[News] Palestinian Bedouins remain resilient after week of Israeli crackdowns in Negev

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-bedouins-negev-resilient-after-week-intense-israeli-crackdowns>
Palestinian
Bedouins remain resilient after week of Israeli crackdowns in Negev
By Huthifa Fayyad - January 14, 2022
------------------------------

Within minutes of crowds arriving at a demonstration in the Negev desert on
Thursday, a volley of tear gas canisters, sound grenades and skunk water
fired by Israeli police began raining down on Palestinian protesters.

What was meant to be a large rally against Israel
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel>'s latest "land grab" in
the Negev quickly descended into mayhem, protesters told Middle East Eye.

"They want to deter us from protesting again," Rafat Awaysha, a Palestinian
activist from the Negev, told MEE.

"They want to displace us from our villages to planned housing projects
elsewhere," Awaysha added. "We want full recognition of [our villages]. We
want recognition of our ownership before any other services."

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/we-will-only-be-moved-bodies-israel-and-bedouins-face-negev>

‘We will only be moved as bodies’: Israel and Bedouins face off in the Negev

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<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/we-will-only-be-moved-bodies-israel-and-bedouins-face-negev>

The protest was organised by the local council of Palestinians living in
the Negev in response to Israeli bulldozers storming the villages of
al-Atrash-Sawa earlier in the week
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-negev-villages-tents-destroyed-demolitions>
.

Palestinians from the Negev and the rest of the 48 Palestinian community
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-citizens-who-explained>
-
those who live within the borders of Israel founded in 1948 - amassed near
the al-Atrash-Sawa intersection on Route 31 to denounce the resumption of
tree-planting work by the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

Earlier this week, police-guarded JNF tractors stormed the village of
al-Atrash-Sawa for a third consecutive day to plant trees as part of a
controversial forestation scheme.

Negev residents say the programme, which is carried out on land Palestinian
Bedouins live on and use for cultivation, is the latest attempt of a
decades-long government policy aimed at displacing them.

"They want to impose a new reality on the ground," Awaysha told MEE.

"[But] people here don’t want anyone taking their ownership of this land
from them."
'Frantic attack'

Thursday's rally, which organisers say they had obtained permission from
the police to organise, was violently dispersed by Israeli police before it
could begin.

A large number of Israeli special forces, mounted police and a unit of
elite undercover agents known as *Mustarebeen* were positioned around the
protest as chanting crowds began to arrive at 15:00 local time.

Police had warned protesters via megaphone that they would disperse the
protest within ten minutes. But demonstrators told MEE that before children
and the elderly could leave, police started firing sound bombs, rubber
bullets and tear gas.

  "I was on the frontlines, it took only 20 seconds after the announcement
for them to fire the first [sound bomb]," Awaysha told MEE.

"It was a frantic attack on everyone present," he added.

[image: An injured protester is helped by other Palestinian Bedouins as
Israeli forces cracked down on a protests against an afforestation project
(Afp)]
An injured protester is helped by other Palestinian Bedouins as Israeli
forces cracked down on protests against a forestation project in the Negev,
on 13 January 2022 (AFP)

In the chaos that ensued, a man next to Awaysha was reportedly shot in the
head with a rubber bullet. According to eyewitnesses, he was among dozens
that were injured.

Another protester, identified as Taleb al-Sawayda, 39, was critically
wounded and remains in intensive care at Soroka Medical Center in the city
of Beer Sheva, known to Palestinians as Be'ar al-Sabe'a.

The Adalah Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights, a Haifa-based advocacy
group focusing on the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, condemned
the "illegal means used during the police repression", in a letter
<https://www.adalah.org/ar/content/view/10522> submitted to the attorney
general and the inspector general of police.

"The law is clear: it is forbidden to use rubber bullets, rubber-coated
steel bullets, grenades and tear gas against defenceless demonstrators, and
it is forbidden to shoot them from close range and targeting the upper part
of the body," the letter said.

After the initial crackdown, the demonstrators were reportedly forced to
retreat, and a cat-and-mouse game began with the police that lasted for at
least five hours.

Police also deployed skunk water and tear-gas drones, protest dispersal
methods rarely seen in the Negev.

"Excessive violence was used posing a threat to the lives of demonstrators,
which constitutes a serious violation to individual and collective rights,"
Adalah said in its letter.
'A glorious day'

Despite the crackdown, protesters said the feeling that prevailed at the
end of the day was a sense of growing resilience, pride and hope that the
plight of Palestinians in the Negev was getting some attention.

Hind Salman, a local activist from the Negev, told MEE that what she
witnessed was a "glorious day".

The protests were led by young men and women, some as young as 16 years old.

"Our youth restored my faith," Salman said. "Their determination was
unmatched."

[image: Bedouin protesters gather during a demonstration against the
afforestation project on 13 January 2021.]
Bedouin protesters gather during a demonstration against the forestation
project on 13 January 2021 (AFP)

A campaign to raise awareness about the plight of Bedouins in the Negev was
trending on Palestinian social media under the hashtag #Save_Negev, as
protesters faced off with the police.

"There's a young generation breaking into the scene," Salman said.

"They understand very well what they’re up against and they have no fear."
Arrest of minors

Some calm has been restored in al-Atrash-Sawa village after the JNF said on
Wednesday that for now, its tractors had ended their work in the village.

But the troubles have now moved to the courts, as volunteer Palestinian
lawyers scrambled to defend the detained protesters.

Since Monday, at least 130 Palestinians have been arrested, including
several minors. The majority are still detained.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-negev-forestation-crisis-government-collapse>

Israel's crackdown on Palestinians in Negev threatens Bedouins and its own
government

Read More »
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-negev-forestation-crisis-government-collapse>

The high volume of arrests, which have continued into Friday, has
overwhelmed the 10 Palestinian lawyers from the Negev, who volunteered to
represent the protesters as an act of solidarity with the families.

Back-up help came from five Palestinian lawyers from northern areas of the
country, which was appreciated by the Negev residents, according to
Awaysha, who was present in court.

In and out of the courtrooms, lawyers spent their full days attending to
cases and arguing for clients from as early as 7 am and until as late as 1
am local time.

The toll of the arrests and the violence seen has been heavy, Awaysha said,
but it has not broken the spirit of the protesters.

"Families are understandably worried for their children," Awaysha said.
"They are in a war against land theft.

"But people remain steadfast."
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