Last update - 00:00 18/07/2007
Ministries seek AG okay for hiatus in demolition of Bedouin homes
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Wednesday to approve a proposal for a one-year hiatus in housing demolitions conducted in the 34 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev.
The proposal was authored by Boim and his predecessor, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, and is designed to allow the sides to explore solutions for the ongoing problem. In exchange, the Housing Ministry is demanding that the Bedouin communities agree to freeze construction during the hiatus.
Should Mazuz approve the proposal, which has been welcomed by the unrecognized villages, the Interior Ministry will stop issuing demolition orders.
According to the proposal, during the one-year hiatus the sides will act to preserve the status quo, and a committee headed by a Supreme Court justice will formulate a solution to the ongoing dispute between the state and Bedouin regarding land ownership in the Negev.
The committee will include Bedouin representatives, though not ones who have a direct ownership claim to the land in question.
The Bedouin claim ownership of some 800 dunam, which constitute roughly six percent of the Negev, saying they owned the land prior to the establishment of the State of Israeli in 1948. In addition, the Bedouin are demanding that the state recognize the 34 villages in question, which are home to some 80,000 people who have no running water or electricity.
Many of the villages' residents were displaced when their land was expropriated for the establishment of Jewish towns in the Negev. Over the years, Israel has transferred the Bedouin, a nomadic people, to seven permanent communities. Bedouin ownership claims on some of these communities' lands has prevented their development and consequently these towns suffer from a severe lack of infrastructure.
The Bedouin community's main complaint is that living in the towns makes it impossible for them to be farmers.
Until a few years ago, there were 46 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, although 12 have since received recognition. In the past year, authorities have demolished 110 homes in the remaining unrecognized villages.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Council of Unrecognized Villages demanded that any solution be agreed and not imposed.
In response to the proposal, Omer Council Chairman Pini Badash threatened Wednesday to petition the High Court of Justice against the hiatus. "The housing and interior ministers' scandalous proposal rewards criminals, and will cause irreversible damage," he said.
Yisrael Beteinu MK David Rotem also criticized the proposal, saying it proves that Kadima has lost its way.