On Thursday, Israeli authorities evacuated the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev. The 400 or so residents of the village had already destroyed their own homes to avoid paying fees to the government for the demolition.
The evacuation is part of a long-standing policy of evicting Bedouins from villages that are unrecognized by the state and resettling them in state-sanctioned localities. Israel has claimed that the policy is a result of illegal squatting on state land and will allow the state to better provide services to its 200,000 or so Bedouin citizens, but activists say that the state is attempting to replace Bedouin communities in the Negev with Jewish communities. The inflammatory rhetoric of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who manages the Bedouin evictions, has only sharpened this criticism.
Weeks before the demolition, the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Arab Villages in the Negev (RCUV) held a protest in Tel Aviv to speak out against the ongoing trend of demolitions. Even then, an air of hopelessness permeated.
“The situation is complex and discourages any initiative or thought. People have become helpless and hopeless. What scares me the most is that our communities have lost hope. Without hope, a person has nothing to live for,” Khalil Alamour, a Bedouin activist from the unrecognized village of Alsira, told Davar.
Alamour set up a small black tent with a table in it in the plaza of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. He explained to each passerby the situation of the residents in the unrecognized villages and the destruction of homes.
Alamour explained that the purpose of protest is to get the state to care about the interests of its citizens. “This is not happening,” he said. “Today, 100 homes were demolished; tomorrow, 200 or 300 will be demolished, just to show who decides and who has the power. Because the minister is the one in power. This problem of home demolitions has existed for many years, but now it is more intense, with unprecedented brutality. There is an authority that destroys homes. Where is the authority that plans homes, that plans a future for me and my children?”
He characterized the Bedouin Settlement Authority, which manages the population transfers, as “the Bedouin Depletion Authority.” (The pun works better in Hebrew.)
“It tries to buy land from Bedouins to transfer to the government. As if the Bedouins are the bad guys. Where will we live? On the moon? There are no building permits there,” he said.
According to data from the Negev Coexistence Forum, 3,283 Bedouin structures were demolished in the Negev in 2023, with an additional 2,007 demolished from January to June of this year. Most of the demolished structures (754) were tin structures used for housing. According to the forum's estimates, there will be a 22% increase in demolitions by the end of 2024 compared to 2023.
Unlike most Israeli Arabs, a significant minority of Israel’s Bedouins volunteer to enlist in the military each year. But Alamour said that Israel’s treatment of the Bedouins has shaken this alliance.
“Our children see a police officer only when he comes to destroy the house. They see him as their enemy, and we expect them to be good citizens who enlist in the army. For 75 years, the Bedouins have been on the margins of the margins,” he said.
All of the recognized Bedouin communities are in the lowest socioeconomic decile. Alamour said that violence and unemployment are on the rise in Bedouin society, and police officers choose to ignore crime.
“I will not forgive the state for this,” Alamour said. “It is a crime against a weak and marginalized population. The state absorbed a million immigrants in the 90s. Why can’t it settle 100,000 Bedouins? This is baseless hatred, racism. I have no other answer. A pluralistic and open state cannot provide villages for the Bedouins?”
He noted that his own village, which is not recognized by the state, has a larger population than nearby Kibbutz Lotan.
“The state has damaged the Bedouin minority. They have no trust. When the minister promises something, they recoil,” he said.
Despite everything, the Bedouins remain open to dialogue, Alamour said. “But there need to be good intentions and good plans,” he insisted. “There are no good intentions. We need to build plans in cooperation with the Bedouins and implement them. Then they will understand that the state has moved past the stage of paranoia. It’s time to reconcile with the Bedouins and do good.”
This article was translated from Hebrew and edited for context by Nancye Kochen.
