(IsraelNN.com) The official government committee regarding illegal Bedouin settlements in the Negev announced its recommendations Thursday. The committee recommended that the government legalize most of the settlements.
The current government policy has been to give Bedouin a 20% claim to the land they illegally settle. The committee recommended that the government should grant the Bedouin a 50% claim to the land.
(IsraelNN.com) Nationalist activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gevir sent a letter Thursday to the government legal counsel asking the government to legalize Jewish outposts. Their request comes in light of Thursday’s recommendation by a government committee to legalize Bedouin outposts in the Negev.
Marzel and Ben-Gevir claim that if their request goes unheeded even while Bedouin settlements are legalized they will appeal to the Supreme Court. They will charge the government with discriminating against the Jews in Judea and Samaria.
(IsraelNN.com) Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit announced Thursday that he approves of the recommendations of the government committee regarding Bedouin settlements in the Negev. The committee announced Thursday its recommendation to legalize most of the settlements.
Sheetrit said: “We are talking about a great step in taking care of a problem in the Bedouin sector. I hope we will enact the recommendations quickly. I plan on asking the Prime Minister to approve the committee’s recommendations before the elections.”
by Maayana Miskin Kislev 14, 5769 / December 11, '08 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128820
(IsraelNN.com) The Goldberg Commission recommended Thursday that the government recognize 46 illegal Bedouin towns with a total of 62,000 residents. The commission, established months ago to research the phenomenon of illegal Bedouin building in the Negev, also suggested that Bedouins who are forced to leave illegal structures receive financial compensation. Its proposals were submitted to Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim.
The commission found that Bedouins have built approximately 50,000 illegal structures in the Negev and build another 1,500 every year. It suggested that illegal buildings that do not interfere with current plans for state land be defined as “grey structures,” a definition that would allow them to gain legality.
Bedouins in illegal towns do not own the state land they have built on, the commission ruled. However, it found that residents of illegal towns have “a certain degree of right” to land they have lived on for several years.
After implementing the plan to recognize or relocate Bedouin villages, the state should deal harshly with those who continue illegal building, the commission said. Members of the commission warned that if its recommendations were not followed, the state risked further alienating members of the Bedouin community.
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit welcomed the commission's decision, calling it “a big step towards solving significant issues in the Bedouin community.” Sheetrit said he would ask Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to approve the commission's recommendations before the national elections in February.
Jewish community leaders in the Negev were unimpressed by the commission's findings. “We expected the committee to actually solve the Bedouin problem, but all we got was a bunch of papers leaving the decision up to the government,” said Ramat Negev Council head Shmuel Rifman.
"This isn't how you establish towns,” Rifman continued. “This guarantees failure in another 10 years. We lost another chance to solve the problem... The rift between Bedouins and the Israeli establishment is only getting wider.”
Omer Council head Pini Badash called the commission's recommendations “a miserable decision that will undermine the rule of law, encourage thuggish and criminal behavior, and make the Bedouin problem in the Negev worse.” If implemented, the decisions will encourage further illegal construction while failing to provide infrastructure for existing towns, he concluded.
Bedouin leaders greeted the report with caution. "Usually there are committees, but their recommendations are never put into action," one explained.
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