The Mossawa Center called on the EU Subcommittee on Human Rights to support the rights of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev in a debate on Wednesday November 9th debate. Mossawa sent Adv. Rawia Abu Rabia and Mossawa International Advocacy Coordinator Samar Hawila to provide expert testimony in a hearing on the rights of Bedouins in Israel and Palestine and demand that the EU take action on preventing further home demolitions and forced displacement in the Bedouin community.
Adv. Abu Rabia is an expert on human rights violations against the Arab Bedouin minority and has litigated cases on Bedouin rights before the Supreme Court. Adv. Abu Rabia has been at the forefront of several civil rights cases concerning the unrecognized Bedouin villages and Bedouin women's rights. She has advocated for the individual and the collective rights of the Bedouin before the Israeli Knesset and several governmental committees.
Adv. Abu Rabia called attention to human rights abuses against over 80,000 Bedouins in unrecognized villages in the Negev. Thirty-five unrecognized Bedouin communities have been left without access to vital government services, including water, electricity, education, and healthcare. “The goal of these policies is to solidify government control over the Bedouin population,” Adv. Abu Rawia said. These citizens are calling on the government to allow them to live peacefully on their land. The government, however, is pushing the Bedouin communities to move to desperately poor urban towns and abandon their traditional pastoral and agricultural way of life. Bedouin women, in particular, face stark challenges, with the highest rates of unemployment in the country and Bedouin infant mortality at 3 times the national average.
Unrecognized Bedouin communities are also subject to home demolitions, often with no warning. Adv. Abu Rabia explained, “Israeli policies violate Bedouin’s rights to dignity and housing appropriate to their way of life.” In 2015 alone, 982 Bedouin homes were destroyed by Israeli forces or under Israeli orders. Notably, the village of Al-Araqib has been demolished 105 times since 2010. Since the 1950s, several plans, including the controversial Prawer Plan, have sought to force Bedouins from their homes and strip communities of their claims to the land. Bedouin communities advocate for their rights in Israeli courts and the Knesset and are fighting to gain full legal recognition.
In addition to demolitions in the Negev, the Ministry of Housing has ordered demolitions in other Arab localities in Israel. The Israeli government regularly refuses to issue building permits and expand areas of jurisdiction in Arab localities, forcing many residents to build illegally to combat overcrowding. Discriminatory building and planning policies have made growth and sustainable development nearly impossible in many Arab localities. Adv. Abu Rabia concluded, “If Israel is a Western, democratic country, it should act like it.”
The hearing can be viewed here.
