| Background material from | |
In October 2001, two houses were demolished in Qatamat village, on the claim that they were built within a firing-zone. The El-Gawweini family's houses have stood in this location for decades. After the houses were rebuilt, demolition orders were re-issued and one of the house owners was forced, under pressure of fines and criminal charges, to demolish his own newly built house.
In February 2002, six houses were demolished in Mazraa-Leshaba. Six shacks were rebuilt.
In February 2002, about 12,000 dunam of a wheat crop that had benefited from an exceptionally rainy winter were sprayed with herbicides from the air and the crop was destroyed.
In May 2002, on two separate occasions, Ministry of the Interior personnel and Green Patrolmen demolished the temporary houses of the Al Touri family who, after their fields had been sprayed, returned to live on their land in El Araqib, close to the town of Rahat. All their possessions inside the houses were confiscated.
In June 2002, Ministry of the Interior personnel demolished the houses of six families of El Rebidi family, who had built shacks near the town of Laqiya, not having obtained plots inside the town. The houses were demolished with all their possessions inside.
On June 27th, 2002, the Green Patrol demolished three houses: one next to Beer Sheva prison, belonging to the Abu Aiyade family, another at Bir Hadaj belonging to the Abu Lakima family, and a third in Bir Asluj, belonging to the Abu Issa family.
On July 3rd, 2002, four houses were demolished in Wadi El Na'am, belonging to the Zanun family.
On July 9th, 2002, Ministry of the Interior personnel demolished the two-story house of El Sayed Abd el Razek, backed up by large police and border guard forces while it was still under judiciary proceedings. The forces came to the spot at 4:30 a.m., ordered the family to leave without being able to take anything with them except the clothes they were wearing. There were 16 persons living in this house.
On December 29th, 2002, the Ministry of Interior personnel once more destroyed two houses that had been rebuilt after they were destroyed by the government in July, one belonging to the Zanon family in Wadi Naam, and the other to Abu-Ayada family. In addition a building used for the Al-Nabari family business by Hura was destroyed.
On February 5th, 2003, on the eve of the Moslem Holiday of the Sacrifice, a mosque was destroyed in Tel el-Malach. This mosque was built in October 2002 in order to serve residents of the area that live at a large distance from other mosques. This the first time that a mosque was destroyed in the Negev, and a status quo between the Bedouins and the government was destroyed.
On February 24th, 2003, a number of businesses on the Beer-Sheva - Dimona road were destroyed. These businesses supplied employment to scores of people who provide for hundreds of their family members, and are now without a source of income.
On March 4th 2003, hundreds of dunams of wheat crops were sprayed with herbicides from the air. The entire crop of the residents of three villages by Ovdat was destroyed. This wheat is used to make bread, the major food source of these subsistence farmers. Together with the crops, also a number of children that were playing in the fields were sprayed.
On April 2nd 2003, the Bureau for Land Management ordered another several hundreds of dunams of wheat fields to be sprayed, this time mostly belonging to the Al-Tori family (again). Again a few children and some livestock were in the fields, and were sprayed from the air together with the crops.
On April 13th 2003, the government destroyed a family's residence, and a business that was destroyed on February was re-destroyed, along with another business. All of these belong to the Al-Assam family, located between Beer-Sheva and Dimona.
This policy waves the whip of destruction and expulsion over the heads of 70,000 residents of the unrecognized villages - Israeli citizens - who cannot build their houses legally, lacking any government planning policy in their villages. House demolitions are a part of the government's attempt to forcibly "concentrate" all Bedouins of the Negev in poor, segregated townships, in order to vacate lands for Jewish settlement. This is a shamelessly racist policy that destroys the original fabric of life in the Negev.
To Mr. Avraham Poraz, Minister of the Interior, Jerusalem
Dear Sir,
Re: Demolition of houses and poisoning of fields of Bedouins who are citizens of Israel, residing in unrecognized villages
Since the founding of the State of Israel, Negev Bedouins have been victimized by a policy that is a breach of their most fundamental human rights. In the early 50's they were crowded into the Seyag zone (between Beer Sheva, Dimona, Arad and Beit Kama Junction), thus preventing many of them from living on their land and maintaining their traditional life-style.
Since the 60's they have been crowded into towns without proper infrastructure, removing them from the remaining land in their possession. This policy has denied them official recognition of their villages - in which they were forced to reside when pushed in to the Seyag zone. This means that most of their houses are now considered by the government to be illegally constructed. These villages are therefore denied any basic services such as running water, electricity, health clinics, schools, approach roads, sewage systems etc.
The policy of the Israeli government turns an entire population of people who build houses to shelter their families into "lawbreakers". Any Bedouin newborn becomes a lawbreaker the moment it enters its home. The Israeli government policy contradicts human rights conventions that Israel has signed. This is a policy that denies the Bedouins their right to maintain their traditional life-style, does not enable Bedouins in unrecognized villages to have proper housing, and denies them the most basic facilities.
The government is now poisoning the crops in the fields, in areas where holding of the land has not yet been settled in court. The Bedouins have been growing their crops on these lands for scores, and at times, hundreds of years. These crops are the basic staple food of these people, where most of them live under the poverty line.
When you issue an order to demolish Bedouin houses, you bring the world down on entire families. When you destroy their crops, you bring about hunger. Israel becomes a state that does not respect the basic right of its Bedouin citizens to live according to their tradition, and you turn Israel into an essentially racist state!
I appeal to your sense of honor to put a halt to the policy of house demolitions in the Bedouin sector, and begin to respect their basic human rights.