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Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality will start summer course for spoken Arabic for beginners. The course will start at the end of July. The course will be taught by a qualified teacher. The goal of the class is to provide the students with vocabulary needed for basic conversation. The course will run only if more than ten people sign up.

Spoken Arabic for beginners – intensive summer course
Duration and dates:32 academic hours, fore lessons per week for 3 weeks. The first lesson will be on Sunday July 25th at 17:00, at Multaka-Mifgash, No. 7 King Salomon St. Beer-Sheva (in the shelter).
Cost: 500 new Israeli shekels.

Registration and questions:For more information please send an email to: michal@dukium.org . The fee will be paid in advance (up to 3 installments) at the end of the first lesson. After the second lesson, there will be no reimbursements.

Bedouin Lands Case: The state's expert witness has no clear answers

Judicial proceedings in the Bedouin Land Case resumed this morning (Wednesday) at the Beersheba District Court, with Att. Michael Sfard continuing the cross-examination of Prof. Ruth Kark of the Hebrew University, the state's expert witness.

Among other things Sfard asked: "In your expert opinion submitted to the court, you stated that the Negev lands have always been state land – "Mawat Lands" in Ottoman Law – in which the Bedouins had no ownership rights. How, then, would you explain the fact that when the city of Be'er Sheba was established in 1900, the Ottoman authorities bought the land on which the city was established from the Azazme Bedouin Tribespeople? Why should the government have to pay for the land which was its own property anyway?" Professor Kirk said that she had no clear answer, and that this case was probably an exception.

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The accusations: destruction of trees and governmental property. The truth: increasing the pressure to force the family off their ancestral lands: the village of Twail Abu-Jarwal.

For more information: Dr. Yeela Raanan, RCUV.
yallylivnat@gmail.com +972 54 7487005

Tomorrow (Wednesday) will resume the cross-examination of the state's expert witness in the Bedouin Land Case. In a previous session, Attorney Michael Sfard exposed contradictions and inaccuracies in Prof. Kark's expert opinion presented to the court.

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Friends of NCF can now support our activities by donating online through Israel Gives which is quick, secure and easy. In this increasingly hostile political climate and with the escalating number of house demolitions in unrecognized villages, our activities are becoming ever more important and we need your help. Every gift, no matter how great or small, to support our work will have a measurable impact upon our ability to continue pressuring the government and bringing these issues to the attention of the public. We at the NCF have learnt how to make a little bit of funding go a very long way in making a difference.

You may also wish to support our Visual Literacy Project with the children in Wadi Al-Na'am. Amnesty International (UK) has been so moved by the children's artwork that they have offered to hold an exhibition in their Human Rights Action Center in London. However, at this stage we have insufficient funds in our limited project budget to cover some basic costs such as printing and mounting. This presents such a unique opportunity for the children to reach out to an international audience about the discrimination faced by residents of Wadi Al-Na'am and with your support, we will make sure it is not missed.
Please go to http://www.israelgives.org/amuta/580327005 (English site)
or http://www.israeltoremet.org/amuta/580327005 (Hebrew site).
You will immediately receive a tax-deductible e-receipt. We thank you in advance for your generous support.

public is invited on friday, 18.6, 9:00am
mulkata-mifgash, no. 7 king salomon st. beer-sheva

to participate in the establishment of the garden,
on a day of volunteering and solidarity.

if you have, please bring some working tools with you.
please confirm your participation on mail:
michal@dukium.org
for details:
michal 0509391299

June 16th and 17th from 9:00am – 5:00pm
At the Ben Gurion University, Conference Room B.

On June 16th experts and community people will give lectures on the historical, political, geographical and legal aspects of land ownership and government planning. This part is open to the public.

On June 17th there will be three workshops on possible paths of action to bring about positive change on the issues of the right to land, housing and services. If you are interested in participating, please contact us: Dr. Yeela Raanan, yallylivnat@gmail.com

Members of the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality are invited to join a general assembly that will take place on Thursday, June 24th at 19:30.
'Multaka-Mifgash' , Shlomo Hamelech 7, Be’er-Sheva.

At the agenda:
- Elections for the Forum's leadership, ,
- Financial reports approval,
- Updates on Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality activities.

We will appreciate your participation

On Saturday, May 1st, Atorney Rawia Aburabia, had flied back to Israel from a the Ninth session of the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues as a representative of Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality at the UN in New York. Rawia Abu-Rabia, a Board member of The Abraham Fund Initiatives was subject to humiliating treatment by El-Al staff in Newark airport. Rawia's traumatic experience was one of many similar events that take place on a daily basis in Ben-Gurion airport as well as in El-Al stations around the globe. Those events result, among other things, from a security practice that is known as "Ethnic Profiling" which is discriminatory by definition. The letter bellow (a translation from Hebrew) was sent by Abraham Fund Initiatives to the Head of the General Security Service, the General Director of the Airport Authority and the General Director of El-Al.

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