The Bedouin in the Naqab : The Invisible Palestinians and the Prawer Plan

1. The Bedouin in the Naqab: The Invisible Palestinians and the Prawer Plan Dr. Thabet Abu RassDirector of Adalah’sNaqab Officethabet@adalah.org

2. The Naqab • The total area of the Naqab (Negev) is 12,800 km2 or roughly 60% of the total land of Israel • Two-thirds of the Naqab is unavailable for civilian use and is reserved for military purposes, forests and recreational areas • Only 10% of the Israeli population live in the Naqab

4. The Arab Bedouin in the Naqab: • Members of the indigenous Palestinian Arab minority who remained on their ancestral lands in the Naqab after the establishment of the State in 1948 • Have inhabited the Naqab since the 7th century practicing a traditional agricultural lifestyle, and had already began organizing into distinct settlements by the 16th century • The word Bedouin comes from the Arabic word for desert (“badiya”) and refers to their unique way of life

5. The Arab Bedouin Today:Basic Statistics • Population – 200,000 • Percentage of the total population of the Naqab – 30% • Population living in unrecognized villages – 90,000* • Natural growth rate – 4.4%** • Projected population in 2030 – 430,000 * There are 46 “unrecognized” villages, 10 of which are in the process of recognition by the state (Abu Basma villages) **The Arab Bedouin have one of the highest natural growth rates in the world, with the population doubling itself every 17 years

6. The Arab Bedouin Today:Socio-Economic Data • Socio-economic ranking of Bedouin localities – 1* • Percentage employed in the formal labour market – 30% • Percentage employed in the informal labour market – 19% • Percentage living below the official poverty line –67.2% • Percentage of population under age 20 – 63% • Number of pupils in the school system – 99,000 *Local authorities in Israel are ranked by the government on a 10-point socio-economic scale, where 1 represents the lowest and 10 is the highest ranked localities.

7. Unrecognized Village of Assir

8. Israeli Government Policies towards the Arab Bedouin since 1948 • 1950s - To concentrate the Bedouin who remained in the Naqab after the establishment of the State (11,000 out of 90,000) into the northern “Siyag” region • 1970s - To forcibly urbanise the Bedouin in the Naqab • Today - To terminate Bedouin land ownership claims by expropriating and confiscating Arab land in the Naqab

9. Siyag Region in Northern Naqab

10. Implementation of Israeli Policies • Marginalizing the Arab Bedouinwith regard to public participation and withholding basic services • Restricting movement and traditional trade routes between the Arab Bedouin and Palestinians living under occupation • Fragmenting society through the preferential treatment of some individuals and communities, thereby creating classes of Bedouin (e.g. landowners and land-less Bedouin) and promoting tribalism within government planned towns

11. “This phenomenon called ‘Bedouin’ will disappear” – Moshe Dayan, 1963 “The Bedouin must be made municipal workers in industry, services, construction, and agriculture. 88% of Israeli residents do not work in agriculture. The Bedouin will be included among them. The transition will be sharp, however. It means that the Bedouin will not be on his land and with his herd; he will be a city dweller who comes homes in the afternoon and puts on a pair of slippers. His children will get used to a father who wears pants, carries no dagger, and does not remove head lice in public. They will go to school with their hair combed and parted. It will be a revolution. How can this be organized within two generations? Not by force, but with governmental direction. This phenomenon called ‘Bedouin’ will disappear.” (Shamir, 2000).

12. Land: The Fundamental Problem • The State of Israel has never recognised the right of the Arab Bedouin to their ancestral land and view the Bedouin as trespassers on State Land. • However, traditional ownership of land was recognized by the Ottoman government and the British Mandate, and Israel also recognized the transactions of pre-state Jewish settlers who purchased land from the Bedouin • But under Israeli law, no Bedouin has been able to make a successful claim land in court

13. “We are facing a serious problem in the Negev…” – Ariel Sharon, 2000 • “…around 900,000 dunams of government land are not in our hands, but in the hands of the Bedouin. I, as a resident of the Negev, witness this problem every day. It is, essentially, a demographic phenomenon… the result of weakness, and also perhaps of under-awareness of the issue. As a state, we are doing nothing to tackle the situation… The Bedouin are grabbing new areas. They are taking land from the state’s land reserves and no one is doing anything serious about it.”

14. Maariv(evening newspaper)14 February 2001 The Bedouin are taking over the Negev

15. Land Statistics (in acres) • Original land claims – 242,750 • Total land purchased by Israel – 42,750 • Actual disputed land – 200,000 • Area recognized as disputed by the State – 150,000 • Area under direct Bedouin control – 98,850 • Area not under direct Bedouin control – 51,000 • Number of initial claimants in the 1970s – 3,221 • Number of claimants today – 23,800 • “State” land controlled by Bedouin without ownership claims – 42,125

16. What is the Goldberg Committee Report? • The Goldberg Committee Report, named for its chairman, former Supreme Court Justice Eleizer Goldberg was commissioned by the Israeli government to examine and propose a possible solution for the permanent settlement of Bedouin citizens in the Negev. • The Committee of 8 included 2 Arab Bedouin (though neither residents of unrecognized villages) held public hearings for the Bedouin community and in 2008 arrived at three main recommendations: • Recognize the unrecognized villages on condition that the decision does not contradict official plans for the Southern District of Israel • Immediately deny 50% of land ownership claims and negotiate over remaining claims • Establish a committee to implement these decisions

17. The Goldberg Recommendations: Pros and Cons Pros: • Moral statements about Bedouin citizenship and their historic tie to the land: “The Bedouin are citizens who are entitled to equality…and are not invaders [of the land]” • Recognize “as many [unrecognized villages] as possible” • Call to halt demolition of homes Cons: • Immediate confiscation of 50% of Arab Bedouin land claims • Conditioning the recognition of villages on 1) Compatibility with regional master plans (TMM 4), and 2) Whether the villages meet criteria of population density, continuity, size and economic capacity, which do not apply to Jewish towns in the Naqab

18. What is the Prawer Committee Plan? • The Prawer Committee, named for the its chairman, former deputy chairman of the National Security Council Ehud Prawer, was commissioned by the government to implement the Goldberg Committee Recommendations. • The Committee was established in 2009, contained no Bedouin representatives, conducted no public hearings, and presented its final plan (Prawer Plan) to the government in September 2011.

19. Implementation of Goldberg? • The Prawer Committee ignored key recommendations made by the Goldberg Committee – including recognizing the unrecognized villages and freezing home demolitions – and did not emphasize that the Arab Bedouin are equal citizens of the state with historical, ancestral ties to the land. • As such, the Prawer Plan cannot be fairly viewed as an implementation of Goldberg, or an extension of the “Goldberg process”

20. The Prawer Plan: Structure Two Main Components* • The decision to legislate a law via the Knesset to 'resolve ownership claims and compensation for these claims' with strict enforcement mechanisms and a 5-year timeline; • The Prawer Plan Law was presented on 3 January 2012 and the public hearing period is set to end on 1 April 2012 • A restrictive planning arrangement for possible Bedouin settlement within a specific, clearly demarcated region in the Naqab * The report also includes a socio-economic development component that will provide support to existing recognized or planned Bedouin villages to absorb the Bedouin community displaced by the plan.

21. The Prawer Plan Law: Legislating Bedouin Land Claims and Compensation Who is eligible for compensation? • An eligible claimant is a person, his spouse or successor, who submitted a 'claims memorandum' before 24 October 1979, and whose ownership claim was not subsequently rejected by an administrator or a court of law (Art. 25-30) • These original claimants are the only persons able to enter into the compensation process.

22. The Prawer Plan Law: Main Elements Ownership Claims and Compensation • To immediately transfer 50% of land claims to the State • To provide compensation for up to 50% of remaining land, subject to various conditions including the type of land claimed and whether there is the full agreement of all heirs and descendants • To provide compensation in the form of land (in a location to be determined by the State) only if the land claimed is currently under the direct control of the claimant; if the claimant is claiming land over which they do not currently have direct control (often due to decades of forced internal displacement), they can only receive minimal monetary compensation

23. The Prawer Plan Law: Implementation and Enforcement • Timeline: The Prawer Plan is intended to put an end, within five years, to 'all of the activity surrounding the issue of the lands and to most of the efforts involved in the planning of settlement solutions, and even to a significant part of their implementation.’ • Enforcement: The Israel Lands Authority is permitted to enter the land and remove any object or person “and to employ all measures (including reasonable force) to ensure that the eviction order is fulfilled and implemented.” (Art. 71) • Authority: The Prime Minister is responsible for the implementation and enforcement of this law and is authorized to set any regulation to that end. (Art. 83)

24. Adalah’s Critique of the Prawer Plan Law: • The Law legitimizes the displacement, dispossession, eviction and demolition of tens of thousands of Arab Bedouin, citizens of Israel. • The proposed 50% rate of compensation, conditioned on relinquishing the first 50% to the State, is unacceptable. • The Arab Bedouin will be able to claim ownership over no more than 16% of their ancestral land. • The plan discriminates between those Bedouins those who are currently living on their land and those who are not • The 5-year time-line, after which any remaining land claim is registered in the name of the State, is unprecedented, unrealistic, and unjust • The role and wide discretion of the Prime Minister is inappropriate and unrestrained

25. The Prawer Plan Planning Arrangement: Planning Arrangement for Permanent Bedouin Settlement • To displace 70,000 Arab Bedouin from their villages • To demolish the majority of the unrecognized villages, and concentrate the Bedouin in the 7 government-planned towns and Abu Basma villages • To restrict Bedouin settlement to the Northern Naqab and east of Route 40 • To position the Prime Minister’s Office to deal with the matter directly with wide discretion to remove any land from the planning arrangement

26. Adalah’s Critique of the Prawer Plan:Planning Arrangement for Bedouin Settlement • No Arab Bedouin was consulted in this planning process • The planning arrangement prohibits Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel from inhabiting or claiming land in entire areas • The “solution” for Bedouin settlement entails demolishing most of the unrecognized villages and expulsing 70,000 citizens • The plan is intentionally vague: it does not contain a detailed map, names of villages affected or actual amounts or location of the land • The Prawer Committee adopted the Goldberg Committee’s new criteria for establishing Bedouin towns (population density, continuity, size and economic capacity) that do not apply to Jewish towns in the Naqab • It discriminates between Arabs and Jews in land and planning in the Naqab

28. Adalah calls on the Israeli government to: • Cancel the Prawer Plan Law • Recognize the “unrecognized” villages and the rights of the Arab Bedouin to their ancestral land • Halt home demolitions and forced evictions • Engage in a meaningful dialogue with the Arab Bedouin, and the leaders of the Arab citizens of Israel JOIN US

29. For more information see: • Thabet Abu Rass, “The Arab Bedouin in the Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab (Negev): Between the Hammer of Prawer and the Anvil of Goldberg,” Adalah’s Newsletter, Vol. 81, April 2011 • Government Decision, Confirming the Recommendations for Regulation of the Bedouin Settlement in the Negev, 11 September 2011 • The Law for the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev - 2012