Israeli government halts controversial plan to resettle 30,000 Bedouin
Thursday, December 12, 2013 at 11:54PM http://www.haaretz.com/1.563200
Architect of the proposal told a Knesset committee earlier this week that he had never obtained community support for the proposal, despite claims to the contrary.
by Ofer Oderet and Jonathan Lis 12 December 2013 Haaretz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has decided to drop the current draft of a controversial bill to resettle nearly 30,000 Bedouin living in the Negev into already recognized villages, the former minister overseeing the plan said on Thursday.
Benny Begin, an architect of the Begin-Prawer Plan, told a press conference that Netanyahu had accepted his recommendation to halt progress on the bill. It is not clear whether the bill has been shelved or just temporarily postponed.
He also accused critics of the plan of exploiting the proposal for their own benefit. "Right, left, Arabs and Jews joined hands – while exploiting the plight of many Bedouin – to heat things up for political gain," he said. "We've done our best, but sometimes you need to recognize reality."
During the drafting of the legislation, Begin said, more than 1,000 Bedouin were heard, and as a result changes in the bill were introduced. "I myself met with 600 of them… We didn't just hear them out, we listened to them attentively," he said, adding that some viewed his willingness to engage with the Bedouin community as excessive.
The possibility of the bill being shelved emerged three days ago, after Begin denied claims that community leaders had accepted the proposal – a key defense used by the government in advancing the plan.
Begin said that contrary to reports, he had never approached the Bedouin with the plan and thus did not receive their approval on the matter.
“I wish to again make clear that contrary to what has been claimed in recent weeks, I didn’t tell anyone that the Bedouin agreed to my plan,” Begin told the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee. “I couldn’t say that because I didn’t present the plan to them. I didn’t present the bill that I revised to any segment of the public, including the Bedouin. The revised bill is not being presented again to the public to hear whether the amendments are to its liking or not. As a result, I would not be able to know to what extent they support the law.”
Following Begin's remarks, coalition whip MK Yariv Levin (Likud) said the plan lost its majority support in the government.
The current plan should undergo vast changes, Levin said, and not be presented to the Knesset plenum for the second and third reading in the next few months.
The Prawer-Begin plan outlines a proposal to resolve land-use issues related to the Bedouin. The draft legislation outlines the compensation, in money and in land, to some 20,000 to 30,000 Bedouin upon relocation.
The bill was endorsed by the interim government on May 7 and approved by a slim majority in its first Knesset reading on June 25.
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Israeli cabinet likely to scrap controversial Bedouin relocation plan
By Jonathan Lis 9 December, 2013 Haaretz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is likely to drop the current version of its controversial plan to relocate thousands of Negev Bedouin into already recognized villages, after it emerged that community leaders did not consent to the proposal despite claims to the contrary.
Coalition chairman MK Yariv Levin believes that the current form of the Prawer plan for regulating Bedouin settlement in the Negev will be shelved. Due to the revelation that former MK Benny Begin, who drew up the plan, did not approach the Bedouin themselves with the plan and did not receive their approval, there is no longer a coalition majority supporting the plan, Levin said.
“There’s no chance of approving the second and third reading of the Prawer bill in its present form, because there is no justification to do so," he said.
Levin also said that the bill allows for unprecedented and unjustified benefits for the Bedouin population. “We agreed to promote the bill only because Benny Begin said that he discussed the plan with Bedouin representatives and that it was the only outline they would agree to, and that, as far as they’re concerned the implementation of the bill would put an end to all their claims for land. Today it was revealed that he did not discuss the matter with them, and did not receive their support.”
The current plan should undergo vast changes, Levin said, and not be presented to the Knesset plenum for the second and third reading in the next few months.
“The present bill should be changed significantly. I’m willing to be generous to the Bedouin that would immediately agree to join the process. Whoever won’t agree should be forcefully placed in the areas allotted to Bedouin. The agreement to join the generous outline should be limited in time, and is should be determined that the lands would only be leased to the Bedouins, not registered with the land authority as their property.”
MK Dov Khenin [Hadash] demanded on Monday to halt the promotion of the Prawer bill and formulate a different bill that would address the Bedouins’ problems in the Negev. Khenin slammed the Attorney General’s decision to conceal from the Knesset’s Interior and Environment Committee a map depicting future Bedouin dwelling areas in the Negev.
“The map that was revealed at the Interior Committee proved that all our fears were justified. The Prawer plan offers an array of means to fight the Bedouin and actually drive out thousands of them from their homes and villages. The government concealed this map from the Bedouins. The government concealed this map from the Knesset. During recent weeks we have demanded to see it. Such a map and its content cannot be accepted, nor can the fact that it was concealed. When the government misleads the Knesset we cannot cooperate with such a move. I call on the Interior Committee to halt the discussion on the Prawer bill, and begin a debate that would offer concrete and real solutions to the problems of the Bedouin in the Negev.”
The discussions Monday emerged after former cabinet minister Benny Begin, who in the previous government was in charge of gathering and implementing public responses to proposals to resettle Negev Bedouin, said on Monday that he never presented the resulting bill to representatives of the Bedouin community and did not ask for their positions on the matter. The draft law is commonly known as the Prawer plan or the Begin-Prawer plan.
“I wish to again make clear that contrary to what has been claimed in recent weeks, I didn’t tell anyone that the Bedouin agreed to my plan,” Begin said. “I couldn’t say that because I didn’t present the plan to them. I didn’t present the bill that I revised to any segment of the public, including the Bedouin. The revised bill is not being presented again to the public to hear whether the amendments are to its liking or not. As a result, I would not be able to know to what extent they support the law.”
Begin made the comments to the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee and read a letter that he sent to coalition chairman Yariv Levin on the matter. Begin said it was about two years ago, in talks with the Bedouin while he was working on the bill and before it was presented in its current form, that he said “the public in the Negev does not oppose the law and did not take part in the provocations that the Balad party organized a week [earlier].”
Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, expressed this position several days ago, before Begin was quoted as saying that he didn’t discuss his plan with the Bedouin.
In a post in his Facebook page last week, Lieberman wrote: "We were essentially opposed to the ‘Prawer plan’, but eventually agreed to support it, after former minister Benny Begin said that the plan received the support of all Bedouin tribe leaders and would therefore put an end to this business once and for all. In reality, the opposite happened, as we feared, and the Bedouin are interested in receiving not only the ‘carrot’ – compensation and other lands – but are also active, in all means, including violence, against the ‘stick’ – their duty to evacuate all the lands they have populated illegally. Therefore, one should re-examine the plan and consider a far reaching plan that would annul the benefits the Bedouin were to receive. If there isn’t complete agreement – there should be no benefits.”
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