Hundreds of people protested the "Prawer Plan", calling for the relocation of about 30,000 Arab-Bedouins to recognized villages, in front of the government building in Beersheba on Thursday.

The protest was attended by MK Muhammad Barake, Head of Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel), MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad), MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al), Hadash secretary Ayman Odeh and leading Hadash member Youssef Atawne.

MK Barake during the protest in Beer-Sheva (Photo: Al Ittihad)

The protest was attended by MK Muhammad Barake, Head of Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel), MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad), MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al), Hadash secretary Ayman Odeh and leading Hadash member Youssef Atawne.

"Arabs in the Negev were here, living here, we didn't come in boats or planes," Barake stated at the protest. He decried the demolition of Beduin homes and arbitrary and racist laws. Atawne said that "The Israeli government is determined to escalate the dispossession of the Negev Bedouin Arabs of their lands and concentrate them in towns – a process that has been ongoing for 63 years now".

According to Hadash statement published in the eve of the demonstration: "The decision to accept the Prawer plan is the culmination of a proposal to evacuate about 30,000 to 45,000 Bedouins from their homes and demolish their villages. This proposal, which is racist and discriminatory in nature, is contrary to international human rights laws. We demand that the Israeli government cancel the proposed law and not present it to the Knesset; cease the persecution of its Arab-Bedouin citizens; and allow the Arabs in the Negev to live as any other citizen in the style they choose and according to their culture in rural spaces and not solely in urban communities"

ACRI (The Association for Civil Rights in Israel) and Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights also strongly condemn the government’s decision to vote in favor of the Prawer Plan in the Knesset, citing the unnecessary uprooting of tens of thousands of Bedouin from their homes, against their will and in clear violation of their historical and proprietary rights to the land. Approval of the plan allows for the government’s continued discrimination of and disregard for one of the most disenfranchised communities in Israel, during a period in which a mass protest movement in Israel has been calling on the government to instill policies that provide equal rights to all citizens.

The Prawer Plan was prepared without the participation of the 35 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, who have been suffering from severe neglect and lack of infrastructure since establishment of the State in 1948. ACRI and Bimkom representatives warn that the government principles for “arranging recognition of Bedouin in the Negev” contradicts the recommendations made by the Goldberg Commission, which determined that the treatment of Bedouin living in the unrecognized villages is unjust and ineffective and must be corrected by recognizing these Bedouin communities in their current physical space.

ACRI and Bimkom insist that only a master plan based on respect for human rights of the Bedouin population and that includes them in the decision-making process will bring about a lasting and holistic solution in the Negev that will contribute to the betterment of all who live there, both Arabs and Jews.

An alternative master plan, prepared by the Regional Council of Unrecognized Bedouin Villages and Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights, proposes to keep all 35 unrecognized villages intact and incorporate them once and for all into the region in terms of infrastructure and services, while saving Israel massive amounts of resources necessary for uprooting villages that have existed since before the state was established.

ACRI, together with other human rights organizations and representatives of the Bedouin communities in the Negev urge the government to dismiss the Prawer Report, whose recommendations propagate the state’s irresponsible treatment of one of the most disenfranchised communities in Israel and allow for the continued trampling of their basic rights as citizens. An agreed-upon and practical solution for the Bedouin communities will guarantee the

betterment of the Negev that all residents can benefit from.

Related:

To download a position paper written by ACRI, Bimkom, and the Regional Council of Unrecognized Bedouin Villages – click here.

To download a summary of this position paper - click here.