New Israel Fund's flagship grantee, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, alerts us to the approval of the appalling Prawer Plan:
The plan outlines implementation of the Goldberg Commission Report of 2008 to deal with the problem of unrecognized villages and the Bedouin community in the Negev. Rather than recognizing the systemic violations of the rights of the Bedouin, the Prawer plan continues the discrimination of one of the most disenfranchised communities in Israel, during a period in which a mass Israeli protest movement has been calling for social justice for all citizens.
The Prawer Plan, which was prepared without representatives of the unrecognized villages, will lead to the unnecessary uprooting of tens of thousands of Bedouin from their homes, in clear violation of their historical and proprietary rights. An alternative master plan, submitted by the Regional Council of Unrecognized Bedouin Villages and Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights, proposes to keep all 35 unrecognized villages intact and to connect them to infrastructure and services, while saving Israel massive amounts of resources necessary for uprooting villages that have existed since before the State was established.
ACRI is working vis-à-vis policy makers to ensure that this plan is implemented, rather than the Prawer plan. Only a plan based on respect for the human rights of the Bedouin population and that includes them in the process will bring about a lasting solution for all residents of the Negev, both Arabs and Jews.
For more information on the Prawer Plan, you can consult this ACRI policy brief. You can also view an alternative position, written by ACRI with Bimkom, and the Regional Council of Unrecognized Bedouin Villages, which proposes "a just solution that will resolve one of Israel's most painful examples of ongoing systematic violation of human rights, and one of the most stubborn open conflicts between the state and its citizens."
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