While the government seeks to advance legislation of a bill that would see tens of thousands of Bedouin resettled, British Jewish youth groups and Israeli rights organization say the law would unjustly displace thousands.
Edna Adato and Israel Hayom Staff
Bedouin holding signs to protest the government's plan during the negotiations over the status of their communities in the Negev, in 2011.
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Photo credit: Yoav Ari Dudkevitch |
The Ministerial Committee for legislation will review on Monday a bill aiming to regulate the settlement of Israel's Bedouin population. Four British Jewish youth groups wrote a letter protesting the proposed law, saying the bill did not represent Jewish values. In Israel, equality and justice organizations have asked the government to scrap the bill.
The government proposal would resettle some 30,000 Bedouin, and resolve some 12,000 land claims, according to an abstract of the bill obtained by Army Radio.
According to the summary of the bill, "The unprecedented arrangements that are being offered will grant land and funding, which are not recognized by law or in legal rulings, in response to land ownership claims. These arrangements will give Bedouin the tools to cope with future challenges."
The UJS (Union of Jewish Students) and ProZion, the UK Zionist movement for Progressive Judaism have written a joint letter asking the government to scrap the proposed legislation.
The UJS (Union of Jewish Students) and ProZion, the UK Zionist movement for Progressive Judaism have written a joint letter asking the government to scrap the proposed legislation.
"As Jewish representative organizations speaking on behalf of a large cross-section of Anglo-Jewry, committed to the State of Israel and our Jewish heritage, we believe advancing this bill in the Knesset defies the Jewish religious imperative to treat the minorities within our borders fairly and with justice," the groups wrote.
The groups were opposed to what they called the "expulsion of 40,000 Bedouin," and said they supported Bedouin rights to their "ancestral lands."
In addition, the groups demanded that the government work closely with the Bedouin community to devise a plan to regulate settlement, and called for the recognition of "all existing villages." They also called on the government to accept all ownership claims made in the 1970s.
In addition, the groups demanded that the government work closely with the Bedouin community to devise a plan to regulate settlement, and called for the recognition of "all existing villages." They also called on the government to accept all ownership claims made in the 1970s.
Israeli rights groups voiced vehement opposition to the bill, saying the law would lead to rampant poverty among Bedouin communities living in unrecognized villages.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and members of the legislation committee and rights organizations said that the program promoted by the bill would displace thousands of Bedouin and forcibly evict thousands more, dispossessing families of their lands and sealing many people's impoverishment while undermining the state's social fabric.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and members of the legislation committee and rights organizations said that the program promoted by the bill would displace thousands of Bedouin and forcibly evict thousands more, dispossessing families of their lands and sealing many people's impoverishment while undermining the state's social fabric.
"The law and its policies are based on false premises, which imagine the Bedouin as 'squatters' while ignoring that most of the villages in question were founded before the establishment of the state," the organizations claimed.
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