Benny Begin

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, MK David Bitan, Culture Minister Miri Regev and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a Knesset plenum session, December 5, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Welcome to Netanyahu’s Westworld

Israelis have a choice: they can either oppose the occupation or watch the Right turn their country into a sadistic theme park. By Alon Mizrahi ‘Westworld’ is a new science fiction television show that revolves around a futuristic amusement park populated by androids. Westworld caters to high-paying guests who can do whatever they wish within…

By +972 Magazine December 11, 2016

Bedouins and other activists shout slogans during a protest against the Israeli government's Prawer Plan, on road 31 near Hura, Israel, on November 30, 2013.

So we meet again, Prawer Plan

In 2013, when the government shelved a plan to displace thousands of Bedouin from their villages, we rejoiced. Now, less than two years on, it’s back on the table. And so is our struggle. By Huda Abu Obeid The following is what I wrote in December 2013, when then Minister Benny Begin suspended the Prawer Plan,…

By +972 Magazine May 11, 2015

Activists and Bedouin residents protest against the Israeli Knesset Internal Affairs Committee tour in the Negev, regarding the Prawer Plan, in the Bedouin village of Al Sayyed, November 24, 2013. (Photo: Activestills.org)

Having never asked, Israel’s gov’t ‘surprised’ Bedouin reject Prawer

Israeli coalition leader Yariv Levin predicted that the cabinet will likely throw out the current version of the Prawer Plan, hours after former minister and co-architect of the plan Benny Begin clarified that he never said Bedouin supported the plan, as some Knesset members originally perceived. “I wish to again make clear that contrary to what…

By Mairav Zonszein December 10, 2013

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Map of the planned Prawer-Begin Plan (Courtesy of MK Dov Khenin)

See the Prawer Plan map Israel’s government was keeping secret

Former minister Benny Begin, who helped draft the Prawer Plan, denies saying Israel’s Bedouin support the plan: How could they if they never even saw it? (Click the map to enlarge.) Until now, nobody knew the extent of the Prawer-Begin Plan. No government official or statement has detailed how many Bedouin citizens will be displaced,…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man December 9, 2013

A Bedouin woman after authorities demolished her village of Al Araqib, January 16, 2011 (Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

Revisions to Prawer Plan for Negev Bedouin expose the farce of law in Israel

The latest revision to the Prawer Plan, which will eventually displace tens of thousands of Arab Bedouin from their ancestral land in the Negev (Naqab), in some ways improves its tone toward the Bedouin. But the Arab Bedouin community has resolutely rejected the Prawer Plan, and Benny Begin’s latest report reminds us succinctly that the law was never…

By +972 Magazine February 3, 2013

Five comments on the (troubling) situation

What does the appointment of Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i to ambassador of China really mean? Why is Yair Lapid whining? Which is the most interesting political teaming-up so far? What is one of the main goals of the war on Iran campaign? And what do we know of Netanyahu’s crime solving abilities? Ni…

By Ami Kaufman February 13, 2012

Izzie in HolyLand – Part 18: Egyptian revolution raises tough issues

As Izzie watches events unfold in Cairo, it begins to dawn on her just how precarious this new situation is Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Ruth: Yes, Ms. HolyLand? Izzie: Ruth, get me all seven kitchen cabinet ministers in here. Pronto! Ruth: Yes, Ms. HolyLand, right away. In walk Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister…

By Ami Kaufman February 5, 2011

Hard right hearts human rights on Knesset NGO inquiry

Some members of the hard right have harshly criticized the Knesset inquiry into human rights NGOs. They seem to believe that Israel can continue to rule the Palestinians while respecting their rights. This contradiction is enabled through sophisticated mechanisms of privatization, which may be a greater danger for Israel than fascism Benny Begin, the son of late…

By Roi Maor January 7, 2011