The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday
condemning Israel's policy toward the Bedouin communities living in
unrecognized settlements in the Negev Desert. Human rights groups have
called the resolution, which passed 291 to 274 with 39 abstaining,
unprecedented.
The European Parliament called on Israel to withdraw its
government-approved Prawer plan to regulate the Bedouin communities in
the Negev. The resolution was brought to a vote by the Group of the
Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European
Parliament and was based on work done by the European Parliament's
Working Group on the Middle East, which held consultations with
representatives of human rights groups including Attorney Suhad Bishara
of Adalah - The Legal Center for the Arab Minority Rights in Israel, who
briefed working group on the legal ramifications of the plan, and its
relations to Israeli and international law.
The situation of the Bedouin citizens of Israel has never before been
addressed by the European Parliament. The Director of Adalah’s Negev
bureau, the geographer Dr. Thabet Abu Rass commented on the decision
saying that “achieving recognition by the European Parliament that the
Israeli government practices the same policies of displacement and
dispossession against Palestinian citizens of Israel as it does against
Palestinians living under occupation is a tremendous step forward.”
Last march, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Israel not to implement the Prawer program.
"Whereas Arab Bedouins are indigenous people leading a sedentary and
traditionally agricultural life on their ancestral lands and are seeking
formal and permanent recognition of their unique situation and status,"
The resolution stated. "whereas Arab Bedouin communities, threatened by
Israeli policies undermining their livelihoods and including forced
transfer, are a particularly vulnerable population both in the occupied
Palestinian Territory and in the Negev."
In another relevant clause the resolution said: "The European
Parliament Calls for the protection of the Bedouin communities of the
West Bank and in the Negev, and for their rights to be fully respected
by the Israeli authorities, and condemns any violations (e.g. house
demolitions, forced displacements, public service limitations); calls
also, in this context, for the withdrawal of the Prawer Plan by the
Israeli Government."
Read More - http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/european-parliament-condemns-israel-s-policy-toward-bedouin-population-1.449687
