diamond geezer
Feb 17, 2004, 03:24 PM
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/18FB7D67-7F52-44E9-8C5F-0E2AB9FE7799.htm
The Araqib tribe have farmed the land close to the city of Beer Sheva in southern Israel for generations. But in the past year the Israeli government has declared war on them and some 70,000 other beduin living in 45 communities it refuses to recognise in the Negev (al-Naqab).
On 15 January the authorities stepped up the pressure on the Araqib to leave by spraying powerful herbicides on their crops, making the young shoots shrivel and die in the following weeks.
It was the third time the Araqib's crops had been sprayed in the past two years by a government agency, the Israel Lands Authority.
"This time we hurriedly took what crops we could for feed," says Abu Darim. " .We made the mistake of giving them to our animals Nearly 400 of the sheep miscarried."
The recent campaign of crop-spraying by the authorities - more than 6000 acres have been destroyed over a wide area of the Negev in the last two years - is not the only weapon being used by the state.
Over the past 12 months, there has also been a wave of house demolitions, making nearly 2000 beduin homeless. At least three mosques have also been destroyed. Another 10,000 structures are under threat of demolition.
The surge in activity is not accidental. It is the result of a government plan, personally approved a year ago by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and backed by $200 million, to force the rural beduin off their lands and into a handful of urban reservations the state is building for them.
Critics have accused the government of plotting a quiet transfer of the beduin from their historic lands and the destruction of their traditional way of life.
Professor Yitzhak Nevo, of Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, says: "When crops are destroyed, the population is at risk of malnutrition and hunger. And that's what the government aims at: to use poverty and hunger to coerce the beduin to accept a townships policy."
If the beduin can be forced out of their villages, their place will be taken by 14 exclusive Jewish settlements and dozens more private farmsteads, modelled on Sharon's own huge agricultural estate in the Negev, known as Sycamore Ranch.Ê
In fact, even though the beduin comprise a quarter of the population in the Negev, they control only two per cent of its land.
Nonetheless, government ministers and officials accuse the beduin of "invading state lands" by refusing to be moved from their historic villages. Sharon himself gave a speech shortly before he became prime minister in which he said: "The beduin are eating away at the last land reserve of the state."
Tzachi Hanegbi, Israli minister of public security
Another minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, was recently rebuked by the attorney general for inciteful comments he made in August to a Jewish community concerning their beduin neighbours: "Come on friends, get a stick and beat any beduin criminal until he leaves.Ó
Ê
The Araqib tribe have farmed the land close to the city of Beer Sheva in southern Israel for generations. But in the past year the Israeli government has declared war on them and some 70,000 other beduin living in 45 communities it refuses to recognise in the Negev (al-Naqab).
On 15 January the authorities stepped up the pressure on the Araqib to leave by spraying powerful herbicides on their crops, making the young shoots shrivel and die in the following weeks.
It was the third time the Araqib's crops had been sprayed in the past two years by a government agency, the Israel Lands Authority.
"This time we hurriedly took what crops we could for feed," says Abu Darim. " .We made the mistake of giving them to our animals Nearly 400 of the sheep miscarried."
The recent campaign of crop-spraying by the authorities - more than 6000 acres have been destroyed over a wide area of the Negev in the last two years - is not the only weapon being used by the state.
Over the past 12 months, there has also been a wave of house demolitions, making nearly 2000 beduin homeless. At least three mosques have also been destroyed. Another 10,000 structures are under threat of demolition.
The surge in activity is not accidental. It is the result of a government plan, personally approved a year ago by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and backed by $200 million, to force the rural beduin off their lands and into a handful of urban reservations the state is building for them.
Critics have accused the government of plotting a quiet transfer of the beduin from their historic lands and the destruction of their traditional way of life.
Professor Yitzhak Nevo, of Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, says: "When crops are destroyed, the population is at risk of malnutrition and hunger. And that's what the government aims at: to use poverty and hunger to coerce the beduin to accept a townships policy."
If the beduin can be forced out of their villages, their place will be taken by 14 exclusive Jewish settlements and dozens more private farmsteads, modelled on Sharon's own huge agricultural estate in the Negev, known as Sycamore Ranch.Ê
In fact, even though the beduin comprise a quarter of the population in the Negev, they control only two per cent of its land.
Nonetheless, government ministers and officials accuse the beduin of "invading state lands" by refusing to be moved from their historic villages. Sharon himself gave a speech shortly before he became prime minister in which he said: "The beduin are eating away at the last land reserve of the state."
Tzachi Hanegbi, Israli minister of public security
Another minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, was recently rebuked by the attorney general for inciteful comments he made in August to a Jewish community concerning their beduin neighbours: "Come on friends, get a stick and beat any beduin criminal until he leaves.Ó
Ê
