Prawer Plan

Israeli Police arrest a Bedouin protester during a demonstration against the Prawer Plan, Hura, Naqab Desert, November 30, 2013. (Activestills)

A pat on the back for condemning anti-Arab racism

A video of a popular children's entertainer mocking Bedouin children was widely condemned by Israeli society. But does the singling out of one racist prevent a real reckoning?

By Edo Konrad July 15, 2020

Leader of the Joint List, Ayman Odeh, casts his vote at a ballot station in Nazareth on election day for the 20th Knesset, March 17, 2015. (Basal Awidat/Flash90)

The Israeli right’s fury is driven by fear of Palestinian citizens

Palestinian citizens of Israel are intensifying their fight for equality. The right-wing has spent the last decade doing everything in its power to stop them.

By Amjad Iraqi December 27, 2019

Young Palestinians demonstrate against the Prawer Plan in East Jerusalem, November 30, 2013. (Photo: Activestills.org)

The case for a unified Palestinian protest movement

The Arab Higher Monitoring Committee is calling for a general strike against recent Israel-U.S. attempts to further repress Palestinians. This is an opportunity to involve a younger generation of activists, and coordinate a joint struggle. By Rabeea Eid Palestinians across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza are banding together in a general strike on October 1, in…

By +972 Magazine September 24, 2018

Latest

Bedouin women collect their belongings from the ruins of their demolished homes in the village of Umm al-Hiran, Negev desert, January 18, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Israel is razing a Bedouin village to build a Jewish-only town on its ruins

Israeli authorities have promised the courts that the displaced Bedouin residents would have an opportunity to live in the new community. New documents show that is far from the case. Despite assurances made to Israel’s High Court of Justice, a new town being built on the ruins of a Bedouin village in southern Israel is…

By Edo Konrad August 10, 2017

A Bedouin woman enters a tin shack in the unrecognized village of Umm el-Hiran, the Negev. November 22, 2016. Residents expected Israeli authorities to demolish the entire village a few hours earlier. (Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

From Umm el-Hiran, the future of Zionism looks bleak

Israeli authorities delay the demolition of the Bedouin village of Umm el-Hiran. But it’s just a matter of time. A regime that by definition privileges one national group at the expense of another, the indigenous group, has no choice but to destroy Umm el-Hiran for the benefit of the Jews waiting to move in. Despite…

By Orly Noy November 22, 2016

Police arrest a youth from Umm el-Hiran as construction crews prepare to build a fence around village homes, July 31, 2016. (Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality)

Authorities start process of replacing Bedouin town with a Jewish one

Israel moved the residents to the plot of land they lives on today. Decades later, the state wants to displace them again — to build a Jewish town on the ruins of their homes. Israeli police detained five people Sunday protesting the impending displacement of Umm el-Hiran, an “unrecognized” Bedouin village in southern Israel on top of which authorities…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man July 31, 2016

A view of the unrecognized Bedouin village of Um al Hiran, Negev, Israel, January 18, 2014. Roughly 200,000 Bedouins live in the Negev desert. About half living in the seven government built townships in the northeast of the Negev and half in unrecognized villages which lack basic services such as clean water, electricity and sanitation. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

100k Bedouin Israelis couldn’t watch Netanyahu’s ‘apology’ — they don’t have electricity

In a video shot in his office, Israel’s prime minister apologizes to the country’s Arab citizens for inciting against them. But a large portion of them couldn’t watch it — they live in ‘unrecognized villages’ that Israel refuses to connect to basic infrastructure like electricity, and the internet. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video addressing the country’s Arab…

By Mairav Zonszein July 27, 2016

Israeli security forces demolish structures in the ‘unrecognized’ Bedouin village of al-Araqib, Israel, June 29, 2016. (Azez Alaraqib)

Israel demolishes Bedouin village al-Araqib for 100th time

Al-Araqib is one of 35 ‘unrecognized’ villages in Israel that authorities refuse to provide with water, electricity or basic infrastructure. Israeli security forces demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib for the 100th time Wednesday morning. It was the second demolition during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, taking place while residents were fasting. The first…

By Mairav Zonszein June 29, 2016

A man from the Zanoun family sits on the ruins of his house a few hours after it was demolished by the Israeli Land Administration, in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Negev Desert, May 18, 2014. The family of seven people was living in the house demolished for being illegaly built. Wadi Al-Na’am is the largest unrecognized village in Israel, with about 13,000 inhabitants, most of its inhabitants are internally displaced. The village is not connected to electricity and its inhabitants are subjected to Israel's house demolition policy. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

New Jewish settlements planned ‘on top of’ Bedouin villages

The Israeli government approves a plan for five new settlements in the Negev/Naqab. Rights group says the plan, like Israel’s overall policy regarding its Bedouin citizens, is discriminatory. The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan for five new Jewish settlements to be built in the Negev (Naqab) in the south of Israel. The plan,…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland November 23, 2015

Israeli Police arrest a protester outside the village of Hura in the Negev, where a large demonstration took place against the Prawer Plan, November 30, 2013. The Prawer Plan, if implemented, will displace tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens of Israel. (Photo: Activestills.org)

Shin Bet threatens Bedouin activist, offers money to prevent protests

Agents of Israel’s security services raid the homes of several young Bedouin activists, summon them for ‘friendly chats’ and attempt to coax them into suppressing protests they claim undermine the ‘fundamental principles of the state.’ By John Brown* It’s Tuesday, just after midnight in the Bedouin town of Lakia in the Negev Desert. Black jeeps…

By +972 Magazine November 3, 2015

Two bulldozers and two police officers was all it took, Al Araqib, October 28, 2015. (Aziz Alturi)

Israel demolishes Bedouin village of Al Araqib — for the 90th time

Things have been quiet in the Negev lately. So the authorities decided to take advantage of this period of relative calm and, while everybody’s attention was elsewhere, sent the bulldozers to destroy the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al Araqib — for the 90th time. By Avi Blecherman Bulldozers returned to the Israeli Bedouin village of Al…

By +972 Magazine October 28, 2015

Mounted Israeli policemen chase a Bedouin youth during a protest against the Israeli government's Prawer Plan, on road 31 on November 30, 2013 near the town of Hura, Israel.

Is Bibi using J’lem violence as an excuse to target all Arabs?

Netanyahu is trying to expand the open-fire regulations so that they target Arabs inside Israel. The outcome? Only more bloodshed. By John Brown* and Michal Rotem For the past few weeks it has been difficult not to avoid reports on stone throwing in East Jerusalem. Government representatives compete with one another over who will offer…

By +972 Magazine September 26, 2015

Sanda Abulkian sits outside her demolished house in the unrecognized village of Atir on July 12, 2013. The Abulkian house has demolished four times already, three of them during 2013. (Photo: Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

A living legacy of displacement

The impulses that drove the dispossession of the 1948 war are still acted on today, on both sides of the borders it forged. “Did you know I’m afraid of sleeping? … I’m scared of sleeping and waking to find myself in a strange land whose language I can’t speak. I’m scared I won’t wake up.” —Elias…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland June 19, 2015