ISRAEL HAYOM
Has Israel lost the Negev?
Among the Bedouin community, Israeli laws barring polygamy amount to no more than rumors, and no one has ever even heard of the building code • The Bedouin have all but taken over the Negev and turned it into a neighboring country.
David M. Weinberg | In support of the Prawer-Begin plan
Many of the protesters have anything but Bedouin interests in mind.
Israel is facing a true reality: whether called “bedouin” or “Arab Israeli” or “palestinian”, they share the same goal: force Jewish exodus from the Land of Israel with the shameless complicity of the Israeli leadership. The following are some interesting excerpts of this excellent article:
“The Bedouin are a Semitic people whose origins trace to Saudi Arabia. In the latter stages of the 18th century, they began to migrate northwards, trekking across the Sinai Peninsula. They reached all the way to central Syria. Some of them even made it to the southern portion of the Euphrates River. Along the way, they discovered ideal pasturing zones throughout Israel-Palestine, and they shepherded their flocks in these areas according to the season.
The State of Israel built seven townships specifically for the Bedouin population: Kuseife, Tel Sheva, Segev Shalom, Aroer, Hura, Lakiya and Rahat. Whoever so wanted received a plot of land and connection to the main grids. Just half the Bedouin, particularly the poorer segments, took up residence these seven towns. The other half insisted on remaining in the scattered shantytowns and filing legal claims over ownership rights on the land.
There are 300,000 Bedouin in Israel today, 80,000 of whom reside in the Galilee. The remainder live in the Negev. The Bedouin of Israel are world record-holders in population growth — 5.6 percent per year. By the year 2025, Israel will have to cope with a Bedouin population of 420,000 in the Negev.
Thousands of other buildings and structures are clustered together near the municipal boundaries of the legally recognized townships. This illegal construction enjoys the best of all worlds: building without the need for a permit; no need to pay municipal taxes; water and power are provided through pirate grids; and the residents still enjoy state-provided services like schools, medical clinics, and sporting facilities. On the main street that runs through Lakiya, one can notice that on the right side is a row of legally built structures (and a sidewalk), while on the left side, beyond the blue line that represents the municipal boundary, one can see illegally constructed buildings (and no sidewalk).
The recently approved Begin Bill makes the package even more attractive: The claimants would be compensated with between 50% and 63% of alternate plots of land while the rest would come in the form of monetary compensation. The petitioner is not required to prove a thing or to produce documents. All that is needed is a vague claim that their family was here generations ago.
“Now, after the legalization of the towns in Abu Basma, there will be 18 recognized Bedouin towns. That’s not a small amount for 200,000 people. The Begin law gives them generous compensation. A Jew can’t live in a Bedouin town, as the High Court of Justice case involving Segev Shalom proved, but a Bedouin can certainly live in a Jewish town. Even Beersheba and Dimona are welcoming to them,” Deutsch said.”
The morality of the story: Jews continue to be betrayed in their own homeland by their own government.