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we're in Rahat it's an Arab bedan town
in the negtive desert in Israel and
today people are protesting Plans by the
Israeli government to forcibly displace
tens of thousands of BNS who live in the
area not about uh bulldozing out it's
about creating
communities the plans have been called
by the United Nations a ethnic
displacement just short of an ethnic
cleansing sort of more of an ethnic
spring cleaning are going to affect
between 30 and
70,000 BNS who live in the
desert and this is a city that is
recognized by the Israeli authorities
but many towns that bins live in aren't
recognized and most of the people the
plan for them is to be moved to another
area where they're going to be built
pre-fabricated cities that they don't
actually want to go
to
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the desert is a great challenge to us
and we are determined to make the
Wilderness bless him
again it can be done it must be done
David beneran Israel's first prime
minister said the state of Israel to
exist must go south but his dream of of
5 million Jews in the negtive desert
hasn't come true
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yet Israel's bedin aren't Jewish they're
part of the country's Arab Muslim
minority and they've lived in the
negtive since before Israel's
Inception the BN were originally nomadic
Arab tribesmen who herded and traded
across the deserts of the Middle East
they've become mostly settled over the
last century but still feel strong ties
to life in the desert many of their
tribes were divided and displaced during
the creation of Israel in
1948 those that remained were
concentrated in this area of the Negev
Desert it's about tiny places like this
there are hundreds of them in the Negev
that the Israeli government wants to
wipe off of the map and resettle people
from here to another location that they
never said they actually wanted to go
to they make up just 3 and 1 12% of
Israel's population and does of their
towns are considered
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illegal just wait he's taking it down
himself he's taking it down himself just
let him
stop
stop in fact this is what happens to
their homes almost on a weekly
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basis
Israel doesn't recognize about 45 bwin
villages in the negtive desert with a
population of about 70,000 people what
this means in practice is that towns
without status also have to do without
electricity and sanitation and without
property
rights all those houses are basically
illegal according to is really low and
people here doesn't have any in general
doesn't recognize any bedwin
ownership my brother's house it was
here you those are the rubbles you can
see all the cement blocks this is my
brother's house was my brother's
house this is a policy of intimidation
if you cross the lines of you know build
your house here
they come and and and and and and show
you who the boss is so before the
Inception of Israel my family came from
Gaza and lived here that was a open area
you're saying that this is a community
that predates Israel yes and yet the
Israeli authorities aren't willing to
recognize it yes this is the case of I
think all the communities in the knup
I'm not a thief
obviously you know I want to to live as
everybody in Tel Aviv lives so I don't
know and I want to have those those
options so I'm here in beeva it's the
Jewish capital of the neive desert and
it's also where the Prime Minister has
created a special task force to deal
with the bedwin issue now the weird
thing about this task force is that it's
headed by a reserve Major General who is
also wanted on war crimes in the United
Kingdom last week London's Chief
magistrate issued an arrest warrant for
General almog in relation to an
allegation that he committed a war crime
by ordering the destruction of 59
Palestinian homes in Gaza 3 years ago
but the general was tipped off about the
warrant and managed to avoid arrest by
staying on the L plane until it was back
in Israel better when here that the
former General who oversaw housing
demolitions in Gaza is the guy the
Israelis choose uh in order to enforce
this new plan for us shouldn't there be
a civil uh authority figure dealing with
this rather than a person from a
military background I think that I was
chosen or I was asked by the prime
minister to lead this Mission not due my
military career which consider as very
much heroic but uh as a social activist
I build not far away here in the netive
I built a village for severely the most
severely brain damaged children among
them beding and every year I was awarded
here in Israel as a
social uh by a social award in 200 2007
by Channel 2 is the man of the year and
2008 2009 and 2010 due my social
activity perhaps the real reason the
government chose you is because they
know know that you are not afraid to
demolish houses because you've done it
before no no it's not about uh
bulldozing houses about creating
communities our goal uh to
dramatically uh improve the life
standard of the bedin in the neg the
bedin right now considered as the
poorest people in Israel the better when
I spoken to they told me that they're
very concerned that the real purpose of
the plan is to take the bin off of land
that they live on and put them onto a
smaller piece of land you know any
uncertainty worry make make you worry
but the Israeli government decide to
invest in the South the desert about 40
billion shekel which is about 10
billion uh in the next 10 years I
believe about million Israelis will move
to the South due the economic incentive
that the government create right now
here in the netive and this boom may
bring the
beding uh economic employment education
so Israel sees its resettlement plan as
a public service but to many BN it's
still just a blatant land
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grab
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we're here in the nef desert and
activists have nominated today as a day
of Rage Against the Israeli plan and
that's why the police are out here in
forc today
the making this conflict because they
want to change us to be like a criminal
we didn't a criminal we use a peace way
until now I cannot take anybody that he
want to destroy my house I will stand up
against him with any way that I
can it looks like the older community
leaders are trying to get the younger
activists to go home they want to
diffuse the situation our responsibility
also not just to get our message to the
government against
this bad plan also to protect our young
people you know but they are very
emotional and they they just want to
fight with the police so that you can
protest another day
yeah since the creation of Israel the
bwin have for the most part remained
loyal to the Jewish State and haven't
linked themselves to the Palestinian
struggle Israel likes to showcase the
fact that about a thousand bedin even
serve in the nation's
military but their loyalty hasn't
translated into a standard of living
anywhere near that of their Jewish
counterparts across the country after
the creation of the state it was obvious
for us that we have to to bring them uh
to to live together and not to live uh
by moving from place to place all over
the desert you think this plan to
resettle them uh is treating them as a
threat now and not involving them
properly in the process of deciding
their own future there is a potential of
a conflict and if we shall see this
community as a threat or a Potential
Threat we shall create the process in
which
there will become a threat then it's a
self-fulfilling prophecy where you're
actually creating a security threat in
the future exactly uh this was our
assumption and it's already starting to
happen last year police indicted two men
for planning to blow up an army vehicle
they feared would come to demolish their
home in an unsanctioned Village they
were also accused of plotting a suicide
bombing at the beer cheva Central bus
station many of them believe believe
that we see them uh as a threat uh we
have to understand during the last 20
years this belief brought many of them
to adopt Muslim fundamentalism this is a
process that many Israelis believe that
it is a a threat it is creating we do
not understand their culture we do not
give them uh what they should
get uh as uh as citizens equal rights
equal
opportunities and uh and I believe that
we should do uh much
more we're in the neab desert and we're
driving to alarak which is one of the
bwin towns uh we're heading there now um
just to see what kind of conditions they
live in today it's little places like
this uh scattered around this area that
the Israeli government wants to bulldo
and uh they threaten to erase this
entire area off
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m
my house was
there here Muhammad house in this area
J I have two option the first option is
bad and the second more bad the bad to
continue my life in the cemetery but the
more bad to leave the area if I leave
the area the Army came and Clos
it this is closed
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area after months of protesting the
situation came to a boiling point with
scenes usually seen in Gaza and the West
Bank coming to the streets of Israel
itself the current resettlement plan has
been put on hold but it hasn't been
cancelled and the bin are now bracing
for an even harsher deal if you ask me
whether we did everything uh or we gave
them um the the
opportunities that they uh should get as
Citizens uh the level of Education that
they should get uh my answer is
no
I believe that no one want to to be
stuck in this Slam City you want a
change you need electricity you need air
conditioning the drainage running water
kindergarten healthc care system you
need all this Services if we will not
change our behavior when it comes to our
national or religious
minorities uh the threat uh will be
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real