have absolutely no problem with the state of Israel and live peacefully side by side with the Israelis.”
You racist moron. They ARE Israelis.
“It is a shame that you attempt to mix two completely unrelated topics and ethnic groups”
Do you mean to say that Bedouin are not Arabs?
“this only serves to lower your credibility in the eyes of your readers.”
You mean I lower my credibility in YOUR eyes, when I never had any to begin w. as far as you are concerned. Which other readers pray find I have no credibility? I’d venture to say that those I wish to respect me do even w/o yr useless advice.
“the claim that Israel had supplied buses for “cheerleaders to observe the spectacle” is not even worthy of response. I am amazed and appalled at how low you can go with the lies in order to slander Israel.”
Take it up with CNN. They reported that eyewitnesses made this claim. Or did you not bother to read what I wrote? Nah, prob. not. Why bother reading?
Thanks Richard. I have been following this story on every news outlet that was covering it, especially since I was there in Al Arakibh just a few days ago with a visiting delegation. I was most compelled by your post out of everything I read. Thanks for your writing, keep the courage, many of us are reading, it’s not a futile exercise.
Recently, someone sent me a video called, “Jews Don’t Camp.” Apparently they don’t want their beduin citizens to camp either.
(I sent the video to Richard. Perhaps he can post the link – I had already deleted it.)
Richard: I thank God for you and for people like you of all creeds. It is the cream of human beings that stand up in defense of those who have no one to defend them.
“O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let hatred of anyone lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious. ” (Quran 5:8)
” O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned be rich or poor, God’s claim takes precedence over [the claims of] either of them. Do not, then, follow your own desires, lest you swerve from justice..” (Quran 4:135)
Thank you. I am touched.
I am on safe grounds here, as probably one of the earlest advocates for the southern bedouin settlements (1986 to 1990). My impression from my work (as jurist, lawyer, activist, fundraiser and academic ON the bedouin issue), is that the Israeli “old guard” perceives the mere issue of “indigenousness” as vital security interest, almost the intellectual/legal equivalent of the A-bomb. Without getting deep into the legal issue of “who was here first, and who is indigenous”, and land rights under international law, the treatment of the issue is violent, devious, and full of schemes to dillute and postpone land claims, and gradually make the problem disappear…As someone whose ass is still burning from my past activity, I am not too hopeful for “change” in that respect. As usual, I think the “left’ (or progressives) should employ more integrity and honesty in discussing those issues, before which nothing will change.
—
The monies raised for the Bedouin settlements in the USA were cleverly diverted and given to jewish-Israeli professionals and created the usual NGO’s that co-opt, hug and kill the struggle, yet maintain the facade of democratic concern (that benefits Israeli hasbara etc. the usual Meretz deal). However, the forces that call the shots are very clear, they will take all measures to make sure that indigenousness claims are dismissed, politically, so that it doesnt extend to the palestinian situation etc.
We have to remember that Israel bases its moral claim on “indigenousness” extending back 2000 yrs ago, and the issue is very problematic, hasbara-wise, one would prefer leaving the {“amimut” around it. hence…
Practically speaking the bedouin leadership had also made some judgement errors, will not get into that now. BAsically, they wavered in their decisions on “group identity”, once joining the moslem awakening movements, then the Palestinian cause, and on the other hand sometimes willing to trade their identity for israeli too soon (military service etc.). There was back then an attempt to define them more as “native people”(first nations), which would on one hand grant international rights, on the other hand, has drawbacks in terms of their “arab identity”, etc. Naturally, native rights are also addressed against other countries where bedouins reside, such as egypt and jordan etc., namely, there are other political issues here, each of them more explosive than the other.
To sum up, I add these comments only to say that from the Israeli gov’s perspective its a major national security issue, and is treated as such.
We’ve all seen the videos of settlers who have moved into Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah, laughing, singing, dancing, over those evictions.
Why should we wonder if the busloads of gleeful sociopaths be a rumor. Weve seen it for ourselves, elsewhere.
Regarding “laws,” even the fascist regimes of Germany, Italy, and Spain had ‘laws.’
This shameful remark adherent to the ‘law’ reminds me of a comment I made to the previous mayor of Jerusalem about the cop of Les Miserables who chased that pauper for having stolen a piece of bread.
Legal, but repulsive. Certainly nothing remotely connected to Mosaic law.
“Without getting deep into the legal issue of “who was here first, and who is indigenous”, and land rights under international law, the treatment of the issue is violent, devious, and full of schemes to dillute and postpone land claims, and gradually make the problem disappear”
Do you have any evidence for the existence of such schemes? I ask seriously as I wish to know more about this subject.
I don’t argue for or against the existence of such schemes but I want to note that if such schemes exist, they are inefficient in the extreme.
Bedouin settlements are spread thinly from mitzpe ramon to beer sheva (at least) , a rather large area in which they live and go about their business. Razing one village out of many hardly changes their geography. Once every few years the government takes such an action and than gives up, while the beduins re-settle and expand.
This is not a moral judgment since I’m not against their expansion per se, just an observation – whatever the government wishes to do, they’re damn lazy about it.
Yakov, you again. I suggest we take our domestic issues in Hebrew. I have a blog.
Although i suspect you are not sincere in your question, i will refer to the documents about the original transfer of bedouins during the military rule (they were under military rule, mind you, rather late, I believe into the early 60’s ). There are contracts bn the army and heads of tribes, and they were concealed, because they included a commitment to the tribes to allow them to return, after some time away, because of so called military needs and so forth.
I represented several families and individuals in both land rights law suits against the State and lawsuits about demolitions of so called “illegal houses” and in law suits regarding confiscations of herds. This is an attrition war, against people in great disadvantage, and where the clear intent is not to solve but to wear out the bedouins and rely on the passage of generations.
Not that the Anglo saxonx who here preach to us, have done any better with their first nations, but as you see the method succeeds, and so Israel is hoping to do the same.
Another “Scheme”, if you will, the state is threatening (or used to do that) any person who has had effective influence in favor of bedouins, in matters of law. The government schemes to manipulate and control research on native land rights, by controlling the scholars in not so democratic ways.
If one ever wants a full account of the dirty tricks, I am still alive and well, and will happily testify with the names and all. However, lucky for you, those who sit on the lid are your ideological opponents from the liberal left who like to keep the status quo. So you can relax, even Richard here cannot make a whole lot of difference in Israel. The system is change proof.
I can tell you that the few lawyers who were truly dedicated to the land rights of bedouins were elegantly (or not so…) neutralized, leaving the ever faithful ACRI type or Jumess (Meretz) type burearcrats who always end up with a nice PhD in Harvard, or a nicer villa and a job in the ministry of justice, known as the bastion of civil rights. The game rules are rigged, we know that.
I only pointed out that in fact there is some flimsy logic in regarding this issue as sensitive…and I wonder if anyone has suggestions, considering the fact that not only Israel has bedouins with land claims and rights being violated and marginalized, and given the delicate balances here in the Middle East.
Last but not least. The disrespect of bedouins property rights has become a plague and as you know, the same disrespect is now applied to anyone living in Israel and who stands in the way of land developers or other bullies. No respect to the meaning of “home” is self defeating to Zionism. Nobody should be “removed” to accomodate others’ needs, there is enough room.
Sorry I go OT here:
iris, give me a link to your blog please.
Bedouins have a village they’ve lived in for centuries. Along comes Israel, knowing of the existence of this village in this place, & it declares this village to sit on State lands & thereupon evicts them & razes their village. Isn’t that the definition of a scheme? And 30 other Bedouin villages face the same potential fate. Scheme or no scheme?
I see. So you build a house, the government comes along & destroys not only yr house but every other one in yr village & somehow neither you nor yr fellow evictees is supposed to be overly concerned because in the scheme of things all of you are going to come out better somehow in the end. Is that what you’re arguining? Is that credible to you? Would this result be acceptable to you if you were in their shoes??
By “scheme” I mean any behind-the-scene action, a hidden plot, rather than simple implementation of the law.
I don’t claim that the Bedouins should simply agree. I disagree with the notion of some larger conspiracy going on here. I base my disagreement on the idea that had such a conspiracy really existed, it would manifest itself more actively. If land grab really is the goal, there’s no use trying to achieve it one village at a time, not with half-nomadic people anyway.
What I think needs to be done is that the state has to come to a fair agreement about their property rights. A clear, precise map of their property is needed, to which both sides will agree.
Amazingly hypocritical that the Israelis can call the Bedouin “squatters” when half a million settlers are illegally living on Palestinian land.
I would love to see the Palestinians kick them out and send them back over the armistice line where they belong.
Looking at my comments, I will be thankful if they are deleted. Its one of those days, when stuff gets sent too quickly (there is a lot of noise coming from next door renovations…).
I will appreciate it.