Thursday, July 25, 2013
Israel Urged to Reconsider Proposed Legislation that Would Displace As Many as 40,000 Bedouins
The United Nations human
rights chief today urged Israel to reconsider a proposed law that would
result in the demolition of up to 35 Bedouin villages, displacing as
many as 40,000 members of these communities from their ancestral homes. “As citizens of Israel, the Arab Bedouins are entitled to the same
rights to property, housing and public services as any other group in
Israel,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. “The
Government must recognize and respect the specific rights of its Bedouin
communities, including recognition of Bedouin land ownership claims.”
The first reading of the proposed bill, known as the Prawer-Begin Bill,
passed by a narrow margin in the Knesset on 24 June, and is expected to
go through the second and third readings before the end of July,
according to a news release issued by the High Commissioner’s office
(OHCHR).
Ms. Pillay said she was “alarmed” that the bill seeks to legitimize the
forced displacement and dispossession of indigenous Bedouin communities
in the Negev desert in southern Israel, without recognizing that they
traditionally owned land titles in the region. Instead, the bill offers Bedouins limited compensation on the condition
that they move to one of the seven officially recognized urban Bedouin
townships the Government has created. “If this bill becomes law, it will accelerate the demolition of entire
Bedouin communities, forcing them to give up their homes, denying them
their rights to land ownership, and decimating their traditional
cultural and social life in the name of development,” Ms. Pillay said.
The High Commissioner also pointed out that the 2008 Goldberg Commission
set up by the Israeli Government recognized that the Negev Bedouins
must be viewed as equal citizens with historic ties to the land, and
that they were legitimate residents of the Negev. “Respect for the legitimate rights of minorities is a fundamental tenet
of democracy,” she said, adding that it was regrettable that the
Government continues to actively pursue a discriminatory policy against
its own Arab citizens.
Ms. Pillay added that a reconsideration of the bill must involve a
genuinely consultative and participatory process that involves all
representatives of Bedouin communities in the Negev.
(adapted from a UN press release)
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/international_law/2013/07/bedouin.html
