DOCSLIB.ORG

The Negev Bedouin Within the Legal and Spatial Conflict with the State of Israel

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Negev Bedouin Within the Legal and Spatial Conflict with the State of Israel Fighting for the Community, Tradition, and Culture - The Negev Bedouin within the Legal and Spatial Conflict with the State of Israel Magdalena Lacka Supervisor: Dr. Polly Pallister-Wilkins Student number: 10394362 Second reader: Dr. Martijn Dekker Master: Conflict Resolution and Governance Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam Word count: 17499 June 2017 Abstract This thesis will study the Israeli land policies with respect to the Negev Bedouin. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Israeli land laws and spatial planning policies impact the Negev Bedouin’s ability to access their human and land rights. The empirical part of this study was conducted in May 2017. Data for this research was collected through the methodological triangulation of document analysis and semi-structured qualitative interviews with experts and NGOs’ representatives working with the Negev Bedouin. A theoretical framework based on settler colonialism theory and critical legal geography theory, was used. Another objective of this study was to focus on the issue of indigeneity with respect to the Negev Bedouin, as this issue seemed to be an essential factor in the Bedouin land dispute. The whole conflict between the the Negev Bedouin and the State of Israel will be further illustrated in the case study of the village of Umm al-Hiran, in order to better exemplify the issues at stake. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that the Israeli modifications to the Ottoman and British land laws have served as a basis for the Negev Bedouin land dispossession, while the other Israeli land laws provided the means to limit the allocation of land to the Bedouin and to pressure the Bedouin population in the Negev. Furthermore, the results show that the spatial planning instruments and development plans have been used as another form of dispossession by focusing on forced urbanization of the Bedouin community. At last, with respect to the issue of indigeneity, the results suggest the the Bedouin land dispute should be situated in the broader context of the Palestinian struggle. 1 Table of Content Abstract…….……………………………………………………………………… 1 ​ 1. Introduction ….…………………………………………………………………. 3 ​ 1.1. Research aim and objective……………………………………….. 3 ​ 1.2. Research issue…….………………………………………………… 4 ​ 1.3. Research questions….……………………………………………… 8 ​ 2. Literature Review………..……………………………………………………… 9 ​ 3. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………….. 14 ​ 4. Methodology…………………………………………………………………… 21 ​ 3.1. Overall goal………………………………………………………….. 21 ​ 3.2. Research strategy…………………………………………………... 21 ​ 3.3. Document and discourse analysis………………………………… 21 ​ 3.4. Empirical data……………………………………………………….. 22 ​ 3.5. Semi-structured interviews……………………………….………… 23 ​ 3.6. Ethics statement…………………………………………………….. 24 ​ 3.7. Limitations of the research…………………………………………. 24 ​ 5. Presentation and analysis of findings ………………………………………. 24 ​ 5.1. Israeli legal land system……………………………………………. 25 ​ 5.1.1. Israeli land policies……………………………..………… 26 ​ 5.1.2. Governmental bodies involved……………………..……. 32 ​ 5.1.3. Israeli spatial policies and development plans…………. 35 ​ 5.2. The case study of the unrecognized village Umm Al-Hiran…….. 45 ​ 5.3. The Negev Bedouin and the notion of indigeneity……………….. 48 ​ 5..4 The involvement of NGOs in the Bedouin issues……..……….…. 51 ​ 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… 54 ​ Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….. 57 ​ Appendix…………………………………………………………………………… 64 ​ 2 1. Introduction 1.1. Research aim and objective ​ This thesis will aim to explore the Israeli land policies in the Negev region, which is located in the southern part of Israel, and their impact on the Bedouin communities that have been living there. It will focus on the legal instruments that are used by the Israeli government in order to displace the Bedouin communities and dispossess them from their land. Most of these legal land policies have been introduced after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, however, the Israeli government also uses Ottoman State Laws and British Mandate Laws. According to Sandy Kedar, through the adoption of all of these laws, the Israeli legal system transformed land possession and acquisition standards in order to “undermine the possibilities of Arab landholders to maintain their possession” and make it possible for the State of Israel to absorb these lands into the state lands (Kedar, 2001 in Shmueli and Khamaisi, 2015, p.35). Alongside legal instruments, spatial planning is another “tactical tool and mean of dispossession” (Weizman, 2012, p. 5), and it will also be part of the analysis, as in 2013 the Israeli government approved the Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev, known as the Prawer Plan that planned displacement of 40% of the Bedouin in the Negev but it was shelved due to massive opposition and protests. However, in January 2017 the new 5-year plan was passed, which “declares it will push legislation based on (...) Prawer Plan” (Haaretz, 2016). The study is highly significant, as besides the land ownership disputes, the Bedouin communities have been living there since the 7th century and these are the lands they are culturally, traditionally and socially attached to, and which became the signifier of 3 their “traditional pastoral way of life” (Cook, 2011). In a broader spectrum this thesis will aim at depicting ongoing contemporary Zionist colonization and internal Judaization through the assessment of legal and spatial justifications for the forced displacement of the Negev Bedouin communities, communities that can also be seen as the indigenous people of these lands, but that are legally and spatially obstructed from their indigenous and human rights. Furthermore, as the need for the Bedouin displacement and the issue of land ownership is highly related to the desire of the Israeli government to develop and modernize the Negev region, this thesis will also study the developmental justifications the government officials use for this development. 1.2. Research issue ​ The Negev Bedouin are traditionally pastoral nomadic tribes that underwent a process of sedentarization during Ottoman rule (Goering, 1979). This process was fully completed after the creation of the State of Israel and the introduction of military administration, which limited the areas the Bedouin previously migrated to in search of water and grazing lands. During the fighting in 1948 large parts of the Negev Bedouin population fled to the neighboring countries and some of them were expelled abroad by the Israeli government. Most of the remaining 10 000 Bedouins were forced to temporarily move from the western to the northeastern part of the Negev, to which they were restricted to, due to “security reasons”. The lands they were removed from later on were classified as abandoned and therefore, expropriated by the State of Israel under the Land Acquisition Law (Goering, 1979), and were later on claimed by the Bedouin. Even though both Ottoman and British rule tried to enforce the registration of private lands, that was merely an aspiration as in the end only 5% of lands got registered. Ultimately, the British kept the tribal courts that were known for the Bedouin community 4 and adopted a new administrative and legal system in the Negev, that included the local Bedouin customs (Amara, 2013). However, the Israeli government together with judicial bodies developed legal instruments that were selectively based on Ottoman and British legislation that suited their imperial and colonial interests (Amara, 2013). They also passed 34 laws, including “the Absentees’ Property Law; the Emergency Regulations for the Cultivation of Waste Lands; the Land Acquisition Law; the Abandoned Areas Ordinance; the Emergency Regulations Law, and the Emergency Land Requisition Law”, that together with the British Mandate laws helped them to legally justify the expropriation of Arab lands (Kishk, 1981). Despite the application of these legal instruments, the Israeli government seems unable to completely resolve the Negev land issue. The negotiations between the Israeli Land Authority and the Bedouin land claimants started in the 1970s, however, they could not reach a solution (Amara, 2013). Since then, many of the Negev land ownership claims have stayed unresolved. The Israeli government has kept on trying to resolve the issue by various development plans such as the 2013 Prawer Plan for the Arrangement of Bedouin-Palestinian Settlement in the Negev that aimed at regulating the Bedouin settlement in the Negev including the unrecognized villages and ultimately “Judaizing the Israeli Negev” (Gordon & Perugini, 2013). According to Shmueli and Khamaisi, the Israeli spatial policy of Judaizing space is applied in the Negev region through “land ownership, spatial planning, and land management and spatial regime-dividing by municipal jurisdiction” (2015, p.35). It is essential to acknowledge that spatial planning is not only a technical operation but it can also be seen as a sociopolitical action, as it has to do with the distribution of resources and therefore, can be used as a political strategy (Alqasis, Azza, and Makhoul, 2014). The recent proposal to solve the issue of the Negev Bedouin’s land ownership and develop the region was passed in the beginning of 2017. It is a 5-year plan that is allegedly the Prawer Plan with a different name (Jan, 2017) and because of which, one 5 can anticipate the continuation of this land conflict impasse. This lack of conflict
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 'The Volunteer Tent'
    September 2012 SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES: 2011-12 AT ‘THE TENT’ – OUR ARAB-JEWISH BEDOUIN VOLUNTEER CENTER Celebrating a decade of social action and active citizenship, the ‘Volunteer Tent’ is NISPED-AJEEC’s flagship youth and young people’s community involvement program. In 2002, a small group of community activists from AJEEC pitched a tent of hope and change, founding the Arab-Bedouin Volunteer Center (The Volunteer Tent). Today, the Tent is a hub of volunteerism, community work and Arab-Jewish cooperation engaging some 700 volunteers and benefitting 10,000 people in the recognized and unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages of the Negev. The ‘Tent’ recruits volunteers from within the Arab-Bedouin community, provides them with professional training and ongoing supervision, identifies community needs and deploys volunteers throughout the Bedouin towns and villages of the Negev in a variety of programs designed to meet these needs. The primary focus of the ‘Tent” programs is on children and youth at risk. 1 In 2011-12, 700 volunteers: Arab Bedouin university and college students, high-school students; Jewish high school graduates from the Scouts youth movement and Arab Bedouin high school graduates, among them 67 full-time gap-year volunteers conducted a wide range of educational and social enrichment programs in which some 7,000 children and youth participated on a regular basis at least once a week throughout the year. Several thousand others – both children and adults- benefited from a variety of special community–based projects and activities organized by the volunteers in the Bedouin towns and villages of the Negev. An important factor contributing to the success of our volunteer programs are the strategic partnerships forged over the years and significantly expanded this year.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bedouin Population in the Negev
    T The Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Bedouins h in the Negev have rarely been included in the Israeli public e discourse, even though they comprise around one-fourth B Bedouin e of the Negev’s population. Recently, however, political, d o economic and social changes have raised public awareness u i of this population group, as have the efforts to resolve the n TThehe BBedouinedouin PPopulationopulation status of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, P Population o primarily through the Goldberg and Prawer Committees. p u These changing trends have exposed major shortcomings l a in information, facts and figures regarding the Arab- t i iinn tthehe NNegevegev o Bedouins in the Negev. The objective of this publication n The Abraham Fund Initiatives is to fill in this missing information and to portray a i in the n Building a Shared Future for Israel’s comprehensive picture of this population group. t Jewish and Arab Citizens h The first section, written by Arik Rudnitzky, describes e The Abraham Fund Initiatives is a non- the social, demographic and economic characteristics of N Negev profit organization that has been working e Bedouin society in the Negev and compares these to the g since 1989 to promote coexistence and Jewish population and the general Arab population in e equality among Israel’s Jewish and Arab v Israel. citizens. Named for the common ancestor of both Jews and Arabs, The Abraham In the second section, Dr. Thabet Abu Ras discusses social Fund Initiatives advances a cohesive, and demographic attributes in the context of government secure and just Israeli society by policy toward the Bedouin population with respect to promoting policies based on innovative economics, politics, land and settlement, decisive rulings social models, and by conducting large- of the High Court of Justice concerning the Bedouins and scale social change initiatives, advocacy the new political awakening in Bedouin society.
    [Show full text]
  • The Impact of Sanitation on Child Health in Vulnerable Populations: a Multicountry Analysis Across Income Levels
    The Impact of Sanitation on Child Health in Vulnerable Populations: a Multicountry Analysis across Income Levels by Jesse Doyle Contreras A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Epidemiological Science) in the University of Michigan 2020 Doctoral Committee: Professor Joseph N.S. Eisenberg, Chair Associate Professor Veronica Berrocal, University of California, Irvine Associate Professor Rafael Meza Assistant Professor Jon Zelner Jesse D. Contreras [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9766-2945 © Jesse D. Contreras 2020 For my brother, Gabriel Contreras, who ensured that I could be here today. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Joe Eisenberg, for your support throughout my master’s and doctoral education. I came to Michigan barely knowing what a Ph.D. was, but your guidance helped me navigate many new worlds without ever feeling lost. Over six years, you have repeatedly helped me find the meaningful story behind my own words, as well as the best local restaurants across three countries, and I am a much better researcher thanks to you. I would like to thank Dr. Rafael Meza for your kindness and for bestowing me with countless lessons, epidemiological and otherwise. Thank you to Dr. Jon Zelner and Dr. Veronica Berrocal for helping me to expand my understanding of statistical methods, which I could not have done without you, and for making this a much better dissertation in the process. I would like to thank the individuals who allowed this research to happen, including all of my co-authors, the Department of Epidemiology administrative team, and the master’s interns who gave key support from the field: Maxwell Salvatore, Grace Christensen, Moira Dickinson, Ruth Thomas, and Marie Kaniecki.
    [Show full text]
  • Israel 2020 Human Rights Report
    ISRAEL 2020 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Israel is a multiparty parliamentary democracy. Although it has no constitution, its parliament, the unicameral 120-member Knesset, has enacted a series of “Basic Laws” that enumerate fundamental rights. Certain fundamental laws, orders, and regulations legally depend on the existence of a “state of emergency,” which has been in effect since 1948. Under the Basic Laws, the Knesset has the power to dissolve itself and mandate elections. On March 2, Israel held its third general election within a year, which resulted in a coalition government. On December 23, following the government’s failure to pass a budget, the Knesset dissolved itself, which paved the way for new elections scheduled for March 23, 2021. Under the authority of the prime minister, the Israeli Security Agency combats terrorism and espionage in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. The national police, including the border police and the immigration police, are under the authority of the Ministry of Public Security. The Israeli Defense Forces are responsible for external security but also have some domestic security responsibilities and report to the Ministry of Defense. Israeli Security Agency forces operating in the West Bank fall under the Israeli Defense Forces for operations and operational debriefing. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security services. The Israeli military and civilian justice systems have on occasion found members of the security forces to have committed abuses. Significant human
    [Show full text]
  • Kaye College: Facing the Community
    Kaye College: Facing the Community 2011 C ontents 1 From the President 22 Facing the Community, Dr. Haya Kaplan 2 Greetings to Prof. Lea Kozminsky: 23 Students Volunteering in the Community, Rivka Ben Ya’acov, Head, Board of Governors, Kaye College Dr. Rina Shtilman Gila Nagar, Deputy Director General, Teaching Personnel 24 Drama as a Bridge to Conflict Resolution, Training and Professional Development Administration Faheema Alatawna Noach Greenfeld, Director, Education Department, 25 The Center for Enhancing Social Justice in Education and In Appreciation of our Supporters Ministry of Education Society: The UNESCO Chair at Kaye, Prof. Shlomo Back Our sincere thanks and appreciation for their support and generosity 3 Amira Chaim, Head, Southern Region, Ministry of 26 The School for Professional Development, Yael Sharabi are extended to the following: Education 28 Kaye College Welcomes Colleagues from the Academy of Ruvik Danilovich, Mayor of Beer-Sheva Municipality Special Education in Warsaw - Reflections of the Visit to Mr. Geoffrey Kaye and Family & Dr. Heftsi Zohar, Vice Mayor in Charge of Education Kaye College, Prof. Jan Łaszczyk, Prof. Edyta Gruszczyk- Ministry of Education Daniel Bar Eli, Secretary General, Israel Commission for Kolczynska, Dr. Marta Kotarba-Kanczugowska Ministry of Public Security UNESCO, Ministry of Education 31 Promoting Collaboration with York St. John University, UJIA 4 Dr. Michal Golan, Head, MOFET Institute, School of UK, Dr. Riva Levenchuk UJA Professional Development for Teacher Educators 32 From Texas to the Negev - The Visit of Prof. Rosalind The Pears Foundation 5 Prof. Jan Łaszczyk, Rector, Prof. Edyta Gruszczyk- Horowitz to the College, Sobell Foundation Kolczynska, Chairperson of the Institute for Human Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Israel (Includes West Bank and Gaza) 2020 International Religious Freedom Report
    ISRAEL (INCLUDES WEST BANK AND GAZA) 2020 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT Executive Summary The country’s laws and Supreme Court rulings protect the freedoms of conscience, faith, religion, and worship, regardless of an individual’s religious affiliation. The 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty describes the country as a “Jewish and democratic state.” The 2018 Basic Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People law determines, according to the government, that “the Land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people; the State of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People, in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination; and exercising the right to national self- determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People.” In June, authorities charged Zion Cohen for carrying out attacks on May 17 on religious institutions in Petah Tikva, Ashdod, Tel Aviv, and Kfar Saba. According to his indictment, Cohen sought to stop religious institutions from providing services to secular individuals, thereby furthering his goal of separating religion and the state. He was awaiting trial at year’s end. In July, the Haifa District Court upheld the 2019 conviction and sentencing for incitement of Raed Salah, head of the prohibited Islamic Movement, for speaking publicly in favor an attack by the group in 2017 that killed two police officers at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. In his defense, Salah stated that his views were religious opinions rooted in the Quran and that they did not include a direct call to violence.
    [Show full text]
  • The Urbanization of the Palestinian Bedouin in Southern Israel Ismael Abu-Saad American Behavioral Scientist 2008; 51; 1713 DOI: 10.1177/0002764208318928
    American Behavioral Scientist http://abs.sagepub.com Spatial Transformation and Indigenous Resistance: The Urbanization of the Palestinian Bedouin in Southern Israel Ismael Abu-Saad American Behavioral Scientist 2008; 51; 1713 DOI: 10.1177/0002764208318928 The online version of this article can be found at: http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/12/1713 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for American Behavioral Scientist can be found at: Email Alerts: http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://abs.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/51/12/1713 Downloaded from http://abs.sagepub.com at Tel Aviv University on December 10, 2008 American Behavioral Scientist Volume 51 Number 12 August 2008 1713-1754 © 2008 Sage Publications 10.1177/0002764208318928 Spatial Transformation and http://abs.sagepub.com hosted at Indigenous Resistance http://online.sagepub.com The Urbanization of the Palestinian Bedouin in Southern Israel Ismael Abu-Saad Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel Indigenous peoples share a history of exclusion from the dominant society decision- making processes that directly affect them, including their displacement and relocation, development initiatives, and the process of urbanization. This article begins with a review of indigenous experiences of and responses to urbanization in a number of nation-states throughout the world. It then examines the experience of the indigenous Palestinian Bedouin community in southern Israel, whose traditional lifestyle of land-based seminomadic pastoralism is being replaced by landless, labor force, government-planned urbanization.
    [Show full text]
  • The Denied Inheritance: Palestinian Land Ownership in Beer Sheba
    The Denied Inheritance: Palestinian Land Ownership in Beer Sheba Salman Abu Sitta Founder and President, Palestine Land Society, London Paper presented to the International Fact Finding Mission Initiated by RCUV, Beer Sheba Father: This land was Arab land before you are born. The fields and villages were theirs. But you do not see many of them now. There are only flourishing Jewish colonies where they used to be….because a great miracle happened to us… Daughter: How can one take land which belongs to someone else, cultivating that land and living off it? — There is nothing difficult about that. All you need is force. Once you have power you can. — But is there no law? Are there no courts in Israel? — Of course there are. But they only held up matters very briefly. The Arabs did go to our courts and asked for their land back from those who stole it. And the judges decided that yes, the Arabs are the legal owners of the fields they have tilled for generations. — Well then, if that is the decision of the judges… we are a law-abiding nation. — No, my dear, it is not quite like that. If the law decides against the thief, and the thief is very powerful, then he makes another law supporting his view. The father is Maariv founder and first editor, Dr. Israel Carlebach. This exchange was published in Maariv, 25th December 1953. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Original Sin It is impossible to examine the Palestinian land ownership in Israel outside the context of the general Palestine-Israel conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • Restoration of the Besor-Hebron-Be'er Sheva Stream
    Restoration of the Besor-Hebron-Be'er Sheva Stream A Transboundary Project Supported by the JNF Parsons Water Fund Center for Transboundary Water Management, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies Principle Investigators: Dr. Clive Lipchin, Tamee Albrecht, MSc Third Year Interim Report (March 1st, 2013-June 30th, 2014) 1 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Background ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Our Work .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Watershed Approach to Integrated Management .................................................................................... 7 Data Collection and Data Gaps ............................................................................................................. 10 Data Collected and Sources ............................................................................................................... 11 Data Processing and Integration ........................................................................................................ 12 Geodatabase Functionality Upgrades ................................................................................................ 12 Results ......................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Integrating the Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israeli Society: Time for a Strategic Change Ephraim Lavie
    Integrating the Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israeli Society: Time for a Strategic Change Ephraim Lavie Contributors: Meir Elran, Nadia Hilou, Eran Yashiv, Doron Matza, Keren Aviram, Hofni Gartner The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research Integrating the Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israeli Society: Time for a Strategic Change Ephraim Lavie Contributors: Meir Elran, Nadia Hilou, Eran Yashiv, Doron Matza, Keren Aviram, Hofni Gartner This book was written within the framework of the research program on the Arabs in Israel and was published thanks to the generous financial support of Bank Hapoalim and Joseph and Jeanette Neubauer of Philadelphia, Penn. Institute for National Security Studies The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), incorporating the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, was founded in 2006. The purpose of the Institute for National Security Studies is first, to conduct basic research that meets the highest academic standards on matters related to Israel’s national security as well as Middle East regional and international security affairs. Second, the Institute aims to contribute to the public debate and governmental deliberation of issues that are – or should be – at the top of Israel’s national security agenda. INSS seeks to address Israeli decision makers and policymakers, the defense establishment, public opinion makers, the academic community in Israel and abroad, and the general public. INSS publishes research that it deems worthy of public attention, while it maintains a strict policy of non-partisanship. The opinions expressed in this publication are the authors’ alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute, its trustees, boards, research staff, or the organizations and individuals that support its research.
    [Show full text]
  • Off the Map Land and Housing Rights Violations in Israel’S Unrecognized Bedouin Villages
    March 2008 Volume 20, No. 5 (E) Off the Map Land and Housing Rights Violations in Israel’s Unrecognized Bedouin Villages I. Summary.................................................................................................................................. 1 Key Recommendations..........................................................................................................6 II. Note on Methodology and Scope............................................................................................ 8 III. Background...........................................................................................................................11 Legal Basis for Land Confiscation........................................................................................ 13 Government-planned Townships......................................................................................... 16 Battle over Land Ownership ................................................................................................ 18 Unrecognized Villages.........................................................................................................20 Developing the Negev .........................................................................................................22 Is Resolution Possible? .......................................................................................................23 IV. Discrimination in Land Allocation and Access ......................................................................27 Land Ownership and
    [Show full text]
  • Peace and Ecology Tour to Negev and Gaza Border
    Peace and Ecology Tour to the Negev and Gaza-Israel border On February 4th, 2018, 70 people joined the Abrahamic Reunion South journey to meet religious, peace and ecology leaders in communities in the Negev and Gaza border region. Joining us were Jews, Christians and Muslims, sheikhs, a rabbi and a minister, men, women and children, including Palestinians from East Jerusalem, Nablus, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron, Israelis from Jerusalem, and the Negev, and students from an international conflict resolution course at Tel Aviv University. The event was in honor of World Interfaith Harmony Week, and in observance of 'TuBishvat', the Jewish 'New Year of the Trees' holiday. The day began with a welcome by Sheikh Tared Atouna, the Imam of the Bedouin city of Hura, to his town, where he met us in the community center. Sheikh Atouna shared with us many interesting facts about Hura. The town, on the 1967 border near Hebron, is one of the "planned" Bedouin cities in southern Israel with a population of 30,000, and part of the Negev's Bedouin population of 300,000. The Sheikh exclaimed "everyone has it wrong, Hura is NOT IN THE SOUTH of the country, but in fact is the true geographic CENTER! From Hura it's exactly 250 kilometers south to city of Eilat and 250 kilometers north to Rosh Haniqra. Also, according to Muslim tradition, the ancient "Joseph's Well" on the edge of their cemetery is the same pit that Joseph was thrown into by his brothers. The Muslims then prayed their mid day prayers.
    [Show full text]