Video: Bedouins resist Israeli plan to expel 40,000 and “Judaize” their land

With the European Union’s recent decision to stop subsidies to any Israeli projects in the occupied West Bank, a lot of media attention has once again been focused on Israeli settlements there.

What has attracted much less international attention is an Israeli plan to force tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins out of their homes in the southern Naqab (Negev) region, land that most countries recognize as part of present-day Israel.

This video report from The Real News Network provides essential background, noting that some 200,000 Bedouins live in the Naqab, about half of them in so-called “unrecognized villages” that have existed since before the Israeli state was founded.

“Intruders” in their own homes

But Israel considers the Bedouins to be intruders and trespassers on their own lands, even though they are nominally citizens of Israel.

Israel has long refused to connect their villages to the power grid or running water, build roads, health clinics or schools.

Instead, on 24 June, the Israeli parliament passed the Prawer-Begin law, that would see 40 Bedouin villages demolished.

40,000 will lose their homes

Under the Prawer plan, their land will be confiscated in order to establish a wedge of Jewish communities separating Arab communities in the western and eastern parts of the Naqab.

This is an intensification of an already ongoing assault. As the video notes, in 2005, 30,000 Bedouin homes had an Israeli demolition order. In 2011, about 1,000 were demolished.

Under the new plan, up to 40,000 people will lose their homes in the latest phase of the violent “Judaization” of Bedouin lands.

Those affected are not accepting their fate and are mobilizing to stop the Prawer plan, as the Bedouin activists featured in the video explain.

Racist incitement against Bedouins

Meanwhile, government and media continue a campaign of incitement against the Bedouins, painting them as criminals, in order to justify the assault.

For example, the video says, Israeli lawmaker Danny Danon – a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party – claimed that in 2011, 1,000 women and girls were “seduced, kidnapped or enslaved” by Bedouins, even though the Israeli police did not record even one such case.

The Jewish National Fund (JNF), which raises tax exempt charitable funds in the US, UK, Canada and other countries, plays a key role in the ethnic cleansing of Bedouins and theft of their land.

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....and the world does nothing. The EU-Israel Association Agreement, which gives Israel open access to the EU market is based on mutual respect for human rights and democratic principles, as explicitly stated in article 2 of the Agreement. But this is quietly ignored. Meanwhile the EU imposes its sanctions and restrictions policies on 22 other counties, including Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Libya and Egypt "to bring about a change in activities or policies such as violations of international law or human rights". Another case of dual standards.

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This is an excellent comment. A new term indicating consistent dupicity is required.
I have suggested "The Israeli Way": sign an "agreement" (law, charter etc.) and then
do as you please. Will there then be "peace in our time" (Neville Chamberlain after
return from his meeting with "Hr. Hitler")?

Do you have a better suggestion for a new term?

---Peter, Boston MA, USA

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My heart goes out to the villagers and I hope they stand in the face of the destruction of their way of life. I wonder what the world would say if the positions were reversed and it was Arabs that were demolishing Jewish villages? All I can do is to continue to not support the zionist entity monetarily by refusing to do business with economic outlets that do

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If I'm not mistaken, Max Blumenthal had very poignant article, about 3 years ago, on JNF GOD-TV and their promise to plant trees in Israel.Apparently, they planted wrong type of tree and thousands of acres went on fire.

Blumenthal was in a new-Israeli town, Israel had gotten rid of the old Arabic towns and their people.There was an image of smoke, filling the whole sky.