Yatir

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 Soffer-Roth November 23, 2015

A Bedouin man confronts Israeli policemen during the destruction of the unrecognized village of Al-Araqib (photo: Activestills)

Why is JNF UK throwing a Bedouin-themed party?

The JNF has played a fundamental role in the displacement of the villagers of al-Araqib, an unrecognized Bedouin village that Israeli authorities demolished for the 90th time last week. Later this month the organization is holding a ‘Bedouin Night’ party in London. The Jewish National Fund in the United Kingdom (JNF UK) will be hosting a…

By Edo Konrad November 10, 2015

Israeli right wing activists are seen at the outpost they built in the E1 area outside the settlement of Maale Adumim in response to the murder of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers on July 1, 2014 in the West-bank. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Why is a settler council reaching across the Green Line?

Located inside Israel proper, a tent encampment belonging to residents of a yet-to-be-built Jewish town — meant to replace an existing Bedouin village — is being managed by a West Bank settler council. By Noam Rotem The state’s behavior in the saga of Umm el-Hiran, a small Bedouin village inside Israel’s sovereign borders, is in…

By +972 Magazine September 13, 2015

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Sanda Abulkian sits outside her demolished house in the "unrecognized" village of Atir on July 12, 2013. Abulkian house was demolished four times already, three of them during 2013. The family has since received a demolition order for the tent in which they live now. (Photo by: Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

The ‘new Zionism’ is turning Negev Bedouin into a myth

As the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran prepares to be replaced by a Jewish town with a near-identical name, its residents are offering solutions based on real co-existence. By Ariel Dloomy In July 2007 I witnessed one of the saddest events of my life. Hundreds of security force personnel descended upon the Bedouin village of…

By Haokets June 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 Soffer-Roth June 19, 2015

Ali Abu Al-Qi’an speaking to a group visiting Atir on May, 23 2015. (Photo by Lina Othman)

Bedouin village of Atir to be replaced with forest of ‘Yatir’

Atir is hardly the first case in which forestation has been used by the Israeli government and the JNF as a method of displacement and land grabbing against Palestinians — on both sides of the Green Line. “Apparently in Israeli democracy, the state is permitted to uproot Arabs from their homes and plant trees in…

By Amjad Iraqi June 16, 2015