Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
פורום דו-קיום בנגב לשוויון אזרחי
منتدى التعايش السلمي في النقب من أجل المساواة المدنية

The Bedouin Unrecognized Villages are not Protected and Have No Sirens – Urgent Petition was Issued to the Supreme Court

20.07.2014

There are dozens of recognized and unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, where tens of thousands of citizens reside. In these villages there are no sirens or shelters. NCF already sent letters to the Home Front Command and the Minister of Defense, demanding to find an immediate solution for these tens of thousands of citizens who are in danger, but we haven’t recieved a response yet.

During the last week, a couple of rockets hit the area of some villages in the Negev, and on Monday (14.7) two sisters, aged 10 and 13, were severely  injured when a rocket hit their village which is unrecognized. On Saturday (19.7), a rocket hit nearby a recognized village, killed a man aged 32, injured 4 of his family members.

On Wednesday (16.7), Thw Association for Civil Rights in Israel issued a petition to the Supreme Court, demaniding an immediate solution for this issue. The petition was issued in the name of a couple of Bedouin residents of the Negev, and a couple of organizations, including NCF.

For the full petition click here (Hebrew)

For an article about the court discussion on Ha’aretz click here (Hebrew)

NCF calls the security authorities to act immediately to secure the villages and to activate sirens in these areas, as well as entire neighborhoods in Jewish and Bedouin towns that are not sufficiently protected.