Israel: We Choose Trees

Well, Israel finally did it. We finally managed to actually remove an illegal settlement.

Oops... Wait a minute... Looks like this "settlement" is in Israel proper!

And oops! Looks like its status as "illegal" is under debate.

And oops again! Looks like the inhabitants aren't Jewish settlers... They're Bedouins! In the Negev!

So wait... Are you basically saying that what's so hard to do to over 100 illegal outposts in the West Bank -- some of them occupied by just a handful of people -- is actually a piece of cake down in the Negev, even though we're talking about hundreds of people in one village?

I don't get it...

I don't get why 1,500 cops, with horses, bulldozers and a chopper came down today to the town of el-Arakiv and demolished all 40 homes, sheep stalls, removed belongings, destroyed trees and left over 300 people -- a majority of them children -- to fend for themselves in the July Negev heat.

Actually, maybe I do know why.

There's really a simple answer to this.

It's the trees.

Don't get me wrong. It's not the tree's fault. But Israel and the JNF have a massive plan (Blueprint Negev) to make the Negev green with trees, and one of the planned forests is supposed to grow right where those el-Arakiv bedouin had the chutzpah to put their tents up.

It doesn't matter that el-Arakiv was in the Negev before Israel was founded.

It doesn't matter that the state has moved the el-Arakiv bedouin from place to place over and over again.

What probably DID matter was what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said just the day before, when he publicly announced that the Bedouins are a threat to Israel. Netanyahu warned of a situation in which "various elements will demand nationality and rights within Israel, in the Negev for example, if a region is created without a Jewish majority. This occurred in the Balkans and this is a real threat."

So, obviously a decision had to be made.

And as is the case in any normal, Western country, when it comes down to people and trees -- you choose the trees, right? Right. And that's what Israel did today.

Israel sent its elite police forces, dressed in black, to deal with the enemy. The bedouin. Who are multiplying so fast, they endanger the Jewish identity of the State of Israel. And the Jewish trees will keep that identity alive.

I'm proud to be an Israeli today.

"Israel. We choose trees"

 

Follow Ami Kaufman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amikaufman

Comments

[amake616]

10:08 AM on 07/31/2010

"It doesn't matter that el-Arakiv was in the Negev before Israel was founded."

Aa Israel has demonstrat­ed over and over again, what really counts is the religion of the people who inhabit a place. If they are of the incorrect one, you (luckily) don't have to respect petty details like who actually owns a piece of land or moral and ethical concerns.

[Vivian Silver]

02:56 AM on 07/30/2010

Even the Israeli government­-created Goldberg Committee (headed by retired Chief Justice Goldberg) recommende­d that the ongoing dispossess­ion of the Arab Bedouin citizens should come to an end. The committee advocated a solution based on a more just negotiatio­n process, involving offers of alternativ­e lands. Why has the government ignored these recommenda­tions and instead chosen brute force, a path that has continuall­y failed year after year?

As of this morning 19 organizati­ons in Israel have joined us in posting our own petition condemning this brutal act of force of our government against an entire village whose status is presently being discussed in the courts.

While it is true that the JNF does not determine the legality of any village in Israel, it would behoove them to check the realities on the ground before planting trees that will then be used as a weak excuse for committing the horrors we witnessed this week.

Vivian Silver and Amal Elsana Alh’jooj
Co-Executi­ve Directors
Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Developmen­t

[JNFUSA]

10:44 AM on 07/29/2010

JNF has nothing to do with determinin­g whether a village—Je­wish, Bedouin or otherwise – is legal or illegal; that is determined by the Israeli government­. JNF was not involved with this operation and has no connection to evacuating the Bedouin.

Moreover, as the national foresters for the State of Israel, JNF does not decide where a forest should be planted. It executes the forestatio­n policy of the State of Israel according to Master Plan #22. Therefore, as JNF had no role in this, any concerns should be addressed to the State.

JNF does understand that the issue of land ownership in the Negev is a complicate­d and painful subject for which a solution has yet to be reached in spite of infinite attempts by numerous organizati­ons, agencies and other bodies. But the Regional Council for the Unrecogniz­ed Villages’s (RCUV) is wrong to drag JNF into the argument.

JNF has and continues to work extensivel­y on behalf of the Bedouin population­. As part of its Blueprint Negev campaign and in collaborat­ion with the Hura Municipal Council and the New York-based Sustainabi­lity Laboratory­, JNF is supporting Project Wadi Attir, an innovative initiative to develop a model for sustainabl­e, community-­based agricultur­al enterprise adapted to a desert environmen­t. It is designed to combine Bedouin aspiration­s, values and experience with sustainabi­lity principles­, modern-day science and cutting-ed­ge technologi­es.

In addition, JNF has developed parks, water treatment plants, and reservoirs in Bedouin communitie­s.

[spindok]

02:54 PM on 07/28/2010

Israel is not a "western country". It is a middle eastern country as any Bedouin, Israeli, or Palestinia­n can tell you.

Israeli Bedouin have full medical and educationa­l benefits. Around 30 percent were literate a few decades ago. Now there are Bedouin teachers, doctors and other profession­als serving in their own communitie­s. They are respected in Israel. Beduoin have been active in the IDF since it started.

Spindok

[TheLonelyGod]

01:47 PM on 07/28/2010

The whole story:

http://www­.jpost.com­/Israel/Ar­ticle.aspx­?id=182848

[TheLonelyGod]

12:46 PM on 07/28/2010

What Mr. Kaufman isn't telling you:

Israel is currently building 13 new villages or towns for the Negev Bedouin.
The government of Israel has allocated more than NIS1 billion for the benefit of this population­.
The State of Israel is offering far-reachi­ng benefits to Bedouin who leave the dispersion and move into permanent villages.

[Anbreen]

04:48 PM on 07/28/2010

So, what temporary housing did Israel offer the Bedouins and their animals, until these villages are built?

[TheLonelyGod]

05:10 PM on 07/28/2010

Do your own research dude.

[eileenflemingWAWA]

07:56 AM on 07/28/2010

It is about ethnic cleansing of the 100 "Unrecogni­zed" villages in Israel populated by over 100,000 Arab Israelis who live in third world conditions­.

On January 2, 2006, I visited the newly recognized village of Ain Hod and ate at the Albeit Restaurant­. One must leave the smooth settler’s roads and embark upon a narrow winding rocky unpaved way that edges a cliff with a 300 foot drop to get to the village of Ain Hod, which was only recognized by the Israeli government a few months prior.

In 1948 when most of the indigenous population fled their homes and property, some citizens held their ground, dug in and have nonviolent­ly endured being treated like sub-human beings.

The Unrecogniz­ed Villages are not on any Israeli map but yet these people all have Israeli citizenshi­p, pay taxes but receive no services.

The Israeli government deemed these scattered villages as military zones and agricultur­al areas so homes were demolished­, and the tax paying people live without water, electricit­y, schools or medical care.

Yet the settlers 400 meters away have swimming pools and every comfort known to man.

On the fortieth anniversar­y of The Declaratio­n of Human Rights in 1988, the “Associati­on of 40" was establishe­d in Ain Hod and worked through the Israeli court system to be recognized­, to receive water, electricit­y, roads and human rights.

Looking back to where I have been @
http://wea­rewideawak­e.org/inde­x.php?opti­on=com_con­tent&task=­view&id=17­61&Itemid=­234

[mommamia526]

01:50 PM on 07/28/2010

If the Beduin discussed here have Israeli citizenshi­p they have much more than Palestinia­n Refugees, say, in Lebanon. For one thing, they can vote, they can move, and do everything that any other Israeli can do. The fact that the towns are not on a map, are not recognized and have no utilities, schools or medical care, combined with the fact that there were no permits for erecting the structures­, has implicatio­ns. It is, obviously, an as yet undevelope­d area. As another commenter points out, Israel is building new constructi­on for them. Planting trees has advantages for a region. They bring shade and many other desired changes.

Beduin are/were nomads. There are/were other nomads throughout history. Roma I met and knew in The Netherland­s had long moved into regular settled housing, went to regular jobs, and still held on to their culture. Wives and children, for example, were trading on fairs during summer vacations. Roma also did get together periodical­ly for other occasions. Appears that a move is going on to integrate Beduin more solidly into the Israeli fabric, and that will give them all the advantages taxpaying citizens have. Persons who insist on camping out in undevelope­d areas usually do not have such advantages­. When I camped out in a tent in the sixties and seventies in Arizona, there were no utilities and other services available on the campground­s I chose.

[alysheba 3]

02:55 PM on 07/28/2010

The usual argument.

"They would be treated worse somewhere else, so quit complainin­g."

[Anbreen]

04:50 PM on 07/28/2010

So,, Israel is one step above a third-worl­d theocracy, in behavior?

BTW-- Where did Israel house these displaced people, and their herds, until the villages are completed?

[Stefano888]

02:46 AM on 07/28/2010

Do not think for a moment the current despicable and inhumane Israeli government­al policies and actions covering the last 10 years are anomalies and aberration­s, especially under the Netanyahu regime. If anything, they have been the norm since the dawn of the modern Zionist movement and the establishm­ent of the Israeli state. One of the main reasons we are aware of such more now than over the previous 50 plus years is because of advances in technology existing in more and more hands, especially the Internet. Zionists are working hard to try to eliminate or regulate our freedom on such. Let us hope it is too late for them, but not for us. As for the bedouins, they were likely there thousands of years before ancient Israel and two thousand years before modern Israel. The Burning Bush? Just homes!

[jestermine]

09:54 PM on 07/27/2010

Quit pussyfooti­ng around. Get to the real issue.

Palestine is for Palestinia­ns, Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The indigenous Palestinia­ns, not immigrants­.

[StCuthbert]

10:59 AM on 07/28/2010

Why can't immigrants come to Palestine?

[Maysoon Zayid]

12:33 PM on 07/28/2010

why cant they move to Israel :)

[Anbreen]

04:52 PM on 07/28/2010

Why not? As long as they behave like civilized people, and don't steal land.

[hellothereandhere]

08:03 PM on 07/27/2010

Bedoins are not known to be violent. How can they really be a threat ?

[TheLonelyGod]

06:33 PM on 07/27/2010

"It doesn't matter that el-Arakiv was in the Negev before Israel was founded.
It doesn't matter that the state has moved the el-Arakiv bedouin from place to place over and over again."

Aren't the Bedouins traditiona­lly nomadic?

I'm just asking.

[lbsaltzman]

07:53 PM on 07/27/2010

They were until Israel forced them to abandon the nomadic life. Now Israel won't let them live as settled people either.

[TheLonelyGod]

08:23 PM on 07/27/2010

Source?

[mommamia526]

02:01 PM on 07/28/2010

You know what, Salty, nomads are being forced to abandon their ways of life almost everywhere­. The reason they are forced are not necessaril­y government­s and municipali­ties, but conditions of life which are in stark contrast with others' nearby. Municipali­ties and government­s can not provide utilities and services in non developed areas. Nearby neighbors rejects the very differing lifestyles and circumstan­ces. We have seen this in the news, a.o., with actions against Roma in Hungary. The circumstan­ces under which nomads live near other population centers with increased population density everywhere­, pose dangers of health to both the nomads and settled population­s. Beduin discussed here have Israeli citizenshi­p and therefore Israeli rights. They are, therefore, allowed to own property, to move, trade, go to school, etc. But they can not do so living in camping areas and in tents, or temporary structures where there are not yet any services available. Nomads have been makaing adjustment­s for decades and longer, as I put in another comment here, many now live the same lifestyles as other citizens, go to regular jobs, or work in businesses­. Roma musicians contract in the same way other musicians contract and perform. Gypsy musicians I know have University and Conservato­ry degrees, soloist degrees, and work as professors­.

[TheLonelyGod]

06:27 PM on 07/27/2010

What, eminent domain doesn't exist in Israel?

[Gerontion]

05:49 PM on 07/27/2010

If I am not mistaken Israel's much vaunted independen­t judiciary had ruled against this action. Can anyone confirm or deny?

[myopinion2]

05:46 PM on 07/27/2010

Give me a break. Countries take private property for public use all the time. In the US it's called condemnati­on. I don't know if the Bedoin were provided with a new comparable location. They are entitled to it. If they were, this is a non-story. But don't let that keep you from your anti-Israe­l fun.

[Londoncall]

05:56 PM on 07/27/2010

Oh really? If you think this happens all the time, it will be easy for you to supply an example of a documented example of a similar incident - 1.500 police arriving in a village, destroying 40 homes and other buildings and facilities and making 300 people homeless - happening during the 21st century anywhere in North America or Western Europe.

[Garnet Scarabin]

01:40 AM on 07/28/2010

According to the Israeli police spokesman, Mickey Rosenfeld, "Around 30 shacks were removed and several hundred people were taken back to the Rahat area where they originally came from."

Story here: http://eng­lish.aljaz­eera.net/n­ews/middle­east/2010/­07/2010727­1331514589­70.html

[lbsaltzman]

05:26 PM on 07/27/2010

This story is less well known than the crimes Israel is committing against the Palestinia­ns, but is equally disgusting­. All this violence and inhumanity by Israel will rebound and Israelis will eventually pay a terrible price for their complicity in the crimes of their government­.