NYC Lunch and Learn - 9/23: The New Netanyahu Gov't Plan for the Negev Bedouin: A Harsh Blow to Human Rights in Israel

A discussion with

Dr. Yeela Livnat Raanan

Former Director of Bedouin Rights Advocacy, Shatil: Leading Social Change, An Initiative of the New Israel Fund, Beersheva, Israel

Date: Friday, September 23, 2011

Time: 12:30-1:30 pm

Location: Offices of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America / Human Rights First, 333 Seventh Avenue, 13th Floor, New York, NY

Bring your lunch; desert will be provided. RSVP to: office@rhr-na.org

Dr. Livnat Raanan will explain the new plan for the Negev Bedouin community just approved by the Netanyahu government, and now being debated by the Knesset. If enacted by the Knesset, the plan will involve expelling 30,000 Bedouin from their homes, demolishing 20 “unrecognized” villages. It will deprive the 200,000-strong Bedouin population of much of their land and livelihoods, containing the entire Bedouin community in a small part of the Negev. Dr. Livnat Raanan will report on the great challenges facing Israel’s most disadvantaged community, discuss possible scenarios and lay out a different approach that human rights groups in Israel and the US are urging the Israeli government to adopt.

Sponsored by the Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice: A Project of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America and the Jewish Alliance for Change, and Jewish Voice for Peace

http://www.rhr-na.org/get-involved/attend-an-event/view/32.html?Itemid=28

Los Angeles Event: Civil Rights and Wrongs in the Negev, with Devorah Brous, April 23, 2011 12 noon

When: Saturday, April 23, 12:00pm - 1:30pm

Where: IKAR, 5870 West Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 (map)

Description: Join us after Shabbat lunch for a special discussion. For some Jews, Israel's Negev Desert is the "last Zionist frontier," a "barren wasteland" in need of development. For Israel's Bedouin citizens, it is an ancestral homeland, rich with tradition and sustenance. Arabs and Jews live side by side in the Negev, but their access to basic necessities such as water, energy, and medicine varies widely. With a rapidly expanding population on a small land mass with dwindling resources, the age-old Zionist question to develop or to preserve continues to arise. The development of the Negev for a new wave of Jewish settlements is increasingly undermining Israel's commitment to democracy and civil rights. Must we support development at the expense of democracy in the Negev?

About the Speaker: Devorah Brous lived in Israel and worked with Bedouin for 15 years. She is the founder of BUSTAN, a Jewish/Bedouin civil rights and environmental justice NGO in the Negev, where she served as Executive Director for 9 years. She currently serves as co-director of the Campaign for Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel, a Project of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America and the Jewish Alliance for Change. She holds two Masters degrees in Israel Studies and Development Studies.

Listed on the IKAR website events calendar