The Bedouin problem and the only possible solution

[shira]

...However, the truth of the matter is that the problem is not only an issue of the land and the Bedouins’ illegal settlement on state lands, but is both wider and deeper. Wider – because there are still serious problems between the state and the Bedouins, and deeper – because all of these differences stem from the tremendous gaps between the Bedouin culture and a state culture.

...All of these matters – illegal building on state lands, polygamy, marriage among relatives, murder, blood feuds, protection and smuggling – which are connected to the Bedouin sector, prove that rather than being a case of a few isolated incidents, the problem is that the Bedouin culture sees the law of the state as law that is not part of the Bedouin culture. In this, the Bedouins in Israel are no different from the Bedouins throughout the Arab world, who live parallel and separate lives from the rest of the state, and within another legal system – “customs and tradition” – which is based on the sense of “we are here and the state is there”. The group gives them power, because the state – for reasons of convenience – does not deal with each separate Bedouin, but with a consolidated and violent tribe that would not hesitate to take to violence if it feels that its interests are endangered.

Tribal culture is the basis for all of the problems that are connected with the Bedouins, not only in Israel but in the entire Middle East: in Libya, in Iraq, in Yemen, in Syria, in Algeria, in Egypt (Sinai) and in many other places, tribes struggle with the state in order to maintain their culture, their laws, their customs and their traditions, that are usually contrary to the laws of the state and its regulations. The tribe has its own leadership and its own legal system and in many matters it conducts itself as an entity that is independent and separate from the state. Among the Bedouins, the state is considered a hostile entity since it aims to enforce its laws on the tribe.

The solution

The thread that ties together all of the problems related to Bedouins is the Bedouin culture, which is based on the tribe. Tribal culture is a high barrier that separates the Bedouin public from life in a modern state that conducts itself according to the law of equality for all of its citizens. If the state desires to bring the Bedouins to a situation where they are normative citizens, it must not only take them out of the desert, it must take the desert out of them. The solution to the Bedouin problem in the Negev must not be limited to dealing with the matter of housing, since the problem of housing is only a small part of the tribal culture. If the state desires to solve the problem at its root it must take care of problems that are a result of tribal culture.....The treatment of the Bedouins must involve a holistic, inclusive approach, and relate to all areas of life: housing, occupation, education and family relations. Moreover, the state must relate to the Bedouin lawbreaker as it does to any other lawbreaker, and if he breaks the law, the state must not treat him leniently just because he was born to a large and powerful Bedouin tribe that can exert pressure on the enforcement agencies.

MUST READ:

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/bedouin-problem-and-only-possible-solution

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. This blog post is a pure racist piece of Hasbara dung.

How many instances can anybody read where the Bedouin is vilified as an evil group?

Replace Bedouin with Jew and you can see how vile this post really is.

[shira]

2. What's racist about it? Are you denying there are WAY more problems for Bedouin....

....other than land issues? What would you propose Israel do (other than grant them more land) to help their situation?

This is where you get to demonstrate that human rights is a real concern for you...

[shaayecanaan]

3. "the Bedouin problem"

Sounds vaguely reminiscent of something.

[shira]

4. So what should be done? Nothing? n/t

[azurnoir]

7. perhaps hooking the Bedouin's current villages up to civil 'amenities' would be a start

amenities meaning hook ups to water, sewage, electricity ya know the stuff Israel has been denying the Negev Bedouin since forcing them to their current locations some 60 years ago-unless of course you will attempt to sell us that that the settlements planned by the JNF will not have those niceties either

[shira]

11. Prawer would have hooked up most Bedouin who needed it...

But onto Kedar's points, first....

What do you think Israel should do about Bedouin polygamy?

[azurnoir]

15. what was done about polygamy among Yemeni Jews?

you do know that Jews from Yemen practiced or practice polygamy?

[shira]

16. Should be banned in Israel altogether. In Yemen, if it's the law....

...that's another issue, although from a human rights perspective it should be outlawed there too.

What do you think?

[azurnoir]

17. Was it outlawed in Israel for Yemeni Jews?

and if it was why?

[shira]

18. No Rabbis will in Israel will sanction it....

Arusi noted as proof the fact that Yemenite Jews, who never accepted the ban, rarely took more than more wife, and even when they did it was only in extreme cases such as infertility.

But in modern Israel, a rabbinic court would not allow a Yemenite man to take another woman, even when his barren wife insisted that she wanted him to, he said.

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/New-Jewish-group-wants-to-restore-polygamy

[azurnoir]

20. no state Rabbi's can not sanction a polygamous marriage because they're state Rabbi's

from your link

“This is not about secular people who abide by the rules of the state, rather religious people. Whoever wants to take another wife – the Torah does not object to it,” Sopher told The Jerusalem Post. “We work according to the Shulhan Aruch, there are rules here.”

As for Rabbeinu Gershom’s excommunication ban, even for those who would as Ashkenazim have followed it – “that has been over for hundreds of years by now,” as its end date was the end of the fifth millennium according to the Jewish year count, i.e. some 700 years ago, he said.

As for the fact that the rabbinate is against bigamy and polygamy, Sopher, who identified himself as a resident of the Central region, explained that “the rabbis at the Chief Rabbinate receive their salaries from the state,” so publicly they have to object to polygamy. “But if you ask them behind closed doors, they will say it’s allowed.”

Sopher himself is married to only one woman, “but there is already consent to a second.”

Asked why they made this issue public now, and in a mainstream national-religious publication, he said that “we really wanted it to resonate.

however that the state does not allow for polygamous marriage does not mean it does not happen or that there are religious laws against it

ETA seeing as how Religious leaders are being paid by the state to oversee everyday domestic matters it sort blows a hole in Israel not being a theocracy on some level

[shira]

21. So what should Israel do about Bedouin polygamy? n/t

[shaayecanaan]

24. Nothing

If you mandate one woman for one man, then every man stands a good chance of getting a wife, no matter how much of a dropkick he is.

Introduce polygamy and suddenly the choices for women go up, they don't have to take that loser, they can instead opt to be the second wife of a better prospect. If polygamy disadvantages anyone, its younger, low-status males who end up without a partner.

Part of the reason polygamy is so sustainable is because it is a crude form of socialism. Wealthier Bedouin have more children, ergo their patrimony is divided up between between more people; therefore it prevents an over-concentration of wealth unlike our civilised capitalist society. Bedouin society will probably outlast ours.

[azurnoir]

25. what is interesting is apparently Israel allows polygamy for non-Jews but not for Jews who

also practiced polygamy the question is why is there a reason or are we seeing it here?

[Kurska]

28. Lots of frustrated low-status males without partners or ties, results generally in what?

Social harmony? That probably goes a long way towards explaining why so many societies with polygamy are so violent.

[azurnoir]

29. so by your 'standards' the US must be allowing polygamy-yes?

'cause otherwise your comment is without much merit IMO

[azurnoir]

5. Prawer Plan-still a go-no instructions issued to halt to those in charge

The Prawer Plan may not be shelved after all. Just four days after the co-author of the proposed law, Benny Begin, announced the halting of the bill that would see the internal displacement of some 40,000 Bedouin in the Negev, the former IDF general who heads the unit which is to implement the “relocation” told Haaretz Monday that he has not received any instructions to shelve the plan and is continuing efforts towards its implementation. Major General (res.) Doron Almog added that Begin can claim whatever he wants, but that bill is still in the legislative process.

Also, according to Israel Radio, Minister of Agriculture Yair Shamir (son of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir) and a member of right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party is taking over responsibility for overseeing the Prawer plan from Benny Begin.

http://972mag.com/prawer-plan-may-not-be-shelved-after-all/83792/

[Jefferson23]

6. The Bedouin's illegal settlement on state lands? Mordechai Kedar can go to hell.

According to Israel National News, Kedar said in June 2008 that "Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, period" and also said that Jerusalem wasn't mentioned in the Qur'an.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Kedar


Primary Zionist document reveals Bedouin ownership

24 November 2013
A Report from the Israel Land Development Company from 1920 proves that around 2.6 million dunams were documented as belonging to the Negev Bedouin
The results of the survey are clear – large tracts of the Negev are settled, cultivated, and under Bedouin ownership, even if they are not registered with the British Mandate or with the Ottoman regime before that. A close reading reveals that the report of the land survey does not “go easy” on the Bedouin, and often disputes their testimony. It is thus a meticulous report, independent in its sources and containing minimal estimations.

The report notes that in the areas surrounding Be’er Sheva there are around 2,660,000 dunams of land under Bedouin ownership, according to the traditional Bedouin land ownership system, and that some 35 percent of the land is cultivated (cultivation might confer private ownership even according to Ottoman law which is recognized by Israel, and not only according to the traditional Bedouin land ownership system which Israel does not recognize). That is:

In total, some 2.6 million dunams are under Bedouin ownership, of them 1.09 million dunams are also cultivated. Today, the Bedouin demand 650,000 dunams.

http://rhr.org.il/eng/2013/11/review-historical-document-shows-bedouin-ownership/



Three Myths about the Bedouin

21 July 2013
Demonstration against Prawer Plan

Many years ago, a Christian friend of mine accompanied me to a local production of “Fiddler on the Roof.” She burst into tears at the end, because of what “her people” had done to mine.


Now, I find it increasingly difficult to hold back the tears, as the Begin/Praver Bill moves through the Knesset legislative process. However, my faith in the basic goodness and decency of my people is justified by the mounting evidence that, when the disinformation is stripped away, the majority of Israelis oppose this plan. It is not in our nature to destroy tens of Negev Bedouin villages, transfer up to 40,000 Israeli citizens from their homes to poverty and unemployment wracked townships, or to dispossess them from most of their lands. Israelis have carried out similar acts, but without public knowledge or in the fog of war, and nothing of this magnitude in recent years.

Theodore Bikel, known for playing Tevye in “Fiddler” countless times, states “What hurts even more is the fact that the very people who are telling them (the Bedouin) to ‘Get out’ are the descendents of the people of Anatevka. My people.”

Watch: Theodore Bikel – It Hurts that the Descendents of Anatevka Expel Israeli Bedouin




(For the avoidance of misunderstandings, this video clip, does not, God forbid, intend to claim that the Bedouin suffer from pogroms or to compare Israel to Czarist Russia. The comparison is between two types of policy: expulsion of Jewish villages and towns from vast areas of Russia to an area known as the Pale of Settlement, compared to the planned expulsion of Bedouin villages to an area called the Siyag region. We find significant similarity between these two policies, and would be happy to find out and admit that we were wrong if we are shown meaningful differences in fact. Thus far, no visitor has successfully done so.)

Our Torah teaches, “And you shall not oppress the non-Jew who lives among you, for you know the soul of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 23 )

There are three wide spread myths about the Bedouin are. They are as follows:

1. The Bedouin are taking over the Negev.

“Panels Ltd.” recently conducted a poll for Rabbis For Human Rights. Initially, 87% of Jewish Israelis agreed that “The Bedouin are taking over the Negev,” on an average believing that the Bedouin claim 43.9% of the Negev. After learning that the Bedouin claim only 5.4% of the Negev, a majority indicated that this was fair (47 %, vs. 34.6%)

2. The Bedouin never owned the land.

Many Bedouin do not have “Western” proofs of ownership. However, their meticulous land ownership system was honored by the Ottomans and the British and recognized by the pre-State Zionist Movement. The British kept a written record of Bedouin land ownership that mysteriously disappeared in the State archives. Scholars have found part of these records. In 1920, the PLDC of the Zionist Federation recorded 2.6 million dunam of land in the Negev as owned by the Bedouin. Today, the Bedouin are claiming a mere 650,000 dunam. These documents are available for all to see. We cannot say that the Bedouin did not own their lands.

Many insisted that the Bedouin don’t really own land. We have been told, “Bedouin claims were disproved in court.” Some villages, such as El-Araqib, have Turkish, British and even Israeli documentation of ownership, based on “Western” bills of purchase, titles, etc. However, the government is currently asking the High Court to reconsider its ruling that El-Araqib residents must have their day in District Court. The High Court rejected the government’s claim that their proofs of ownership are moot because the land was expropriated in 1953. The Begin/Praver plan could “solve” the government’s problem. The bill contains a map of where Bedouin will be allowed to live, chillingly reminiscent of the map defining where Jews were allowed to live in late 19th century Russia. El-Araqib is outside the permitted zone.

3. This plan is for the Bedouin’s own good.

Many argue that Israel must concentrate the Bedouin to provide water, electricity, jobs and training. In the Negev there are smaller and more far flung Jewish communities receiving services – even single family farms. More communities are planned. We wouldn’t refuse water and electricity to Jewish communities. The State would not tell me, “We are going to move you for your own good.” Furthermore, government statistics show that poverty and unemployment are four times higher in the townships than in the recognized villages. Recognizing the 35 “Unrecognized” villages is simply better policy than transfer to the townships.

The question of where the Bedouin should live must be separated from the question of land ownership. Will the Bedouin be “better off” without their land? The best possible outcome for those who live within the Bedouin pale of settlement, and whom the committee the bill will create determines to be deserving, is that they will receive 50% of their land (or alternative land) and compensation. If neighbors don’t cooperate, that percentage goes down to 20%. If one doesn’t sign everything else away, one receives nothing.

MK Issawi Freij summed it up best, “We will give you water if you give us your lands.” Ya’akov once said to Esau, “I will give you food if you give me your birthright.” He thought he was being clever, but the price was anger, enmity, and twenty years of exile and estrangement from his brother.

There is another way. After Israeli media personality Avri Gilad made a second trip to the Negev, met with the Bedouin, saw aerial photographs of extensive pre-1948 Bedouin agriculture, and apologized for the hasty conclusions he had drawn after touring with the right wing “Regavim,” he wrote that there is plenty of good will among the Bedouin and that a solution could be reached if everybody was put in one room to talk to each other. Talking to the Bedouin as equal citizens is a radical idea, but I agree. This is in fact what the Bedouin are asking: “Yes, these issues must be resolved. Shelve Begin/Praver, and begin truly speaking with us.”

—

Rabbi Arik Ascherman served for 15 years as the Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, and now manages special projects and strategic thinking for the organization. This article was first published on The Times of Israel





Gov’t drops Prawer

On Thursday, December 12th, Israel announced that the current version of the Prawer Plan would be dropped. Extremely controversial, the Prawer Plan threatened expulsion and dispossession of lands to an estimated 40,000 Negev Bedouin. Below are responses from Atia Al Assam, Chairman of the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, and from Rabbis for Human Rights.
Atia Al Assam, Chairman of the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev:

We are satisfied with the decision to freeze the hearings on the Prawer Bill, and hopeful that the bill will be revoked entirely. We knew from the beginning that there was no plan here for a solution to the unrecognized village problem, but rather more problems to pile on to those we are already dealing with. We hope that the problem will be solved in a manner which will satisfy the residents and meet our demands and be consistent with our rights. We know that this step is also due to the just struggle of Bedouin citizens and all those who stood with them: the Arab sector, many Jews, the human rights organizations, and Benny Begin’s understanding that there is no plan.

http://rhr.org.il/eng/2013/12/govt-drops-prawer/

[Jefferson23]

8. Dr. Mordechai Kedar Gives Advice to Western Leaders: Don’t Come Visit the Middle East

He makes himself clear, Kerry is a dummy, Clinton's interference brought Israel, Hamas....lol.

snip*Visits from leaders are an important part of the political culture in the West, but are perceived in a totally different manner in the Middle East. Therefore it is important for world leaders to understand that their visits in this area are not effective and not positive and therefore cannot bring the desired results.

My words also relate to Israel, because this country is not located in Europe or in America, but must find its way within the Middle Eastern maze . The visits of European and American presidents and heads of state in Israel do not bring positive results, and it is enough to mention President Clinton, whose visit to Israel pushed its leaders to sign the Oslo Accords, which resulted in the rise of Hamas and this organization’s takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Obama’s imminent visit to Israel may – moreover- push Israel to agree to the establishment of an additional terror state, this time in Judea and Samaria, because no one in the world, including Obama, can assure that Hamas will not take over this area too in time.

Just as a doctor must study at least ten years before he can operate on his first patient, likewise, an engineer studies many years before he designs his first bridge. And a diplomat should study the Middle East well and in depth, its culture, its religions and its history before he comes for his first visit. It would be better if all Western leaders had an academic degree in the history of the Middle East and the cultural characteristics of this region, before he tries to engineer solutions for societies such as that in Afghanistan and Iraq, and before he comes for visits attempting to solve problems such as those between Israel and her neighbors.

The problems of the Middle East – and the bloodbath in Syria proves this in the most terrible way – stem from the attempt to impose the political culture of foreign societies upon the Middle East. The time has come for the world to stop this and begin to relate to the Middle East according to what it actually is, and not in the dreams of visitors who come for two days.

http://gerarddirect.com/2013/03/09/mordechai-kedar-gives-advice-to-western-leaders-dont-come-visit-the-middle-east/

*What Mr Kedar does not suggest is that Israel refuse US government money....interesting.

[shira]

9. How about Kedar's points? Start with polygamy. What should Israel do about that? n/t

[Jefferson23]

10. He doesn't have any point, period. n/t

[shira]

12. You don't think polygamy is happening or it's not important? n/t

[Jefferson23]

13. Spare me the nonsense, this man is a tool and you know it.

His beliefs are contemptible, at best.

Engage someone who you think believes this jerk has a point.

[shira]

14. So all the problems he wrote about are bogus? This is only a land issue, nothing else? n/t

[Jefferson23]

19. Yes. His objectives are very clear, he wants no interference from the West.

But you knew that already.

[shira]

22. Maybe I wasn't clear. I'm talking WRT Bedouin issues. For example, Bedouin polygamy....

....isn't really a problem in your view?

[Jefferson23]

23. You were clear, crystal clear..as clear as your bud who wrote the OP.

[azurnoir]

26. if it is indeed such a problem why would Israel outlaw polygamy only for Jews?

what percentage of the Bedouin actually practice polygamy, is it a majority? in order to be such a major problem as you claim here it must be a majority, right?

[Warpy]

27. Let's hope they come up with a better solution

than we had with our own tribal people who followed their herds. They didn't fit with European style nation-states, either.

So we killed off the herds and starved them into submission.

The human toll has been horrific.