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| Israel-Palestine |
| Bedouins protest Israeli destruction of homes, crops |
| 2004-02-15 |
| Dozens of Bedouin residents of unrecognized villages in the Negev Desert demonstrated in Be’er Sheva on Sunday morning against the Interior Ministry’s and Israel Lands Administration’s policies of home demolitions and crop destruction in their villages. The protest was held opposite the Interior Ministry’s Be’er Sheva offices. Last week, the ILA’s crop-duster planes again sprayed wheat fields planted by the Bedouin citizens, killing the crops. Sheikh Sayikh Al-Turi, of the Al-Arakib village near Kibbutz Lahav, said this was the fifth time in five years that state authorities had sprayed his crops. "Two hundred people live off this land. We have no other choice than to plant again. I hope enough rain falls for the wheat to sprout," he said. The Bedouin were also protesting to harm to people, pasture lands and livestock caused by the spraying. "One of my family members passed out after breathing the spray that was used," Al-Turi said. The demonstrators carried signs reading "The destruction of croplands is terror" and "The state is using weapons of mass destruction against the Bedouins." Can anyone here in the know shed some light on the Bedouin situation and their role in Israeli society? Looking through the Rantburg search results, they appear to be occasionally on either side of a conflict but not an overly significant influence. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #4 I agree, Ed. I was surprised that a true Bedouin would stop long enough to build a house or plant a crop. Although Wright did mention a Bedouin working at the newspaper. I thought that was unusual also. Maybe times are changing. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-2-15 4:56:42 PM |
| #3 The trouble here, rkb, is that the Bedouin are a wandering nomadic sort of people. Like gypsies, they prefer to drift around the land, setting up temporary lodgings when/where ever they find good grazing, and moving on when the grazing is gone. And they DON'T like borders. To them, a fence is a silly idea that needs to be torn down as soon as possible. For that matter, many of them feel that if we silly house-bound people would just give up those damn roots and come wander with them, we'd be happier. (Or so _they_ feel..) Ed Becerra |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2004-2-15 4:32:37 PM |
| #2 Someone better versed than me in Arab society correct me but from my readings Bedouins are more or Arabs pariahs. They usualy aren't interested in Arab politics so it strikes me as very unusual they resort to this kind of slogans. Looks more like there is a Palestinian opertaing them on remote control. |
| Posted by: JFM 2004-2-15 4:31:12 PM |
| #1 When I did some business in Israel back in 87, there were Bedouin in and around the hills near Jerusalem. Very poor, living in informal groupings of shanties / small houses, herding goats and sheep (but sheep need better grazing) and with small vegetable plots watered by hand. The problem may be - and I don't have any current experience or info at all - that by tradition the Bedouin don't *own* land - they use it based on tribal traditions. This sounds like fairly brutal measures to take, unless they were trying to stake out de facto ownership rights or they were complicit with Palestinian terror. It's possible Israel is trying to force them out before closing the door. I think there are irrigated areas near Be'er Sheva under intensive cultivation but again I'm not sure of that. And I'm not sure where these people could go if they were forced out - they live a fairly marginal life or at least the ones I saw did 16 years ago ..... |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-2-15 2:17:41 PM |