Better to be a dog than a Bedouin

In Israel’s Negev
desert, ethnic cleansing is once again rearing its ugly head. The unrecognised
Bedouin village of Umm Al
Hiran faces demolition and replacement with a
Jewish town, Hiran. Seven hundred villagers face displacement, and only because they are of
the wrong ethnicity.

Umm Al Hiran is one of
tens of unrecognised villages in the Negev, inhabited by descendants of the Abu
al-Qian tribe. Located in the area of Wadi Attir, the village is divided into two
areas: Umm Al Hiran and Attir. Attir is also facing demolition in order to
expand a Jewish National Fund (JNF) forest—in Israel, greenery is more
important than Palestinians. Both these areas are in the master plan of the
Be’er Sheva metropolitan area.

While the Israeli
state has justified
the demolition, by claiming the villagers are squatters on government land, the reality
is that they were transferred to
the Yattir Forest in 1956 by direct order of the military administration at the
time. Villagers claim this was done to clear space for military use and that
they were given guns to defend the border
from West Bank infiltrators.

The government never
denied the transfer of these villagers. The transfer was verified by a military
document that stated the residents of Umm Al Hiran received over 7000 dunams of
this land near the Wadi by direct
order in 1956. This would make it their second displacement, after having
been moved in 1948 from their original lands, now used by Kibbutz Shoval.

Over the past ten
years the village has endured several housing demolitions, due to its
unrecognised status. Villagers have been offered the ‘compromise’ of moving to
the nearby town of Hura where they will be given an 800 square metre plot of
land. The residents refused, as they do not want to be moved for a third time.

Umm Al Hiran’s case is
especially significant as it sets a precedent. While other unrecognised
villages such as Al-Araqib
and Dahmash have faced
multiple demolitions, none have been replaced with a Jewish town. Destroying
Umm Al Hiran will make it easier to destroy other villages and resettle Jews on
their ruins. The destruction of Umm Al Hiran will be the beginning of the Prawer Plan, simply under
another name.

Unfortunately, this
outcome is looking increasingly likely. On August 23, Israeli machinery and
bulldozers began building the foundations for the Jewish settlement of Hiran.
The villagers now fear their displacement is imminent. The additional presence
of the Israeli police suggests the state is determined to begin wiping Umm Al
Hiran off the face of the earth.

The villagers of Umm
Al Hiran have exhausted most avenues to prevent the demolition of their homes.
Legal appeals have been fruitless, which is unsurprising considering that the
legal system is set up to promote the Jewish character of Israel—hardly a
forum in which Palestinian citizens can attain justice.

In May, the Israeli
Supreme Court ruled
that, despite government documents to the contrary, Umm Al Hiran was built on
state land, paving the way for its destruction. The judges ruled that the
government’s actions did not in any way violate the villager’s rights, and even
if such rights were violated, it was "proportionate harm". However, there is
little doubt that if the residents of Umm Al Hiran were Jewish, there would be
no problem with their presence on the land. In fact, there are several
Jewish-owned farms in the area surrounding the village; none have been asked to
leave, and all are recognised by the state.

It seems that in
Israel, ‘proportionate harm’ is any harm inflicted on Palestinian citizens for the benefit of the Jewish population. It is significant that the core group
slated to move into Hiran’s 2,400 housing units are nationalist religious Jews,
many of whom have ties to West Bank settlements, and will be joined by a
smaller number of secular residents from nearby Meitar. A number of the
nationalist Jews are living in a nearby forest waiting to move to Hiran.

The town of Hiran,
which is said to include a hotel and country club, is part of a larger
government settlement program in the Negev that began in 2002 when the Knesset
approved the founding of fourteen new Israeli communities in the region. The
villagers of Umm Al Hiran have said that they are willing to be a part of the
new Hiran development, but doubt that the community would accept them. With
rising right-wing sentiments and racist tensions in Israel, this fear is not
unfounded.

The politics of un-recognition
plays a significant role in the plan to destroy Umm Al Hiran. Un-recognised
villages such as Umm Al Hiran do not have access to infrastructure or
electricity. The government has used the issue of lack of services to try and
convince Bedouin communities to leave their land and move to government-designated
townships (not unlike Native American reserves), where they will be provided
with water, electricity and schools.

The irony of this
offer is that individual Jewish Israeli families, who set up small farms in the
Negev region, enjoy state subsidies. Moreover, one of Umm Al Hiran’s neighbours is a dog
farm that enjoys access to water and electricity. So, it seems that it is preferable to
be a dog than a Palestinian Bedouin in Israel.

There is no reason
that the Bedouin of Umm Al Hiran should have to move in order to have basic
services. The villagers of Umm Al Hiran wish to maintain their rural lifestyle and
demand official recognition—something that the state has ignored for many
years.

The residents of Umm
Al Hiran are not prepared to give up without a fight—they have announced
their intention to stage protests against
their impending displacement; an escalation in their struggle, which has mainly
been based on litigation. They have the support of several Palestinian civil
society organisations, such as Adalah and 7amleh who produced a video about the village, in
an attempt to raise international awareness.

The demolition of Umm Al Hiran
will mark the advent of the Prawer Plan, and must be fought against tooth and nail.
Just as Prawer did not pass in 2011, it should be met with the same outrage in
2015.