Contact: Anna Rose Siegel
International Advocacy Coordinator
The Negev Coexistence Forum
Tel: +972 54 205 6821
Email: anna@dukium.org
Monday, 26 February, 2013 (Beer Sheva, Israel): The Negev Coexistence Forum published as position paper detailing the organization’s concerns about the recent Begin Plan. The position paper was published as follows:
Thursday, 20 December, 2012 (Beer Sheva, Israel): The Negev Coexistence Forum has learned of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands—SPD)’s project to plant trees on Bedouin land in the Negev. The Forum is highly concerned that this forestry project has and will continue to dispossess Bedouin of those lands for which they are currently fighting in court. The Negev Coexistence Forum sent the following letter to SPD Members:
11 December 2012
Be’er Sheva, Israel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Swiss Ambassador to Israel, His Excellency Andreas Baum, visited three Bedouin villages on a fact-finding mission to the Negev desert region of southern Israel on Tuesday, December 11.
The Ambassador’s meeting with Bedouin leaders in the unrecognized village of Al Arakib early Tuesday morning was interrupted when half a dozen Israeli police vehicles sped over the hillside towards the tent the Ambassador was sitting in.
10 December 2012
Be’er Sheva, Israel
Contact: Michal Rotem
+972-(0)54-585-1700, michal@dukium.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On the occasion of Human Rights Day 2012, the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality has released a new report, titled “Processes of Dispossession in the Negev-Naqab: The Israeli Policy of Counter Claims against the Bedouin-Arabs.”
The report outlines the flaws inherent to the Israeli government’s policy of submitting counter-claims against Bedouin land claims in the Negev, the country’s southern desert region. The counter-claiming policy is one of several strategies employed by the Israeli government to further dispossess its Bedouin citizens in the Negev of their ancestral lands.
In the early morning hours of November 12, hundreds of Israeli police stormed the recognized Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj. The police officers were accompanied by representatives of the Israeli Ministry of Interior, who attempted to distribute home demolition orders to village residents.
Soon after their arrival in Bir Hadaj, the Israeli police fired tear gas, and rubber and sponge bullets at residents, injuring many people, including women, children and the elderly. 19 residents –including 7 minors– were arrested in the clashes that ensued, and 29 children were subsequently taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva to be treated for tear gas inhalation.
In Bir Hadaj, the Israeli police used tactics usually saved for the occupied Palestinian territories, including the use of undercover forces disguised as Arabs, known as Mistaravim in Hebrew, whose goal it is to create provocations and incur a violent response from the Israeli security forces.
It seems clear that Israel is moving forward rapidly with its plan to forcibly evict 30,000 Bedouin citizens from their homes and villages in the Negev, known as the Prawer Plan. In September and October, NCF witnessed dozens of home demolitions in Bedouin communities in the Negev, and an increase in police violence during this destruction.
Tactics used regularly by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem are now being used inside the Green Line against citizens of the state. This reality demonstrates the fact that the Israeli government doesn’t view the Bedouin as full citizens.
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Contact: Michal Rotem
+972-(0)54-585-1700, michal@dukium.org
PRESS RELEASE: MUNICIPALITY REFUSES TO RELOCATE WINE FESTIVAL FROM SACRED MOSQUE GROUNDS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michal Rotem
+972-(0)50-939-1299
michal@dukium.org
September 1, 2012
Be’er Sheva, Israel
On 26 August 2012, the Negev Coexistence Forum (NCF) sent a letter to mayor of Be’er Sheva, Ruvik Danilovich, urging him to intervene and relocate the “Wine Festival” set to take place from September 5-6 on the sacred grounds of the city’s historical Big Mosque. NCF also sent letters to Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Holding the wine festival right next to the mosque, the NCF Secretariat argued, is a display of “dishonor toward the place and its believers,” who continue to be denied the right to use the mosque for prayer. “In the whole city, there is no mosque which can respond to the needs of the thousands of Muslims who come to the city each day and support its economy,” the NCF letter read.
PRESS RELEASE: UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights vows to pressure Israel on Arab-Bedouin rights violations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2012
(Be’er Sheva, Israel) – Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF) representative Dr. Mansour Nasasra met privately with the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, to discuss Israeli violations of Arab-Bedouin rights in the Negev region.
Press Release
The Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL) broke its promise today, and resumed working on land belonging to the residents of the Bedouin village of Al Arakib.
Media Advisory
Media Advisory:
Israeli and American Jewish Groups Condemn Israeli Government and JNF for 7th Demolition of Negev Bedouin Village of Al-Arakib.
