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September 4, 2011
The Negev Bedouins

Haaretz, the liberal Israeli newspaper had this headline today: Israeli cabinet set to vote on approval of unrecognized Bedouin villages.

Nice one would think, lets recognize the unrecognized and give them their due.

But that is of course not what is planned here. The headline is a whitewash for ethnic cleansing.

There are some 100,000 Bedouins in the Negev desert. They have been living there for centuries. But now the Jewish Israelis want their land.

The real plan is "relocate" them and to "concentrate them in certain areas" where they will have only about 50% of the land they currently use. The land they are using now will be given to Jewish settlers.

The Bedouins have so far been loyal Israeli citizens who did not fight the state. That will now change.

Posted by b on September 4, 2011 at 14:21 UTC | Permalink
Comments

listen b. I don’t think “the Jews” want their land, maybe “the Germans” still have a problem.

Posted by: somebody | Sep 4 2011 15:13 utc | 1

Wikileaks: US diplomats meetings with the “dreaded” Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Among other things, religious broadcasts 24/7 to avoid controversial subjects that might rile up the people…
http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=309473
Shocking, just shocking that the piece is not available in English!

Posted by: JohnH | Sep 4 2011 15:16 utc | 2

somebody @ 1: obviously, you didn’t read the link. It’s a Israeli web site. Ignoring historical president can be dangerous, and the Israelis have a history of “annexing” the land of others.

Posted by: ben | Sep 4 2011 15:27 utc | 3

@somebody I don’t think “the Jews” want their land,
I have now changed the wording to “the Israeli Jews”. Do you like that better? Or is there an euphemism I should use? I’d thought that in the context of Israel “the Jews” alone would be clear enough to designate the ethnicity of the ethnic cleansers.
“The Germans” do not have a problem. They are not stealing the Bedu’s land.

Posted by: b | Sep 4 2011 16:32 utc | 4

Netanyahu sure has an incredible ability to piss people off. Kind of like Gaddaffi somehow making enemies with both the US and Hezbollah, takes a special kind of ass**le to unite such bitter enemies. I’ve just read the latest opinion piece by M.J Rosenberg “The Disaster known as Netanyahu” that sums up the overall situation for Israel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/20119217332358108.html
Add to that these moves against the Bedouins inside the country and the current situation in Sinai and he has just added another enemy to the increasingly long enemies list. I doubt it will end well for him or Israel.
PS: @somebody I don’t see the problem using the phrase “the jews”. We talking about Israel which has the official title “The Democratic and Jewish State of Israel” at its table in the UN. Israel is a state that clearly defines itself along ethnic-religious lines and even tries to make other states accept this like asking Palestinians to recognise Israel as a “Jewish state”.
Even the recent news that Israel is trying to take down dual Hebrew-Arabic roadsigns and replace them with only Hebrew signs shows this kind of identification. Using the phrase “the Jews” just acknowledges how the Israelis see themselves.

Posted by: Colm O’ Toole | Sep 4 2011 17:42 utc | 5

b., colm o’toole, it does not get better, either you do not understand, or you do not want to understand.
“the” means “all of them”, labelling like that is silly (and dangerous in conflict zones).
Netanyahu has a large part of the Jewish community against him.
I just googled “Ausländer” and “bestseller”, because I forgot the name of the guy, found him – first page -. “The Germans” love Thilo Sarrazin.

Posted by: somebody | Sep 4 2011 19:12 utc | 6

a tiny comment: Sarrazin ( Sarraceno, Saracen, Sarkenoi etc)is a surname who come of
a tribe in the north of Arabia.

Posted by: an idiot | Sep 4 2011 19:45 utc | 7

The Israelis are putting the natives into “reservations” – is this the year 2011 or the year 1811?
Israel’s tribalism is unacceptable in today’s world.

Posted by: JohnJ | Sep 4 2011 20:00 utc | 8

Isn’t Israel the only country in the “modern” world that refuses to acknowledge any very specific boundaries?

Posted by: Jake | Sep 4 2011 21:28 utc | 9

Somebody — Do you feel better about using “the Israeli government” is planning to move Bedouins into smaller, delineated, and confined spaces, off their traditional lands?

Posted by: jawbone | Sep 5 2011 0:30 utc | 10

Re: b at #4.
The specific subject of this post is Israel – aka Jewish-occupied Palestine.
In the context of theft and occupation in Palestine there was nothing wrong with describing the perps as the Jews.
Israel is, so they tell us, The Jewish State. So if there’s any thieving going on then “the Jews” in Palestine are responsible whether they see it that way, or not.
Anyone who imagines that Israel, and the Piece Process, are about anything other than stealing land and gloating about the suffering of Palestinians hasn’t been paying attention…to this:
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/photos/maps/landloss.html

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 5 2011 1:27 utc | 11

the vote was postponed Negev Bedouin to ask UN for help to quash Israeli transfer plan

The report makes specific recommendations to the government, including carrying out “a comprehensive review of its land and development policies that affect Bedouin people living in the Negev, giving due attention to the recommendations in relevant reports of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,” in order to “ensure that all laws and administrative practices related to lands and development align with international standards concerning rights of indigenous people to lands, territories and resources.”
Speaking at the press conference Sunday, MK Talab al-Sana (United Arab List-Ta’al ) was harsh in his criticism of the government.
“We are gathered together at a defining moment in the history of the Bedouin of the Negev and in the relationship between that population and the state,” Sana said. “For years the Bedouin citizens of the state have suffered from policies and discrimination and deprivation … We waited for a change in policy, when [retired Supreme Court Justice Eliezer] Goldberg was appointed [to head a committee tasked to find solutions for problems facing Negev Bedouin] we thought the state finally got smart, but we soon realized it was more of the same,” Sana said.

Posted by: annie | Sep 5 2011 12:32 utc | 12

More lunacy from the gloating occupiers of Palestine via Wikileaks:
IDF Plans Harsher Methods with (peaceful) W Bank demonstrators
http://wikileaks.lu/cable/2010/02/10TELAVIV344.html

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 5 2011 13:53 utc | 13

Israel approves plan to relocate 30,000 Bedouin from unrecognized villages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet on Sunday approved a plan to relocate tens of thousands of Bedouin from their unrecognized villages into settlements with official state status.
…
As part of the plan, some 20,000 to 30,000 Bedouon will be relocated to recognized settlements including Rahat, Khura and Ksayfe. The plan also includes financial compensation for those relocated, as well as alternate plots of land. The program is estimated to cost the state NIS 6.8 billion.
Opponents of the plan have accusing the government of evacuating people from their homes for no justified reason and against their will.
Bedouin representative called the decision “a declaration of war,” and some 150 members of the community gathered outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on Sunday to protest the decision.
“This stupid government will be responsible for a Bedouin Intifada in the Negev,” said Arab MK Taleb al-Sana, who took part in the protest.

Posted by: b | Sep 12 2011 17:16 utc | 14

If the Jews were less dishonest, they’d refer to their ongoing theft as the Pieces Process.
Then everyone would have a better understanding of what passes for Jewish humour.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 12 2011 23:56 utc | 15

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