ILA destroys Bedouin homes to make way for Jewish town

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The Israel Land Administration (ILA), with the assistance of a large police force and IDF soldiers, demolished dozens of tin shack homes Monday in the unrecognized Bedouin villages Um Al-Hiran and A-Tir in the northern Negev.

The ILA is destroying the village built on government-owned land and evacuating its inhabitants so that a Jewish Community named "Hiran" can be established in the area. Fourteen shacks, which housed some 100 people, have been destroyed by bulldozers so far.

Bedouin women attempted to get their children out of the house but police wanted to speed up the process so they grabbed the play pens with the children inside and did not let the mothers come near.

"Tonight we will sleep on the ground", Fajua Ab Abu Al-Cian said."

<snip>

"According to Adallah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the residents of the village have been living there for 51 years. They were transferred to the site in 1956 while under martial law. The land they originally owned was transferred to Kibbutz Shoval, while the Bedouin were leased 3000 dunam of land for agriculture and grazing."

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/874814.html


Bitter Wine for Israel's Bedouins (May 23, 2006)

<snip>

"The crowded room felt like a sauna, a natural effect of the scorching sun hitting the tin roof and the lack of a fan or air conditioner to ease the desert heat. Everyone was talking about the "Wine Route," the Israeli government's plan for a series of farms and wineries designed to draw tourists to the Negev, and the latest insult to its marginalized Bedouin population.

"It is high time to strategize," one person said. "There is no way to oppose it," another responded. This heated discussion went on for several minutes until people began settling down on the mats and pillows adorning the concrete floor.

The meeting's organizer, a coordinator from the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, asked our hosts to speak. One after another, the Bedouin men stood up to relate their personal stories. They all told of the state-sanctioned abuse carried out against their community. Injustice followed injustice to produce a merciless tale of expulsion, violence, repression and deception.

Ali Abu Sheita recounted how his parents had been torn from their tribal land and transferred to a barren region where for years they had had to walk fifteen kilometers with their camels and donkeys just to bring water to the village. Yet in the Jewish village nearby, Abu Sheita continued, pipes delivered water directly to every sink. Halil al-Aseiby pointed to the high-voltage electric poles just outside the shack, emphasizing the regulation that forbids "unrecognized Bedouins" from connecting their homes to the power grid. "Even people who need to keep life-saving medicine refrigerated do not receive an exception," he said. Another man suddenly waved a demolition order that was pasted on his "illegal" shack on April 25. "Any day now," he said, "the bulldozers might arrive."

These Bedouins are Israeli citizens just as I am; their only crime is that they are not Jewish."

more

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tom Joad]

2. Your comment seems rather insensitive.

Even birds have homes. Here in the united states enviros would rightfully get very upset if the habitat of some birds was disturbed.

but post something about Palestinian people, and we have responses like this.

[Tom Joad]

3. This is the response when children are thrown out of their homes?

That's despicable.

[breakaleg]

4. This part says it all...

"According to Adallah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the residents of the village have been living there for 51 years. They were transferred to the site in 1956 while under martial law. The land they originally owned was transferred to Kibbutz Shoval, while the Bedouin were leased 3000 dunam of land for agriculture and grazing."

[number6]

5. more Injustice

:(

[Tom Joad]

6. Time for a reminder of how Israel is a democracy, and values all its citizens

equally. (although, it seems, some more equally than others)

[LeftishBrit]

8. Yes, just like Britain values its Traveller communities, and its asylum seekers

Or America its Native Americans, or Australia its Aboriginal communities.

It's wrong, wherever it happens.

[LeftishBrit]

9. self-deleted; posted in wrong place

[Tom Joad]

11. If the US were doing now to its native citizens what it did 150 years ago...

If we could imagine the colonization of the West were taking place now, instead of in the past, with the same savagery... the how would the world respond?

How would we want the world to respond?

[LeftishBrit]

13. Too late to answer that one; but what do you think should be done now?

http://www.civilrights.org/research_center/civilrights101/native.html

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=721

(found the second link in the DU Native American forum).

Things still don't seem that wonderful for many Native Americans.

[Lee_n_Tenn]

7. Would this qualify as anti-palistinism? n/t

[LeftishBrit]

10. That sounds just wrong

Even if they were technically squatting illegally, they'd been there 51 years - that should give them the right to some consideration.

I hope someone takes up their case. Glad Ha'aretz spoke out.

[Tom Joad]

12. Glad people are finally responding to the apartheid policies with a

principled response of boycotts and divestment.

[LeftishBrit]

14. Should all countries that practice some 'apartheid' policies against minorities be boycotted?

That would sadly mean an awful lot of boycotts.

[Tom Joad]

15. How do you think the world should respond to the Israeli policy of

destroying indigenous peoples villages?

[LeftishBrit]

16. The same way it should respond to the worldwide oppression of indigenous peoples

With protests, petitions, publicity, and an acknowledgement that it *is* a worldwide problem. And most of all, by trying to do what they can to get rid of such oppression in their own countries, if it is being practiced - and, more often than not, it is.

Here is a useful website for those interested in the problems:

http://www.galdu.org/web/

[barb162]

19. That appears to be a good site; it shows the worldwide nature

of the problem.

[Tom Joad]

17. Meanwhile, Back in the Big Easy.... New Orleans seeks foreign aid...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/15/katrina/main2933675.shtml

(AP) The cash-strapped city of New Orleans is turning to the rest of the world for help to rebuild as federal hurricane recovery dollars remain slow to flow.

Kenya Smith, director of intergovernmental relations for Mayor Ray Nagin, said city leaders are talking with more than five countries. He would not identify the countries, saying discussions were in the early stages. But he said the city is "very serious" about pursuing foreign help.

"Of course, we would love to have all the resources we need from federal and state partners but we're comfortable now in having to be creative," Smith said. He did not know what obstacles the city would have to overcome if it got firm pledges for aid, but "we want to make sure we're leaving no options unexplored."
______________________________

Don't it strike anyone else as powerfully peculiar that this US city seeks funds to rebuild... even as Israel seeks US funds to destroy a village?
_____________________________

Washington to increase military aid to Israel
By Aluf Benn and Shmuel Rosner

WASHINGTON - The United States will increase its military assistance to Israel and sign a new agreement securing American aid to the country for the next decade, President George W. Bush announced Tuesday following his meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Olmert had persuaded Bush to announce the aid increase, senior political sources said yesterday.

[barb162]

18. Talkback ten has some interesting points on alternate housing offered.

Talkback 10:"Haaretz doesn`t mention, that this village was illegal in the first place, and also, that each family was offered compensation of 100 000 NIS for each tin shack, as well as alternative and recognized housing in another place. This is what was reported on Galei-Tzahal.The tribe refused the offer. I believe, that Bedouine illegal construction, just as Jewish illegal construction, should be treated in a severe way. There`s no place for unrecognized villages or for unauthorized outposts in a country with the rule of law, specially, in a so small country with so tiny resources, as our country."
end of talkback

If the government put this group in this spot in the first place, which seems to be the case ("They were transferred to the site in 1956 while under martial law"), I think they shouldn't have been moved unless they were offered a better place (water access, convenience, better living standard, etc) and perhaps not even then.