Post by Teddy Bear on Jul 28, 2010 21:02:05 GMT
To relate to this story, you would have to imagine gypsies or travellers claiming an area 2/3rds the size of Wales, because they have been used to roaming those parts - picking up and moving on whenever it suited them, they feel it is their right to continue. If you're not already aware of the resulting problem it creates for the neighbourhoods they descend on, then you can read a story of one in today's Daily Mail.
As you can see in this article by the BBC on the subject of the contention surrounding traveller movements, despite their left-wing tree-hugging desire to show the traveller as a maligned yet positive benign force, which a search of the term 'gypsy' or 'traveller' on the BBC website will confirm, they do also present the argument from the 'other side'.
One has to wonder at the BBC enamour of the travellers, since almost certainly none of the will be paying their licence fee, and I'd love to see a TVL agent trying to interview one of these non-payers on a traveller site. I too can imagine how any of the BBC hierarchy would respond to these travellers descending on their land, and I doubt if they'd want to hug them.
But you can see in the BBC article the point of the government voice is given an airing:
Just to proveide some background, after the establishment of Israel, the Bedouin were allowed to keep existing permanent settlements and villages, provided they were permanently occupied. They also have full Israeli citizenship, as well as the rights and benefits that go along with it. Israel built additional towns for them so they could have stable lives and raise their families with full amenities, obviously different from what had been their historical roots, but needs and times had changed.
Many have integrated into modern life, notwithstanding, many attempt to exploit the system and knowledge of the land into taking over and developing areas for 'free'. Like ANY government, Israel's has a duty to control and limit their choices for the benefit of the whole society. It's a no-brainer!
Notice the emphasis on the use of the word 'homes', when in fact it would be tents and makeshift shelters. The article even tells that the subjects are from Rahat which is a Bedouin town in the Northern Negev, where undoubtedly they would have permanent residences, yet it wants to convince us that they are now HOMELESS.
It is so twisted that any BBC journalist reading this must surely see how racist and anti-Semitic your organisation has become.
Honest Reporting also covers this topic.
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See here (PDF) for more on current Israeli and ILA policy towards the Negev Bedouin.
Israeli society and the often forced process of urbanization is fraught with difficulties not to mention legal issues surrounding state owned land in the Negev.
Sadly, in today's anti-Israel climate, it is but a small step from one-sided reports to the type of demonizing invective employed by Neve Gordon that promotes the lie of an Israel set on "ethnically cleansing" its Arab minority. Even worse that Comment is Free is more than happy to give Gordon and others a soap box to peddle such extremist and false views.
See here for more on the Bedouin in Israel.[/size][/quote]
As you can see in this article by the BBC on the subject of the contention surrounding traveller movements, despite their left-wing tree-hugging desire to show the traveller as a maligned yet positive benign force, which a search of the term 'gypsy' or 'traveller' on the BBC website will confirm, they do also present the argument from the 'other side'.
One has to wonder at the BBC enamour of the travellers, since almost certainly none of the will be paying their licence fee, and I'd love to see a TVL agent trying to interview one of these non-payers on a traveller site. I too can imagine how any of the BBC hierarchy would respond to these travellers descending on their land, and I doubt if they'd want to hug them.
But you can see in the BBC article the point of the government voice is given an airing:
"...the same rules should apply to everyone in the UK, whatever ethnic background they come from:It's worth reading the whole article to see the difference when the BBC covers the story below about the Israeli government finally razing a Bedouin camp after 11 years of legal argument.
"It doesn't matter who you are; Romany, Russian, or jolly well Japanese.
"If you don't own the land, and you don't have permission to be there and you settle there, then you're breaking the law and the same law must apply to all."
Just to proveide some background, after the establishment of Israel, the Bedouin were allowed to keep existing permanent settlements and villages, provided they were permanently occupied. They also have full Israeli citizenship, as well as the rights and benefits that go along with it. Israel built additional towns for them so they could have stable lives and raise their families with full amenities, obviously different from what had been their historical roots, but needs and times had changed.
Many have integrated into modern life, notwithstanding, many attempt to exploit the system and knowledge of the land into taking over and developing areas for 'free'. Like ANY government, Israel's has a duty to control and limit their choices for the benefit of the whole society. It's a no-brainer!
Israel police raze 'illegal' Bedouin village in Negev
Police arrived at dawn and destroyed 30 to 40 makeshift homes
Around 300 Bedouins living in Israel's Negev desert have been made homeless after police raided their village and razed their homes.
Israeli activists said 1,500 police arrived in Al-Arakib village at dawn.
They destroyed 30 to 40 makeshift homes and uprooted hundreds of olive trees belonging to the villagers, they said.
Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the homes had been "illegally built" and were destroyed in line with a court ruling issued 11 years ago.
"Several hundred people were taken back to the Rahat area where they originally came from," he told the AFP news agency, referring to a nearby Bedouin town in Israel's arid south.
More than 150,000 Bedouin live in Israel, mostly in and around the Negev desert.
Around half live in villages that are not recognised by the state, and have no access to municipal services like water and electricity.
Many live in extreme poverty.
Land battle
At dawn on Tuesday, women and children in Al-Arakib watched as Land Administration bulldozers demolished their houses, Israeli press reports said.
Minor scuffles erupted as the villagers and around 150 rights activists tried to stop the police from carrying out the demolitions, said Chaya Noach, head of the Negev Coexistence Forum, a group fighting to protect the rights of the Bedouin in the Negev.
"We were stunned to witness the violent force being used," Al-Arakib spokesman Awad Abu-Farikh told Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot following the razing.
"This operation is the first step in the uprooting of many villages. We shall return to our villages, build our homes and not leave this place."
Olive trees were uprooted and orchards destroyed, activists said The authorities say all the homes are illegal, built without permission.
The Bedouin say they have lived in the area since before the foundation of the state of Israel.
They resist efforts to re-settle them in towns and villages, saying it goes against their traditional way of life.
A Land Administration official, Shlomo Tziser, told Yediot Ahronot the officers were implementing a final court order for the evacuation of the area.
"Today we shall evacuate them and should they return we'll do it again," he said.
Police arrived at dawn and destroyed 30 to 40 makeshift homes
Around 300 Bedouins living in Israel's Negev desert have been made homeless after police raided their village and razed their homes.
Israeli activists said 1,500 police arrived in Al-Arakib village at dawn.
They destroyed 30 to 40 makeshift homes and uprooted hundreds of olive trees belonging to the villagers, they said.
Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the homes had been "illegally built" and were destroyed in line with a court ruling issued 11 years ago.
"Several hundred people were taken back to the Rahat area where they originally came from," he told the AFP news agency, referring to a nearby Bedouin town in Israel's arid south.
More than 150,000 Bedouin live in Israel, mostly in and around the Negev desert.
Around half live in villages that are not recognised by the state, and have no access to municipal services like water and electricity.
Many live in extreme poverty.
Land battle
At dawn on Tuesday, women and children in Al-Arakib watched as Land Administration bulldozers demolished their houses, Israeli press reports said.
Minor scuffles erupted as the villagers and around 150 rights activists tried to stop the police from carrying out the demolitions, said Chaya Noach, head of the Negev Coexistence Forum, a group fighting to protect the rights of the Bedouin in the Negev.
"We were stunned to witness the violent force being used," Al-Arakib spokesman Awad Abu-Farikh told Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot following the razing.
"This operation is the first step in the uprooting of many villages. We shall return to our villages, build our homes and not leave this place."
Olive trees were uprooted and orchards destroyed, activists said The authorities say all the homes are illegal, built without permission.
The Bedouin say they have lived in the area since before the foundation of the state of Israel.
They resist efforts to re-settle them in towns and villages, saying it goes against their traditional way of life.
A Land Administration official, Shlomo Tziser, told Yediot Ahronot the officers were implementing a final court order for the evacuation of the area.
"Today we shall evacuate them and should they return we'll do it again," he said.
Notice the emphasis on the use of the word 'homes', when in fact it would be tents and makeshift shelters. The article even tells that the subjects are from Rahat which is a Bedouin town in the Northern Negev, where undoubtedly they would have permanent residences, yet it wants to convince us that they are now HOMELESS.
It is so twisted that any BBC journalist reading this must surely see how racist and anti-Semitic your organisation has become.
Honest Reporting also covers this topic.
Israel "Ethnically Cleansing" Bedouin Arabs?
The demolition of an unrecognized Bedouin settlement in the Negev attracts some foreign media looking to fit the story into their own one-sided agenda.
It had all the elements that the foreign press in Israel could have hoped for - a mass eviction accompanied by the destruction of homes, a large Israeli police presence, the potential for confrontation and, even better, the fact that those being evicted belong to the Arab minority within Israel.
So it was that CNN, BBC, AFP and the LA Times saw fit to cover the demolition of an unauthorized Bedouin settlement in the Negev region. Indeed, irrespective of the rights or wrongs of the issue, such scenes are never pleasant and involve some level of human suffering. The foreign media, however, based on the quotes of non-governmental organizations, managed to portray a complex story in very black and white terms.
Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free, notorious anti-Zionist academic Neve Gordon, not even bothering to address the wider context of the demolition, even went as far as to state that he
suddenly understood how far the state is ready to go to accomplish its objective of Judaising the Negev region; what I witnessed was, after all, an act of ethnic cleansing.
While the rest of the media did not sink to Gordon's level of vitriol, most of them certainly did nothing to dispel a one-sided narrative that portrays Israel as the usurper of Arab land. The status of the Bedouin in Israel is far more complex, as is this particular case of the demolished unrecognized village. As the Jerusalem Post explains:
As the Israeli press did, including the JPost and YNet, it is incumbent upon the media to include the necessary context and explanation. One is perfectly within one's rights to agree or disagree with Israeli government policies but it is wholly misleading to report on this story without including legal context.
[url=
www.mmi.gov.il/static/HanhalaPirsumim/Beduin_information.pdf]As the ILA explains (PDF format):
The demolition of an unrecognized Bedouin settlement in the Negev attracts some foreign media looking to fit the story into their own one-sided agenda.
It had all the elements that the foreign press in Israel could have hoped for - a mass eviction accompanied by the destruction of homes, a large Israeli police presence, the potential for confrontation and, even better, the fact that those being evicted belong to the Arab minority within Israel.
So it was that CNN, BBC, AFP and the LA Times saw fit to cover the demolition of an unauthorized Bedouin settlement in the Negev region. Indeed, irrespective of the rights or wrongs of the issue, such scenes are never pleasant and involve some level of human suffering. The foreign media, however, based on the quotes of non-governmental organizations, managed to portray a complex story in very black and white terms.
Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free, notorious anti-Zionist academic Neve Gordon, not even bothering to address the wider context of the demolition, even went as far as to state that he
suddenly understood how far the state is ready to go to accomplish its objective of Judaising the Negev region; what I witnessed was, after all, an act of ethnic cleansing.
While the rest of the media did not sink to Gordon's level of vitriol, most of them certainly did nothing to dispel a one-sided narrative that portrays Israel as the usurper of Arab land. The status of the Bedouin in Israel is far more complex, as is this particular case of the demolished unrecognized village. As the Jerusalem Post explains:
In the statement, the ILA [Israel Lands Authority] said that residents first "invaded" the area in 1998, were soon evicted, and returned a year later.
The ILA said residents had been asked to rent the land for agricultural purposes for NIS 2 per dunam (0.1 hectare), but "they refused to pay and continued to infiltrate the land year after year."
After an eviction notice was issued in 2003, the residents filed a petition that made its way to the High Court of Justice.
While the petition was being heard, the residents "continued to infiltrate and squat on state-owned land, and in fact expanded their infiltration through constructing illegal and unproved buildings, crudely trampling on the law," the ILA said.
In 2007, the Beersheba Magistrates's Court dismissed residents' request for a delay in implementation of the eviction orders and ruled that residents were "infiltrators repeatedly seizing state land after being evicted."
There are tens of thousands of illegal structures in Beduin communities in the country, and several thousand more are built each year; far more than the number the state manages to demolish. Many of these settlements lack basic services, with residents living "off the grid" and not paying municipal taxes.
As the Israeli press did, including the JPost and YNet, it is incumbent upon the media to include the necessary context and explanation. One is perfectly within one's rights to agree or disagree with Israeli government policies but it is wholly misleading to report on this story without including legal context.
[url=
www.mmi.gov.il/static/HanhalaPirsumim/Beduin_information.pdf]As the ILA explains (PDF format):
In recent years, some of the Bedouin residing in the dispersed areas have started claiming ownership of land areas totaling some 600,000 dunams (60,000 hectares or 230 square miles) in the Negev – over 12 times the area of Tel Aviv!
The Israel Land Administration (ILA) is doing everything in its power to resolve the problems of the landless Bedouin in the Negev. Although this matter is exceedingly complex given the large number of claimants (15,000) who represent the clans of the original claimants, investigation of all land ownership claims has been recently expedited... Instead of prosecution, Israel proposes to settle the conflict by offering extremely generous settlements in return for the withdrawal of the Bedouin's ownership claims. By 2006, the ILA's efforts to reach compromise agreements with Bedouin land claimants had resulted in agreements regarding 150,000 dunams out of the 800,000 dunams under dispute.
In addition:
- Israel is currently building 13 new villages or towns for the Negev Bedouin.
- The government of Israel has allocated more than NIS1 billion for the benefit of this population.
- The State of Israel is offering far-reaching benefits to Bedouin who leave the dispersion and move into permanent villages.
See here (PDF) for more on current Israeli and ILA policy towards the Negev Bedouin.
Israeli society and the often forced process of urbanization is fraught with difficulties not to mention legal issues surrounding state owned land in the Negev.
Sadly, in today's anti-Israel climate, it is but a small step from one-sided reports to the type of demonizing invective employed by Neve Gordon that promotes the lie of an Israel set on "ethnically cleansing" its Arab minority. Even worse that Comment is Free is more than happy to give Gordon and others a soap box to peddle such extremist and false views.
See here for more on the Bedouin in Israel.[/size][/quote]