-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52770-2002Mar19.html
>>>long and slow, but is it worth it><<<
}}}>Begin
washingtonpost.com
Another Arab Population Grows Angry at Israel
Long-Docile Bedouins Protest Their Second-Class Status After the Government
Destroys Their Crops
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 20, 2002; Page A23
LAQIYA, Israel -- A rectangle of brown, dead stalks lies sadly among surrounding
fields of newly sprouting wheat. At the edge of the ruined field, a sign with a skull
and
crossbones warns, Danger Poison.
The field was among a number of plots ruined by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
government, which last month sent out crop-dusters with herbicides to destroy 3,000
acres of wheat planted, without authorization, by Bedouin farmers in the arid Negev
region of southern Israel. The destruction has brought to the surface a long-
simmering feud between the small, impoverished Bedouin population and the
government in Jerusalem.
The Bedouins were nomads whose unfettered way of life, clannish sense of honor
and hospitality were the stuff of Middle Eastern legend. Since Israel was founded in
1948, they have been among the most docile of its Arab citizens. No longer. Years of
second-class status have bred resentment among the 140,000 of them, and for the
first time they are speaking out in militant tones.
To many Bedouins, the crop destruction symbolized a feeling that life in Israel is a
dead end. "If these problems are not dealt with properly, we will have an uprising
here, like the Palestinians," said Mohamed Abu Ibrahim Bader, who lost 75 acres to
the crop-dusters. "The longer this goes on, the more likely we will have an internal
explosion."
The incident came at a time when Israel is engaged in a grueling battle with
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while trying to tamp down frustrations
among its million- member, non-Bedouin Arab population.
"The more that Bedouins believe there is no end to their problems, the more fearless
they are becoming. They are willing to fight for rights," said Banna Shoughry-
Badarne, a lawyer for the independent Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Disputes between Bedouins and the government date from 1948. Tens of thousands
of Bedouins fled the founding war, never to return. The remaining population, which
numbered about 13,000, was herded into the northeastern part of the Negev, the
spade-shaped expanse of southern Israel. They were forbidden to return to ancestral
areas, which they had used for grazing and growing wheat.
In the 1960s, the government began an attempt to resettle Bedouins into seven
townships. About half the current population resides in the townships, and the rest is
spread among informal and, under Israeli law, illegal villages. The population of each
of the 45 "unrecognized settlements" varies from 500 to 5,000, usually members of
the same clan. The settlements lack water, paved roads and schools. Most of the
homes are made of tin.
To attract Bedouins to townships, the government offered subsidized housing -- as
long as the inhabitants gave up claims to outside land. Bedouins resisted. By
tradition, they prefer to live among members of their clan, rather than in a mixed
urban setting. It also turned out that the townships were bedroom communities -- no
provisions were made for industrialization or agriculture.
Bedouins were expected to find work in Jewish settlements or in Beersheba, the
largest Negev city. About 65 percent of the Bedouin population lives below the
poverty line.
Bader claims to own land near Laqiya, which is an officially recognized town 13 miles
east of Beersheba. After a few years of letting the land lie fallow, he decided to
plant
wheat. "This was a good year for rain. The return would be good," he said. "Anyway, I
have land. Why shouldn't I use it?"
He asserted that his family's ownership dates from Ottoman rule in Palestine, which
ended with the British mandate after World War I. He did not register it with British
authorities; many Bedouins resisted paying land tax to the foreign occupiers.
On the morning of Feb. 14, crop-dusters appeared over the flat horizon. "I thought it
was strange, but that maybe they came to kill insects on someone else's land.
Instead they came to kill my crops," said Bader, a retiree.
Within days, the entire crop wilted. Government agents arrived to put up warning
signs, even though the Infrastructure Ministry, which was responsible for the
poisoning, said the chemicals were harmless to humans.
Bedouins protested in Beersheba. An Arab representative in Israel's parliament,
Taleb Sana, told a television interviewer, "The Bedouin ought to equip themselves
with arms and go to war with Israel."
The government contends the land belongs to Israel and the plantings were illegal. It
was more efficient to ruin the crops by air than to send in security forces to clear
the
land, officials said. "These days police cannot give us the backing of 400 policemen,"
said Gabi Weisman, an official of the Israel Lands Administration, in an interview with
the newspaper Haaretz.
A lands administration spokeswoman, Ortal Tseabar, said that Bedouin "invaders"
had taken over land that was supposed to be rented to others by Israeli authorities.
The administration was "exercising its ownership," she added, and had warned the
Bedouins that poison was an option.
Bedouins were already upset over the government's recent destruction of a handful
of Negev houses. They were built on land the government also classifies as state-
owned. Technically, all the houses in unrecognized settlements are subject to
demolition.
"Anyone can have his house torn down any time," said Salamah Atrash, an army
veteran who has received a demolition order notice.
He lives among fellow clansmen in Wadi Ghwein, a cluster of makeshift houses
where about 2,000 people reside. Staying on the property is a means for the clan to
maintain its claim to ownership, Atrash said.
Atrash, 25, served in the army for 5 1/2 years. His stint included duty in the Gaza
Strip. He said he joined to show Israeli Jews that Bedouins supported the state.
Moreover, because much of the Negev is used by the military for training, Bedouins
frequently deal with officers on issues such as access to water and permission to
build roads.
"It is good policy to have relations with the army," Atrash said.
Having served in the army, and now having been served with a demolition order,
Atrash is disillusioned. "In the end, we are just another Arab enemy in Israeli eyes,"
he said. "If a young man comes and asks me if he should join the army, I don't
advise against, but I tell him it won't solve any problems. It won't end
discrimination."
Atrash said that Bedouin attitudes toward Israel have hardened since the late 1980s,
when Palestinians revolted and hundreds of stone-throwing protesters were shot
dead by Israeli troops. He kept his army membership secret from his family for six
months. He also endured insults from neighbors who branded him a traitor.
Mohamed Abdul-Kariim Bader, a high school teacher in Laqiya, concurred that the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict has awakened Bedouin anger. "We now know," he said,
"that an Arab is an Arab."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
End<{{{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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