Today, activists in Israel/Palestine, and around the world, will carry out a “day of rage” to protest the Prawer Plan, an Israeli government plan to destroy 35 Arab villages in the Negev desert that will lead to the forced displacement of up to 70,000 Bedouin citizens of the state of Israel in order to clear the land for Israeli Jews.
Here is the call to action for today’s protests:
On 24th of June, the Israeli Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin plan, which if implemented will result in the destruction of more than 35 unrecognized villages in Al-Naqab and the forced expulsion and confinement of more than 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins. The Prawer plan is the largest Israeli land-grab since 1948. It epitomizes the nature of Israel’s policy; Israeli-Jewish demographic expansion and Palestinian-Arab demographic containment.
The International community has repeatedly called on Israel to halt the implementation of the Prawer Plan due to its discriminatory nature and the severe infringement it causes on the rights of Palestinian Bedouins in Al-Naqab. The UN committee on the elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Israel to withdraw the proposed legislation of the Prawer Plan. Also, in 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Israel to stop the Prawer plan and its policies of forced displacement and dispossession.
Injustice, humiliation and forced displacement are a recurring theme in Palestine’s history. This is lesson that we as a group of youth take to the heart. We will oppose, resist and work against the continuous assault that our communities, across Palestine face. Therefore, we launched the “Prawer will not pass” campaign with an eye to preventing this plan to be yet another chapter in Palestine’s long and tragic history.
Opposing the Prawer Plan is to oppose ethnic cleansing, displacement and confinement in the 21st century.
Join us by organizing marches, protests, sending letters to those with positions of influence in your country or community, by doing whatever you can, in order to force Israel to stop the Prawer plan.
Join us on the 30th of Nov. in saying “Prawer shall not Pass”.
For more information, please contact us on:
The Israeli government is on notice. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Foreign Ministry is preparing for international condemnation in response to Prawer:
The Foreign Ministry was preparing to rebuff international condemnation of the government’s Beduin settlement plan, known as the Prawer Bill, amid a successful campaign led by human rights organizations and activists protesting the plan . . .
The Post learned that the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem is taking the international campaign against the Israeli government very seriously, in light of increasing interest in the issue from international organizations and world governments, particularly in the US and in the European Union, where objections and protests against the plan are garnering widespread publicity.
Protests have already begun in Israel/Palestine. Last weekend workers in the Negev held a general strike to protest Prawer, and the University of Haifa banned students from waving Palestinian flags during an anti-Prawer protest earlier this week.
We have been following the story over the last couple months. See Allison Deger’s in-depth report on one Bedouin village that is slated to be destroyed, Umm el-Hiran, and the rest of our Prawer Plan coverage. You can follow the latest news on the protests via the #StopPrawerPlan hashtag on Twitter.
Here is a video produced by the Haifa-based NGO Adalah on Umm el-Hiran called “Nomads Against their Will.” From the film’s YouTube page: “The film presents the viewer with two possible scenarios for the village’s future over the next ten years. The first scenario is based on plans for the village drafted by Arab town planners and architects, while the second scenario is based on the plans that the Israeli state has for Atir–Umm el-Hieran”:
No coverage at all in the Arab press. The last time the subject was discussed was in August when Palestinian demonstrators against the Prawer were met with Israeli riot police and smoke bombs.
I found only one article about tomorrow’s event, in Boston where a demonstration is being held by JVP Jews celebrating the last day of Sukot and the Day of Rage at the same time. Palestine solidarity groups are also having events in other cities in the US. But in Arab countries, nothing. I’d be grateful if someone could correct me.
http://jvp-boston.org/press-release-boston-jews-mark-holiday-protesting-prawer-plan-israels-expulsion-bedouin-people/
Adam.
I believe you’ve left out a fact or two.
National Council for Planning actually gave the residents of Umm Al-Hiran three options: 1) to move to nearby Horah, 2) to buy lots in the new Hiran (which may or may not be beyond their means),3) to wait for new zoning plans for them (which will not prevent the immediate destruction of their village).
Also, Adam. Isn’t it true that while nearly all residents of the unrecognized villages will be evicted, and possibly relocated to planned communities, some — mainly in the triangle between Ksseifa, Dimona and Beer Sheba — will be recognized by the state and services presumably normalized?
“the Foreign Ministry is preparing for international condemnation”
No doubt there will be the usual tedious and hollow cries about anti-semitism, the holocaust, etc., ad nauseam.
So when the Nazis expelled Jews from their homes that was not good. When Jews expel native populations of Palestine it is… good? How exactly is Israel’s antisemitism different from Nazi Germany’s fascism?
Israel’s zombie zios have just hammered another nail into its coffin aka “future”. Tick, tock.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-blood-libel-film/
Some perspective.
”
Let’s take, for example, the repetitive chorus of the past few weeks, which sounds like this: “The Bedouin community of Umm al-Hiran is slated to be turned into Hiran, a community for Jews only, via the disinheriting and transfer of the Bedouins, in accordance with the racist policy of the State of Israel.” This is also a summary of the claims in a series of articles in Haaretz.
After setting sail on the sea of lies, it’s worth returning to the solid ground of facts. First, the Bedouin members of the Al-Qian tribe, who are the focus of the current fuss, were transferred to the Yatir region of the Negev decades ago, of their own volition and at their request, due to a dispute with another tribe.
Second, when Hiran was being planned, a little over a decade ago, there were only a few Bedouins there, if any. The move to Umm al-Hiran occurred mainly in the wake of the plans for the new town. Aerial photographs prove this.
Third, only a small part of the master plan for Hiran is on the land occupied by the new squatters.
Fourth, adjacent to the Al-Qian compound, the state built Hura, a proper Bedouin village, with paved roads, electricity and water infrastructure and more.
Fifth, every family in the tribe is entitled to receive nearly a dunam of land. Even a bachelor over 24 is entitled to a plot of land, in preparation for future generations.
Sixth, in addition to the free land, with free infrastructure development, each family also receives monetary compensation for the previous, illegally built house where it lived.
Seventh, and here we’re in for a surprise, most of the tribe – 3,000 of the 4,000 members – actually felt this was a fair arrangement, and they indeed moved to Hura.
Eighth, Hiran is not designated only for religious Jews, and also not only for Jews. Any Bedouin who wishes to buy land there is invited to do so and is entitled to do so. Of course, that would cost money. In Meitar, for example, Bedouins from the surrounding area decided to buy plots of land. No one stopped them.”
OlegR: the current fuss
This racist spade is called deportation.