The government is ignoring Beduin claims to their land, and is moving forward
intransigently with a program of displacement and relocation, two human rights
organization charged in a letter sent to senior officials in
Jerusalem.
Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel wrote
the letter in protest to the Praver Plan, Knesset legislation addressing the
issue of Beduin settlement in the Negev and unrecognized villages.
The
organizations’ sharp criticism focuses on two central issues in the plan: “the
dismantling of the unrecognized villages and forced displacement and relocation
of tens of thousands of residents to recognized settlements, and the recognition
of Beduin ownership to lands.”
“The government is ignoring the facts and
reality on the ground,” the groups charged in the letter, which was sent to
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman,
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin,
who was tasked with the procedural implementation of the Praver Plan.
The
groups claim that the government has failed to consider alternatives to the
plan, which was prepared by a committee headed by the former deputy chairman of
the National Security Council, Ehud Praver, based on recommendations by the
Goldberg Committee in 2008.
The government’s refusal to accept Beduin
ties to and ownership of their land is illegal due to the right of residents to
appeal eviction, the groups maintain, and will result in the displacement of
tens of thousands of people from 36 unrecognized villages.