How has Israeli law been used to unfairly expropriate homes and land from Palestinians in East Jerusalem?

Tell JNF CEO Russell Robinson: End JNF’s role in expulsions or demolitions of Palestinian and Bedouin homes, whether in the Negev or East Jerusalem.

Twenty years ago, an ultra-nationalist Israeli government bent on expanding Jewish control in East Jerusalem took legal possession of the Sumarin home under what is known as the Absentee Property Law. The owner of the house, Musa Sumarin, passed away in 1983. At the time of his death, all three of his sons, declared by the government to be his heirs to the property, were out of the country. Even though other members of the Sumarin family continued to live there, the State declared that the home should be considered Absentee Property, and turned it over to the Custodian for Absentee Properties.

The government then transferred the Sumarin home to JNF subsidiary Himnuta, along with seven other properties in Silwan, in exchange for other lands located in Wadi Ara. Himnuta, in turn, transferred many of the other properties to ELAD, which has been criticized as an extremist settler organization because of its aggressive role in expropriating Palestinian homes and land in Silwan and transferring them to the control of Jewish settlers. Himnuta then entered into a legal struggle to force the Sumarin family from their home in Silwan.

The Absentee Property Law had not been applied to houses that were inhabited by Palestinians in East Jerusalem until the 1980s, when settler groups, in cooperation with Israel’s Housing Ministry, then under Ariel Sharon, started to use the law to take control of Palestinian homes and lands in Silwan.

An investigative committee convened by the government of Yitzhak Rabin in 1992 (the Klugman Committee) found that the takeover of Arab property in East Jerusalem was conducted through the use of false affidavits, misapplication of the Absentee Property Law, and the transfer of public property and millions of shekels in public funds to private settler organizations.

In 2005, Himnuta filed suit to evict the Sumarin family. The court ordered the family to evacuate their home and to pay Himnuta damages of NIS 2 million. About two months ago Himnuta obtained an eviction order for November 28, 2011.

Attorney and expert on Jerusalem Danny Seidemann has written us privately as follows:

“Virtually all of the JNF/Himnuta lands in the Wadi Hilweh section of Silwan – almost 1/3 of the total area - have been handed over covertly to the settler organization ELAD. On May 5, 1998, senior JNF/Himnuta official Avraham Halleli testified before the Jerusalem District Court:

'To the best of my knowledge, all of the JNF areas [in Silwan] were leased by the ILA to the ELAD Association…it is the lands policy of JNF… that [its lands] be leased to Jews for the purposes of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.'”

What is Himnuta?

JNF established Himnuta in the 1930s, mainly to circumvent legal restrictions on its own land dealings. Under Israeli law, Israel’s Development Authority and the Israel Land Administration are required to administer their assets without discrimination based on nationality. Himnuta was registered under Jordanian law in Ramallah in 1971 so that it could lawfully operate and buy land in the occupied territories, which JNF says it does not do.

“JNF and Himnuta operate according to a JNF memo that provides that its assets be leased or transferred to the possession of Jews only.” (Hagit Ofran, “The Eviction of One Palestinian Family Might Cause the Next Political Crisis Over East Jerusalem,” HuffPost World, Nov. 17, 2011.) “In order to bypass the requirement of equality, the authorities in the early 1990’s used the JNF and Himnuta to transfer property in Silwan [in East Jerusalem] to Jewish settlers.

Himnuta’s offices are located in the JNF’s Jerusalem headquarters. JNF owns 100% of Himnuta’s 30,000,000 company shares. The head of Himnuta, David Lazarus, also serves as KKL-JNF’s CFO.

What is the Absentee Property Law?

The Absentee Property Law is used by Israel to take over land belonging to Israeli Arabs or Palestinians. If an owner is not physically present, the land can be given to the Custodian. The Custodian almost always either transfers the property to Jewish ownership or allows the State to use it for Jewish needs. In violation of the Jewish principle prohibiting acting "eifah v'eifah (acting according to double standards), this law is not used to take over Jewish owned property, and the Custodian would never allow the land to be used by non-Jews.

The use of the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem, while technically within the government’s “legal” purview, is highly controversial. Following Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, according to Ir Amim, “then-Attorney General Meir Shamgar issued an opinion that there was no justification to apply the Absentee Property Law to East Jerusalem.”

Go here to see how the Israeli government has used the law to confiscate land from Bedouin in the Negev and Palestinians in the West Bank.

Erasing Links to the land in the Negev, by Noga Malkin, Foreign Policy/Middle East Channel

Hiding in the cemetery where her parents are buried, Hakma al-Turi, an Israeli citizen, has watched bulldozers demolish her village -- al-Araqib -- more than 20 times. The Israel Land Administration first demolished the 45 structures on this patch of land in the Negev desert eight months ago. When the 300 Israeli Bedouin who lived here defiantly rebuilt tarp-covered shacks, the Israel Land Administration demolished them again and again, the last time on March 7.

But the Land Administration inspectors and the police officers escorting them have so far been reluctant to enter the cemetery adjacent to the village, where the extended al-Turi family has been burying family members since 1907. So Hakma, a mother of nine, devised a plan to protect her most fragile possessions: she put her family photographs, children's medicines, and a small refrigerator full of milk in an improvised wheeled cart. When the bulldozers came, her husband would tie it to their car and drag it from their house and into the cemetery.

But on January 17, as the tenth demolition took place, Hakma's family was too slow. Police officers caught them on the way to the cemetery, commandeered their car, forced in five other "illegal" residents, and drove it at what Hakma thinks was a deliberately reckless speed over unpaved roads to the police station. "They broke the cart and most of what was in it flew out; they confiscated the rest," Hakma told me.

The extended al-Turi family lived in al-Araqib from Ottoman times until 1952, when the Israeli army commander told them to leave for six months for military training, according to a government report citing village elders' testimony. Israeli authorities never allowed them to return, refuse to recognize Bedouin ownership claims, and consider the village illegal.

Al-Araqib is, or was, one of 36 "unrecognized" Bedouin villages -- home to at least 50,000 people -- that, as Human Rights Watch documented in a 2008 report, Israel refuses to connect to basic services or infrastructure such as water, electricity, sewage treatment, and garbage disposal. Israeli officials encouraged the Bedouin to relocate to the seven state-built new towns -- among the poorest communities in Israel. Many al-Araqib residents own homes in one such nearby town, Rahat.

"Those of us who could afford it bought homes in Rahat, because we wanted water and electricity," said Dr. Awad Abu Freih, chairman of the biotechnology department at a nearby college and al-Araqib's unofficial spokesman. "Does that justify evicting me and destroying the village where I was born?"

Hakma's family also settled in Rahat, but moved back to al-Araqib 12 years ago after hearing that the Israel Land Administration intended to plant a forest there, which would be a de facto revocation of their claims to the land. Indeed, according to the plans the Jewish National Fund is carrying out on behalf of the Land Administration, the village is a "recreational area" designated for "forestation."

But the government's professed plans seem to be more about politics than forestation. In March 2010, Israel's then-agriculture minister told the parliament that the Jewish National Fund was planting forests around al-Araqib "in order to safeguard national lands." In January 2011, the Israel Land Administration's development director said to Israeli news media that the agency "has begun preparing the ground for planting to guard the land." When it first demolished al-Araqib in July 2010, the Israeli government uprooted 850 of the villagers' olive trees, an administration spokeswoman told Human Rights Watch. All the while, Israel could easily plant forests in vast areas of the Negev where Bedouins have no land claims without erasing Bedouin links to their land.

Indeed, the day before the government first demolished al-Araqib, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at the real motive, warning in a government meeting that "if we allow for a region without a Jewish majority" in the Negev, that would pose "a palpable threat" to Israel.

As Netanyahu's comment suggests, Israel's attitude to Negev land rights is different when it comes to Jewish citizens. Bedouin constitute 25 percent of the population of the northern Negev, but occupy less than two percent of its land. Over the past decade, Israeli authorities have allocated public funds and large tracts of the Negev to create 59 private ranches and farms, of which only one is Bedouin-owned. These farms stretch over 20,000 acres of land, greater than the total land area of the seven Bedouin towns built to house 85,000 people. Israeli authorities have never produced a justification for this difference in treatment.

The government's discriminatory practices in the Negev sometimes resemble its settlement policies in the West Bank, where Israel limits Palestinians' ability to build while encouraging Jewish settlement expansion, as Human Rights Watch documented in a recent report. In a nighttime operation in January 2004, the then-housing minister had ten mobile homes constructed on land adjacent to al-Araqib for settlement by a Jewish community and promptly connected them to electricity and water. The land, previously promised to Bedouin, is now the Jewish town of Gvaot Bar.

While international entities almost uniformly oppose the construction of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank, however, many of the same actors appear unaware of the simultaneous land grab happening in the Negev. In December 2005 diplomats from 49 countries, including Germany and Spain attended the inauguration of the "Ambassador's Forest," which villagers and an Israeli NGO, Dukium, says is on al-Araqib's land.

Meanwhile, Hakma's family has one remaining asset: a minivan parked in the graveyard. I looked inside and saw the family's clothes, and the younger children's schoolbags hanging neatly on nails. "We used to have a nice house," Hakma told me, searching for photographs to show me. Then she remembered that the police had confiscated them.

Noga Malkin is a Jerusalem-based research assistant for Human Rights Watch.
AFP/Getty images

Reposted from Foreign Policy Magazine, the Middle East Channel

In Israel, the revolution has already begun, by Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz

Ha'aretz columnist Bradley Burston sees our struggle for human rights for the Bedouin of Al-Arakib as one of the signs of the emerging democratic revolution in Israel.

People often ask why, at a time when revolutionary fervor has seized nation after nation here in the Middle East, no revolt has yet begun in my country.

Actually, it has. Right under the government's nose.

From the outside, it may well appear that nothing has changed: a small but strategic principality which has been ruled for decades by a self-declared aristocracy, few in number, fierce in influence, fundamentalist in outlook, increasingly non-democratic in governance.

Although technically and by blood one of the princes, the nominal prime minister is, in essence, a figurehead. Under pressure from the West to extend self-determination to minority regions, he knows that were he to agree to renounce sovereignty over these areas, he would be risking a bullet to his back.

For a while, the prime minister speaks of reforms, of a U.S.-backed vision of independence for the minority regions. But only for a while. Mindful of the well-armed 4 percent of the population which so often calls the shots for the other 96, he even risks the close relationship with the United States for the sake of the aristocracy, which lives in army-guarded estates away from view, beyond the borders of the general population.

The reforms fade as he speaks of the dark designs of regional foes, while his guileful chief coalition partner, the burly, corruption-shadowed grand vizier, a rival for the political affection of the aristocracy, exploits long-simmering hatreds to push for a broad range of curbs on democratic freedoms.

Yes, to the outside world, the button-down façade of stability seems assured. The country's general population supports major reforms, but has been traumatized into paralysis by years of bloodshed and a sclerotic political system dominated by corrupt, theocratic and rigidly conservative interest groups.

Outside of the established political mechanisms, however, a revolution is underway. Here, of all places. In the modern principality of the Jewish People. In Israel.

Over the years, the settlement aristocracy – the plaid-flannel power behind the throne - has aged, losing political steam and internal direction, as its own youth have begun to question its ideology of divine right to land and rule.

Here, now, on this side of the recognized border, a potent opposition is emerging, young, largely unknown, social network-savvy.

This revolution, like that of the settlers decades ago, has the potential of transforming both Israel and Judaism as a whole.

That is why the anti-compromise, pro-settlement right correctly sees NGOs, human rights organizations, and their pro-social justice supporters abroad, as the most pressing and immediate of threats. This is where the right is investing its legislative energy. But it is not the future of a democratic and Jewish Israel that these activists threaten. It is the dominance of the emirate archipelago of the settlements that they truly endanger.

The activists have a secret that the government has been thus far unable to combat. They have discovered a way to bring the bloated giants that run government institutions, to their knees:

Hidden from view by the giants' bulk, they locate sores and bunions and gout on the giants' overtaxed feet, and then, simply, stomp.

They find specific, vulnerable, potentially painful lesions, and they press down. And it works. The giant finds itself incapacitated.

The targets: some of the country's most powerful giants. Two examples among many:
1. Sheikh Jarrah, the dinky, makeshift, brilliant demonstration that materializes every Friday afternoon in East Jerusalem and which has bedeviled the settlement movement, Jerusalem's defiantly pro-settlement Mayor Nir Barkat, and the even more defiant, even more pro-settlement Jerusalem Regional Planning Commission.

2. El Araqib, the tiny Negev Bedouin village which the Jewish National Fund, aided by the Israel Lands Authority and more than a thousand police, have repeatedly demolished – 18 times at last count - in order to clear the way for a generous (to the JNF) Evangelical Christian group's God TV Forest. The Bedouin residents, supported by human rights activists and other NGOs, have returned to rebuild every time the JNF and ILA heavy machinery has rolled in to flatten their village.

This is what a revolution sounds like: The princes are in disarray. Some of the blood princes and princesses, like Tzipi Livni and Dan Meridor, heirs to commanders of the pre-state Irgun militia, now openly believe in and are working for a two-state solution, an independent Palestine alongside Israel, a major Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

Everywhere you look, if you look close, change is in the wind.

The very activists whom pro-occupation Israel sees as its worst enemies – Peace Now, the many grant recipients of the New Israel Fund such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as well as a host of independent groups, are gumming up the works of occupation simply by shining light on it.

British novelist Ian McEwan, accepting on Sunday the Jerusalem Prize for Literature, spoke of "the continued evictions and demolitions, and relentless purchases of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the process of right of return granted to Jews but not Arabs."

He also marked the occasion by donating $10,000 to an important NGO, Combatants for Peace, an organization, his website noted, "that brings together Israeli ex-soldiers and Palestinian ex-fighters. These ex-combatants go about in pairs, talking in public to make the case that there can be no military solution to the conflict."

Just as the settlement revolution has long energized and been supported by Jewish groups abroad, this new revolution for a socially just Israel has already brought change and new energy to the largest of Diaspora communities.

Although effectively boycotted by Israel's American-born Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren, and by the recent General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, J Street's 2011 Conference (February 26-March 1) seems likely to live up to its billing of its "largest-ever gathering of pro-Israel pro-peace activists."

On March 14, across the States in Berkeley, Tikkun Magazine, which has no hesitation in describing itself as "strongly pro-Israel" alongside a progressive, critical perspective, will be marking its 25th anniversary. Among the honorees that night will be Judge Richard Goldstone.

This revolution has only begun, but it is gaining traction by the day. Over the past several days alone, it has been bolstered by the appointment of Israel's first openly gay judge, a disastrous setback for settler-driven McCarthyite legislation, and a grind to a halt for construction in the flashpoint settlement of Har Homa.

This revolution has only now begun. It will be waged in cyberspace and in city streets, in occupied areas and in Israel proper, in American synagogues and, in the end, the entire Jewish world. This revolution aims not only at the end of occupation, but at the beginning of a new Israel. Not for settlers, this time. For Israelis.

Help our us and our allies in Israel bring about the democratic revolution by making a tax-deductible gift to Rabbis for Human Rights Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel.

Go here to make your contribution to justice and equality for Jews and Arabs in Israel's Negev.

Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz: A Special Place in Hell Published Feb. 23, 2011

Evangelical TV channel turns the Negev into a forest and removes the Bedouin from Al-Arakib - Ha'aretz

Christian network `God TV` announces a planting project in cooperation with the Jewish National Fund. Villagers claim it is an effort to remove them.

`The Lord gave me instructions: `prepare the ground for the return of my children’. I asked: ‘Father, how do we do it?’ And the Lord answered ’plant a million trees.’ I believe this is what I heard, the spirit of God and I share this mission with you.” Rory Alec’s voice is excited and laden with pathos when he describes what led him to initiate the largest tree planting project, spearheaded by the `God TV` network, throughout Israel.

Alec is the driving force behind the thriving Evangelical network. The network carries out tree planting in cooperation with the Israeli branch of the Jewish National Fund and its US counterpart. The afforestation project is part of a broad plan encompassing large tracts of the northern Negev. It is not, strictly speaking, afforestation in the usual sense of the word, but more like “savannahfication” – the planting of trees and shrubs that would create the appearance of a savannah. The benefits of doing it this way, according to the JNF, include soil improvement and the prevention of erosion. However, the Israel Lands Administration and Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, have admitted that one of the aims of the project is the taking possession of the land - that is, asserting ownership in order to keep the Bedouin out.

Some of the areas included in the project are near the Bedouin village of Al- Arakib, which was destroyed yesterday for the 16th time in eight months [Actually six and a half months–tr.] Israel Lands Administration (ILA) inspectors accompanied by police units came to the village to continue the forestation work, after the Beer Sheva Court ruled that work may continue taking place. There were confrontations when the residents started hurling stones at them and the police responded by firing tear gas. Six of the villagers - four women and two children - were injured and were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. Three people were arrested. Haaretz has learnt that the village activists intend to stay over the weekend in situ to rebuild the encampments that were destroyed.

The JNF and the Israel Lands Administration insist that the forest, dubbed `God TV Forest` is not being planted on the ruins of the village. But the proximity to the village’s land has prompted a torrent of rage from the residents and the left-wing activists who have been supporting them. The Bedouins argue that the afforestation project in the northern Negev aims to goad them away from what they perceive as their traditional land. `The JNF, the most Jewish of Jewish bodies, of which my parents my grandparents were proud partners, has changed its skin and now collaborates with the most fundamentalist organisation for which we are the Messiah’s donkey,` says Professor Oren Yiftachel. The professor, a resident of the Negev and chairperson of B’Tselem, has been assisting the residents of Al - Arakib in their struggle with the state authorities against their homes’ demolitions.

Channel `God TV` was established in England in 1995 and was first of its type in Europe. Since then, “by the grace of God through miracles,` as its founders put it, the channel has expanded its activities to become an empire. “God TV transmits to almost every country around the globe with operations in the US, Europe, China, India, Australia and Africa. The channel’s 24-hours a day programs feature thunderous preachers who beat the foreheads of the faithful, wailing worshipers groups, animated calls for sexual purity among the young and kitschy missionary songs. The religious content is nicely packaged with rhythms and clips reminiscent of the source of inspiration - music channel MTV. The channel leads many social activities becoming a partner in various humanitarian ventures, particularly in Africa. In 2002, the channel revolutionised its image when it moved its offices and main base to Jerusalem, and now it brands itself as an enthusiastic supporter of Israel.

The planting project is one of its flagship ventures, the stated purpose of which is to prepare the country for the return of `Lord of lords, King of Kings,` as specified on its dedicated website. The site provides a facility to contribute to tree planting in the amount of US$25 or 20 Euros (about 90 to 100 shekels.) Incidentally it is possible to have the same tree planted by contributing a mere 32 shekels to the JNF. Considering the avowed desire to plant over a million trees, the discrepancy in price provides a measure of the financial clout of the organisation which provides it with a sound base.

Until about a fortnight ago a large outdoor board stood not far from Al-Arakib announcing the joint project of the TV channel and the JNF. The villagers see afforestation activities as part and parcel of the campaign against them. “These trees are the soldiers who came to occupy our land. These are political trees,” said Awad Abu Farih, a spokesperson for the residents of Al-Arakib. In contrast to the JNF and the ILA Administration, the villagers do not see any difference between the planting of the forest and the work that is being carried at the site of the village’s ruins. “These are exactly the same operations, they think that if there were trees here, then there would be no Bedouins here,` added Abu Farih.

God’s TV are aware of the criticism and are wary of it. The channel placed a note on its website stating: “God TV is in no way involved in any ongoing legal proceedings between the Israeli Government and the village of Al-Arakib. God TV has committed to sponsor one million trees, to be planted through the efforts of the Jewish National Fund, throughout Israel in an effort to restore the desert places to the lush green land it once was, preparing the Holy Land for the return of the King of Kings. God TV is not responsible for, or involved in, the decision as to the specific places trees are planted across the country.”

The JNF rejects the Bedouin claims, stating that the JNF is diligent in ensuring that no planting takes place anywhere outside state land. It says that the practice is adhered to in Al-Arakib. They stress that they cannot reject donations on the grounds of the identity of the donors. They add that any planting financed by donation takes place only in areas designated for the purpose in the national afforestation master plan. Therefore, the goal is afforestation and not the removal of the Bedouin. The JNF spokesperson said that 'The JNF plants trees all over the state of Israel, which is its role. However, any requests for planting are only acted upon once the JNF has verified that the proposed area is indeed legally state land. '

The Israel Lands Administration said that the JNF is only carrying out the work in Al-Arakib as a subcontractor, and that it was selected for the purpose because of its expertise in forestry work. As we go to press no response has been received from God’s TV.

By Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 11.2.11
Jackie Khoury and Yanir Yagna also contributed to this report
Reprinted from Occupation Magazine

Israel Demolishes El Araqib Village for 18th Time, Shoots and Detains Bedouin Residents

The Bedouin village of Al Araqib was attacked by Israeli forces and destroyed for the 18th time Thursday morning (17/2).

(Video shows previous Israeli destruction of El Araqib and attack of its residents on Feb. 10)

Israeli police, special forces, and riot police entered the village very early Thursday morning, before the residents had awakened. The police and Jewish National Fund, armed with bulldozers and weapons, destroyed the few buildings that were constructed Wednesday, following the 17th demolition, and surrounded the cemetery where the residents of Al Araqib were sleeping, so they were not able to get out.

While the residents were barricaded inside, the Jewish National Fund again worked on preparing the land for the planting of God TV’s “Peace Forest.”

In the later hours of the morning, around 100 residents of the nearby Bedouin city Rahat, some formerly of Al Araqib, arrived at the village to show support and solidarity.

Israeli forces, however, blocked them from entering. The men and women sat on the road, waiting for admission to the cemetery to spend time with their friends and relatives.

While plain clothes Israeli police officers were negotiating with the visitors from Rahat, the riot police decided that they needed to leave and began shooting men, women and children with rubber bullets.

Because the people were blocked from entered the village, they were forced to flee on the road. The police chased after them for around two kilometers, at shot tear gas at them. Seven people were arrested, two of them underage. One of those arrested is Dr. Awad Abu Frieh, the Al Araqib village spokesperson.

During this time the highway, Route 40, was blocked by the police in both directions. Once the people from Rahat had left, and the police were finished making arrests, the JNF continued working.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces arrived in the early hours of the morning and shot at the residents with rubber bullets and paint ball guns. When the first round of shooting subsided, the special forces pushed people from their homes and began demolishing the village for the 17thtime.

The residents of Al Araqib have barricaded themselves inside the village cemetery for protection and to prevent the destruction of the historic burial ground as well. Yesterday, all of the exits to the cemetery were closed by Israeli forces, and JNF bulldozers spent much of the day circling the site.

This Friday, 18 February, at noon there will be an inter-religious prayer in Al Araqib. Muslims and Jews will pray alongside each other and afterwards will stand together and speak of how our common religious traditions reject the violation of El Araqib residents' rights.

Those interested in participating can contact Rabbis for Human Rights at +972.2.648.275. There will also be organized transportation from Jerusalem and if needed, from Tel Aviv.

Thursday, 17 February 2011 11:35 Tania Kepler for the Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Al-Arakib villagers tried to halt bulldozers at cemetery gate with their bare hands, injured and hospitalized children

After Israel Land Administration and Jewish National Fund bulldozers destroyed the dwellings in the Negev Bedouin village of Al-Arakib today for the 17th time, a JNF bulldozer approached the gate of the cemetery attempting to run it down. This was too much for the villagers, who are sitting in their community's cemetery, watching as their village is once more demolished.

As the bulldozer approached the gate, people went to stop it with their bare hands. Several are injured, including children. They are being evacuated at this moment by ambulances to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. Police are also firing rubber and paint bullets at the village residents in the cemetery.

The bulldozer has backed away from the gate, and the police and bulldozers are now a few yards away from the cemetery, re-thinking their next move. Until today, the cemetery was a red line that the government and the JNF did not cross. Now even that red line has been crossed. Human rights activists report that the special police units are shooting into the cemetery area, sowing fear and seeking to provoke people to retaliate, an excuse to break in. Meanwhile, bulldozers are obstructing the exit from the cemetery in the direction of the village.

6:30 am EST update: Israel Radio Reshet Bet reports that at least 5 Bedouin residents and a photography student have been injured; two of the injured have been evacuated by ambulance to Soroka Hospital; the others say they are afraid to be taken to the hospital for fear that they will be arrested (and barred from returning to their village) after being treated.

4 am EST: About 40 Yassam riot police are present in the village. As we had had a few days reprieve since the last demolition, there were about 15 tents that had been built in the village since Thursday. The ILA bulldozers are now tearing these down and the JNF bulldozers are continuing their work to prepare the ground and shoving the ruined structures aside. All of the residents (including the children who have not yet left for school) are holed up in the cemetery.

(This from various reports in Hebrew & English from our friends in the Negev: Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality; Yeela Ra'anan of Shatil, and the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages; Gadi Algazi/Tarabut, and Israel Radio Reshet Bet. Photo above shows cemetery gate on Jan. 10, 2011.)

Women, Children of Bedouin Village Al-Araqib Beaten & Hospitalized as they Silently Protest 16th Demolition of their Homes

Women and children of the Bedouin village of Al Araqib were beaten and tear gassed by Israel forces Thursday morning (Feb. 10), in an attempt to halt the 16th demolition of their homes and property.

Israeli forces and Jewish National Fund workers entered the Bedouin village and again destroyed the residents homes, and continued preparing the land for the planting of a “peace forest”.

When residents and activists attempted to halt their work, JNF workers and Israeli police fought back with force. The men in the village were held or detained while the women and children stood before the police and bulldozers and did not allow them to pass, all the while waving their Israeli identification cards as an expression of their trampled civil rights. The police attacked them with punches and tear gas.

Six residents, four women and two children, were hospitalized at the Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva. Later in the day, two of the women remained hospitalized.

“The police harshly beat the women and children who were standing in quiet protest, they simply beat women and children…I stood alongside a woman who was beaten by four police officers, actual fists in her face, ears and neck, in addition to kicks until she almost lost consciousness…people are sitting on the ground, in the rain, and not moving, women and children. The police shot stun grenades and foam bullets directly at the women, at point blank,” reported Tamar, an activist who was present in the village.

Three residents were also arrested, including a sixteen year old, and two Israeli activists are being detained at the local police station.

“They were detentions with no legal basis. The people were arbitrarily detained…these are intentional detentions, the goal of which is to break the residents of the village and the activists who come to support them…the police are collaborating with the Jewish National Fund (JNF),” said Attorney Salem Abu Madia’am.

Al Araqib was destroyed for the 14th time earlier this week (8/2), as part of the aggressive JNF and Israel Land Authority attempt to claim their historic land and use it for forestation and future Jewish settlement.

In recent months the JNF and the Israel Land Authority (ILA) have been working to “encourage” the remaining nomadic Bedouin communities to settle in cities and stay off the land. The encouragement has come in the form of regular demolitions of Bedouin villages.




Excerpted from Tania Kepler for the Alternative Information Center

A JNF Drive to Make the Desert Bloom Means Destruction for a Bedouin Village, Forward

A JNF Drive To Make the Desert Bloom Means Destruction for a Bedouin Village
Israeli Bulldozers Have Demolished the Homes in Al-Arakib 14 Times, But Residents Keep Returning
February 18, 2011.

Jerusalem — In American Jewish memory, the Jewish National Fund’s historic blue pushkes, or charity boxes, evoke warm images of hard-earned pennies given to the group’s mission of redeeming the Land of Israel through planting trees. But to the Bedouin of Al-Arakib, a village in the Negev, the group’s current forestation plans mean the destruction of their homes and what they say is the theft of land they have owned since the beginning of the 20th century.

The village, until last summer a modest gathering of 45 homes in the desert, five miles north of Beersheba, was first demolished by the tractors and bulldozers of the Israel Land Administration, a government agency, last July, to lay the groundwork for the JNF forestation project. But the villagers have returned repeatedly to rebuild ramshackle structures symbolizing their claim to own the land, only to see the tractors and bulldozers return to destroy them again in what is now a cycle attracting international attention.

The latest demolition, on February 8, marked the 14th time that the government sent its equipment to destroy the rebuilt structures.

JNF in Israel has declined to comment on the project. But Haia Noach, a Jewish Beersheba resident who chairs the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, strongly criticized the group. “The planned forest is a means, a technique, to Judaize the area,” he said.

Noach and about 80 others demonstrated outside JNF’s Jerusalem headquarters February 1 to protest what they consider the organization’s darker side. Land in the Negev desert should be used for “housing and education” and not for “racist forestation,” chanted the crowd, which comprised Jews and Arabs.

A week earlier, a coalition of seven American Jewish and 10 Israeli not-for-profit organizations issued a statement condemning the charity. The not-for-profits’ statement — signed in the United States by the Jewish Alliance for Change, Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, the Tikkun Community’s Network of Spiritual Progressives and the Shalom Center — called on supporters of JNF worldwide to pressure the charity to suspend the project.

JNF “must no longer serve as an accomplice to the discriminatory policy” of evicting Bedouins, the organizations declared in an online petition that had garnered more than 3,000 signatures at press time. Another petition, targeting Israel’s political leaders, had received almost 4,500 signatures.

But there is some dissent on the issue in JNF’s American affiliate. Seth Morrison, a board member of JNF in the Washington metropolitan area, wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed that Israel should cancel all policies that lead to the eviction of Bedouins. Morrison urged JNF to refuse to plant on land that Bedouins claim.

“In addition to the moral dilemmas these policies create, they cannot possibly serve Israel’s own best interests,” Morrison wrote.

It’s not the first time the charity has found itself enmeshed in controversy over land acquisition practices that critics say besmirch its historic reputation as a redeemer of the land. JNF, whose charter specifies it may lease lands under its control only to Jews, was involved in the confiscation of properties from Arabs in the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan in the late 1990s. Many of the Arab residents contested JNF’s claims that they lacked proper title to the homes in which they were living, or that the properties had been legally abandoned. But they lost in court, and JNF proceeded to lease out the tracts to the City of David Foundation, a not-for-profit better known by its Hebrew name Elad.

Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights and a vocal supporter of Al-Arakib, told the Forward that while he has “admiration” for some of the JNF’s role in state building and some of its current work, it is time for it to change its position on the so-called redeeming of land. “The JNF has to just say ‘no — we have moral and ecological red lines,’” he said. Ascherman wants the charity to refrain from working on lands where Arabs claim historical rights.

For its part, the ILA, which is implementing the demolitions, insists that the land the Bedouin villagers claim was never privately owned. “This is state land (‘mawat’) according to Ottoman law, which was adopted by the British Mandate and absorbed into the laws of the State of Israel,” it said in a statement in response to questions from the Forward.

The ILA also stated that the land where Al-Arakib stood fell within a 25,000 acre expanse of the Negev that was declared state land in 1954 “as part of extensive expropriations that were implemented for development, settlement and security purposes.” Any parts of this land that were privately owned became state property, and any parts that were already state property under British or Ottoman rule had their status confirmed under the law of the new Jewish state, the ILA added. In view of this, the ILA argues, any discussions about who owned the land before 1954 are academic — the only important fact is that its state-ownership was reconfirmed in this year. As far as the ILA is concerned, sympathy toward the villagers stems from “propaganda aimed at delegitimizing Israel’s government and legal system.”

Both the ILA and the villagers agree that all structures in this dispute were erected without the necessary building permits. These are difficult for the Bedouin to obtain because of planning processes that Israel’s Arab sector and the Israeli left claim are discriminatory — a charge the government denies. The lack of permits for the structures made them illegal. But this just made Al-Arakib one of about 35 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev that, as they don’t officially exist, don’t receive municipal services and can’t connect to the electricity grid or water carrier.

It is Israel’s claim to the land itself that underlies the right the state claims to destroy their homes, sparking the fury of the Bedouin — a group which unlike most other Arabs, sends many of its young men into the Israeli army, yet has seen huge tracts of its traditional holdings lost to Israeli expropriation over the course of the state’s history.

Sitting around a fire in a shack on the land in question a few hours before the demonstration against the JNF, some 20 Al-Arakib residents recalled that they had long been concerned as they watched three JNF-planted forests grow around their village. ILA tractors just demolished their structures for the 12th time, leaving only this shack and one other. All that was to be seen elsewhere were a few piles of rubble and flat desert sand.

The village sheik, Sayach Abu-Medirem, told the Forward that while his community does not have deeds for the land in question, it does have documents from the Ottoman era that show that its ancestors purchased the land from other Bedouins. In his view, by not honoring these, Israel undermines the legitimacy of some Jewish locales, whose patrons purchased land in similar deals in the early 20th century. “Kibbutzim — from whom did they buy their land? From Bedouins!” he asked. “So why do they have the protection of the law but we don’t?”

The Bedouins say that their families bought the land in 1906 and maintained a constant presence until 1953, when they left — but only because the military instructed them to. Abu-Medirem said that they were originally told to leave for six months, but were never officially allowed back.

While hardly any villagers lived in Al-Arakib after 1953, several continued to farm there. Then, about 10 years ago, while retaining the homes that they had since established elsewhere, the three clans from the village sent members to live there. They admit that this was a conscious attempt to reassert claim to the land and prevent forestation by the ILA and JNF, which they believed to be imminent. To the ILA, this demonstrates that the villagers are not dispossessed; they are perpetrators of a land grab.

The villagers’ attorney, Michael Sfard, dismisses this assertion as ridiculous. He says that the ILA should hold off on demolitions until several ownership cases he has brought to court are resolved. “Their message is that the court decision is a technicality — that they can treat the ground as if it is already in their authority,” he complained.

The ILA responded that even if the court rules that the villagers’ families owned the land before the 1950s, the appropriation to the state will stand, and they will receive only compensation, not the right to return. Thus, the agency said, there was no reason to hold off evicting them or asking JNF to start its work.

Open Letter to the Jewish National Fund - Just say no! by Rabbi Arik Ascherman (Jerusalem Post)

Don’t forest over the community when there are cases in court in which the Beduin are trying to prove their ownership of the land.

Over the past several months, a very cruel and one-sided battle has been raging in El-Arakib . Despite the several land ownership cases currently before the courts, encroaching JNF forests are poised at the edge of lands belonging to this “unrecognized” Beduin village in the Negev. (Part of the mere three percent of the Negev over which the Beduin claim ownership.) Since July, Israel Lands Authority (ILA) bulldozers have demolished El-Arakib nine times.

Nine times the residents of El Arakib have rebuilt simple shelters, frustrating plans to erase every trace of their homes and orchards. They have been beaten and arrested, along with Jewish supporters. Only the cemetery has remained untouched, a testimony to the generations that had lived there before the State of Israel existed.

Last month, the government decided that enough was enough. On January 16, Israel razed the village for the tenth time. With rubber bullets, numerous arrests and even more vicious beatings that left several people hospitalized, the ILA cleared away even the rubble from the previous demolitions to prepare the land for planting.Since the first demolition, twisted rubble has reached skyward, a monument of screaming agony. However, as soon as the bulldozers left, the determined residents and activists emerged from the graveyard where they had taken refuge and began to rebuild again. They were joined by large numbers of activists.

LIFE WAS never easy in El-Arakib, but the residents struggle to put up pitiful makeshift shelters, braving the stinging rain driven by a bitter wind whipping around the sheets of plastic they tried to nail into place.

Nobody would be surprised if these people decided to abandon their lands to the JNF forests who get ominously closer every time. I am sure that is what those who plan these violent attacks had expected, and what the ring of watching police wait for. However, we Israelis, who have so often accomplished the impossible because we knew that there was ein breira (no choice) should be the first to appreciate the quiet, desperate determination of the residents of El-Arakib.

Relief then came in the form of a tentative stop-work order from the court, but with a price. The state said that it incurs the expenses every time a demolition is prevented because it still has to pay those contracted in advance, and that it must be reimbursed if the court agrees to issue a stay that turns out to be frivolous. I understand the argument, but it essentially makes access to justice dependent on your wallet. Here, the justification for the stop work order seems neither frivolous nor trivial – don’t forest over the community when there are cases in court in which the Beduin are trying to prove their ownership of the land. Several days later, Beersheba District Court Judge Nechama Netzer canceled the order. However, she also said that the situation was unacceptable, and a solution must be found. She appealed to the JNF not to create facts on the ground by foresting over El-Arakib.

Incredibly, the very next day the ILA declared their intent to quickly finish preparing the land for planting and made good on their promise. The bulldozers quickly disposed of the shanties, proceeding to level everything to the ground I AM therefore appealing to the JNF yet one more time to fight for their soul. They have told me several times that they sees themselves as the forestry service for the state, and is therefore obligated to do what the state asks.

But there comes a point when you must just say no. It is true that our sages taught that “the law of the land is the law,” but they also drew red lines. The Shulchan Aruch determines that even a king, who has much more authority in the Jewish tradition than a government, cannot force people to violate the commandments of the Torah (Choshen Mishpat 369:11). Even the king – and certainly a body such as the JNF doing the bidding of a government – is not allowed to twist the law to allow the theft of a field. (Mishna Torah Laws of Theft and Loss 5:13, Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 369:8) We are taught not to honor unjust or unequally applied laws.

When laws discriminate against one group in favor of another “the law of the land is the law” does not apply, “and it is not applicable when there is no equality, taking from one and giving to another”(Beit HaBechira to Baba Kama 113a, etc.). “The law of the land is the law is not in force unless the king equally applies his statutes regarding all his subjects.” (Or Zaruah to Baba Kama 447, see also Tashbetz part 1: 158) THE TREATMENT of the Beduin minority is a classic case of double standards. Jewish citizens would be afforded every opportunity to remain on their land, or at least to have their day in court. The JNF is not obligated to participate in state discrimination.

Rather, the JNF must observe shev v’al taaseh, refrain from participating in discrimination and theft.

None of us want to believe that the state we love is using its power to ride rough shod over hapless fellow citizens and to take the kivsat ha’rash (literally, poor man’s stolen sheep) from those who have almost nothing. None of us want to believe that previous courts may have lent a hand to injustice. I am sure that this does not represent the values of many who work for or support the JNF.

However, if you don’t believe either me or the silent testimony of the El-Arakib cemetery, look into it for yourself.

Ask for the documents and come meet with the Beduin.

The JNF, with all of the wonderful work it does, sullies itself by collusion in such an inexcusable and unjustifiable act. Remember the Jewish and Zionist commitment in our Declaration of Independence to equality for all.

Please, just say no.

The writer is a human rights activist. Demonstrations are planned outside the JNF offices in Jerusalem today [Feb. 1, 2011] at 14:00pm and in El- Arakib.

Published in the Jerusalem Post

Background Analysis: Eight times Al-Arakib has fallen, and it will arise eight times, by Rabbi Arik Ascherman

From our partners at the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, who were on the ground at Al-Arakib:

The Negev Bedouin village of Al- Arakib was demolished this morning for the eighth time since the assault began on July 27.

The residents' resolve, however, has not been weakened to remain on their land and rebuild again.

There was also a second demolition for a family living in the orchard south of Al Arakib.

From Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights

Rabbis for Human Rights protests the insensitivity and violence of Israeli authorities in demolishing the homes of the residents of the “unrecognized” Bedouin Negev village of Al Arakib again and again, while not making the effort to work with the residents to find a compromise solution. We are terribly saddened that the State of Israel ignores hundreds of building violations in the Occupied Territories and inside the Green Line, but has adopted a hard line policy towards peaceful Israeli Bedouin citizens.

This latest demolition was carried out with tens of troops and bulldozers, just a day before the beginning of a two week vacation for now homeless schoolchildren.

RHR calls for all those desiring peace and good neighborliness with our country to support our Bedouin citizens and demand an immediate moratorium of all demolitions and evictions until the Beersheva District Court rules on the petitions by the Bedouin to reclaim their lands.
We pray that the Land of Israel will be good and gracious to all of her citizens.

Just last Friday, RHR organized an interfaith service in Al Arakib with over 300 participants and Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders.

In these difficult moments, the rabbis of RHR extend our sympathy and prayers to the residents of Al Arakib, and again call on people of faith in Israel and around the world to continue reciting RHR’s prayer prayer for Al Arakib this weekend in synagogues, mosques, in Christmas worship and in other places of worship.

General Background

In 1948, the Bedouin population in Israel’s Negev numbered approximately one hundred thousand persons. Following the War of Independence in 1948-1949, most of these individuals were expelled/fled to Gaza, Jordan, or the Sinai Peninsula, even though they took no part in hostilities against Israel. The Jahalin tribe were intimidated into leaving for the West Bank in the early 50′s, well after the war. Throughout the Negev, only about 11,000 Bedouin remained. Following international diplomatic pressure, relatively small numbers of expelled Bedouin were allowed to return to Israel.

Before the war, Bedouin lived in all parts of the Negev (an area of approximately 13 million dunams, or 3.25 million acres) and earned their livelihood by raising sheep and goats throughout the region, as well as by agriculture, growing wheat and other grains, on an area of approximately 2 million dunams (about half a million acres).

At the beginning of the 1950’s, the State of Israel decided to evict from their lands most of the Bedouin then residing in the central and western Negev, both fertile and well-watered areas, and resettle them in the eastern Negev, a barren area with very little rainfall.

Bedouin were either moved by force, or persuaded to “move temporarily” for the sake of military exercises, etc. However, even after being transferred from their lands and villages to the area of the eastern Negev, the Bedouin communities in their new locations were not recognized either. Governmental officials did not allocate other lands to them as compensation, nor did they see to it that these persons were provided with basic services and employment as was done for millions of Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Today, this sad and disgraceful situation still remains the lot of half of the Bedouin residents of the Negev, who reside in 45 unrecognized villages. Because these villages do not exist as far as the state is concerned, they are entirely lacking infrastructure for water, electricity, roads, education, and health care. An additional 95,000 Bedouin reside in seven towns that Israel set up for their settlement, but in which everyday living conditions are extremely difficult, with high rates of unemployment and inferior municipal services in comparison with the Jewish settlements in the Negev. These seven Bedouin towns are located statistically at the bottom of the socio-economic scale of all settlements in Israel.

Despite the Bedouin appeals to allow them to choose for themselves the type of settlements in which they will live — whether urban, rural, or community-based — the State of Israel insists on settling the Bedouin in newly established towns clearly inappropriate for the Bedouin way of life. Israelis are concerned about Bedouin taking over the Negev and feel that the land is needed for the Jewish population. However, the lands claimed by the Bedouin are only 3% of the entire Negev. When Bedouin attempt to return to their ancestral lands, they are portrayed as trespassers, squatting and taking over land that belongs to the State.

During the 1970’s, when given the opportunity to do so, 3,200 Bedouin landowners filed claims of ownership for lands covering approximately 900,000 dunam in area (today the outstanding claims pertain to 650,000 dunams) out of a total of 13 million dunams over which the Negev extends. (There are four dunam to an acre) Today, after decades, most of the claims for ownership have still not been brought to court, most of the witnesses to the ownership of the lands have died, the lands have not been returned to their owners, and the injustice has been left uncorrected.

If this were not enough, recently the State of Israel has used the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to further the eviction of Bedouin in the Negev by planting trees on lands to which the latter claim ownership. As the battle over these lands intensifies, Israeli authorities have stepped up the demolition of homes, destruction of crops, preventing of grazing, etc. There is no possibility of building legally in an unrecognized village, because there is no building plan. All use of the land for agricultural purposes or grazing is deemed to be an illegal intrusion.

In recent years, the Bedouin have been trying to use the Israeli legal system to regain their lands. The Bedouin have brought evidence regarding continuous Bedouin occupation and cultivation of the lands around Beersheba. They have brought documentation of the fact that Bedouin lands were governed for generations by a well functioning traditional land ownership system, sanctioned by the Ottoman and British authorities. Unfortunately, the Bedouin did not register their land in the British land title books.

Another reality is possible. Some one dozen villages have been recognized in recent years. These villages were previously in the exact same situation as Al-Arakib, slated for evacuation. A committee set up by the government has called the situation of the unrecognized villages untenable and recommended recognizing many more, but the government does not wish to do so.

The Family Farms Law legalized the status of 60 Jewish (and one Arab) family ranches and farms set up without planning approval in the Negev. This is another precedent which could be used to grant a legal status to Bedouin communities.

Al-Arakib
Al-Arakib is a community of some 300 men, women and children approximately 10 kilometers north of Beersheva. The cemetery with the graves of generations of the El-Turi tribe testifies to the fact that this community existed long before the establishment of the State of Israel. The tribe says that it has lived there since the 19th century, and they have Turkish and British documents showing that they worked, the land and paid taxes. There are also bills of sale and purchase between tribes. In 1907 and in 1929 the El-Turis purchased land from the El-Ukbi tribe totaling some 1,600 dunams.

At the beginning of the 1950’s, Israel evacuated by force the Bedouin living in Al-Arakib, north of Beersheva. The evacuees were told that their lands were needed for military exercises, and promised that within six months they would be allowed to return to their village. This promise that was not kept. Instead, by means of the Land Purchase Legislation of 1953, various government agencies used the forced absence of the Bedouin from the area to transfer ownership of their lands to the State.

Many of the members of the El-Turi tribe had been moved to the nearby town of Rahat. They maintained some grazing rights, and would return to Al-Arakib to try and farm the land, or to be buried in the cemetery. However, the lands largely remained fallow for some 50 years.

The Israel Land Administration (ILA) transferred by lease the lands of Al-Arakib to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for the purpose of forestation. Following approval authorized by the ILA, the JNF began land works of unprecedented proportions on the lands of Al-Arakib resulting in massive changes in the region’s topography and the forestation of these lands. The JNF last week established a large new bulldozer camp just one kilometer from Al Arakib, and is now planting one million trees in Israel, including many near the village of Al Arakib, as part of the “God-TV Forest.” JNF has accepted substantial donations from an evangelical Christian ministry called God-TV, who claim to have received “instructions from God…to prepare the land for the return of my Son…[to] plant a million trees.”

Approximately ten years ago, understanding that the plan was to erase their village by means of forestation, they returned and built homes, and began pressing their claims in court. Their case is currently in front of the Beersheva District Court, but these cases can take years to adjudicate. There have been constant attempts to demolish these homes, and every year agricultural crops are sprayed and killed.

The struggle has reached new heights since the summer of 2010. The ILA has demolished Al- Arakib seven times between July and November. While they have not tried to rebuild their more permanent structures, they have time after time attempted to rebuild simple tents, shacks and other forms of shelter with makeshift materials. Each time massive numbers of police, helicopters and bulldozers come to demolish the village, the families to take refuge in the cemetery, the one area where they are left alone. From the cemetery and the temporary shelters that are built anew after every demolition, one can see the forests approaching from several directions, even as helicopters whip up dust in the nearby military training zone.

“We are not invaders, nor squatters,” said Sheikh Sayyah. “It is the state that has invaded us.”