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<h1><font size=4><b>Poverty rife among Bedouin women denied status by
Israel</b></font></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/poverty-rife-among-bedouin-women-denied-status-israel/10227" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/content/poverty-rife-among-bedouin-women-denied-status-israel/10227<br>
</a>2 August 2011<br><br>
TEL AVIV (IRIN) - More than 180,000
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bedouins">Bedouins</a> live
in the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/naqab">Negev (Naqab)
desert</a> but there is a big gap in terms of life opportunities between
those Bedouins who live in 35
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrecognized-villages">
unrecognized villages</a>, and those for whom Israel has created seven
towns or who live in seven officially recognized villages, say human
rights workers.<br><br>
Those in unrecognized villages face a constant threat of eviction and are
cut off from even basic services. Aside from the threats to their homes,
not enough is being done by Israel to lift these Bedouin communities out
of poverty, they say.<br><br>
Amal Elsana al-Hajooj, a Bedouin woman living in the Negev and the
director of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development,
explains that unemployment and poverty rates among the Negev Bedouin in
unrecognized villages are the highest in Israel.<br><br>
“Residents of unrecognized villages have no status,” she says. “They have
no address, their Israeli IDs state only the name of their clan. They
have no claim to land. Their communities have no water, electricity or
roads. There are no education or health services. The Negev is the
backyard of the State of Israel. We are struggling to get any investment
here.”<br><br>
Al-Hajooj says the situation is most difficult for Bedouin women who face
the dual challenges of living as Bedouin in Israel but also as women in a
patriarchal society, where 30 percent of families are
polygamous.<br><br>
The conditions for women living in unrecognized villages are dramatically
worse than for their counterparts in Israeli-built Negev towns, she says.
“Today 75 percent of the Bedouin students [largely from recognized Negev
towns] in university are women. But in the unrecognized villages the
situation is very different 65 percent of girls are out of school
because there are no schools.”<br><br>
<b>Sued to pay demolition bills<br><br>
</b>The Israeli government’s recent suing of the Bedouin residents of
al-Araqib village in the Negev for $500,000 to cover the cost of
repeatedly demolishing their homes has sparked fresh debate over
Israel’s treatment of its Bedouin minority.<br><br>
Claims by Bedouin residents that al-Araqib is built on ancestral land
have been dismissed by Israel, which has carried out more than twenty
demolition and eviction operations in the village since July 2010. Israel
considers al-Araqib, along with 34 other Bedouin villages in the Negev,
an illegal village.<br><br>
Ortal Tzabar, spokesperson for the Israel Lands Authority, says, “This
case is not about demolitions; these people are criminals. This land has
been deserted since 1950, when it was taken by Israel. We had even leased
the land to other Bedouins for agricultural use and they chased them
away. But their claim that the land belongs to them is now under
investigation and if it is found they have any rights at all, they will
be allowed to return.”<br><br>
In response, a spokesperson for al-Araqib residents, Awad Abu Freih,
says: “The court [process] is going to take some time, the next hearing
is not soon. It has been very exhausting. The government doesn’t like us;
they don’t want us but this is our land. They have been using our land
for over sixty years. We don’t owe them any money. They should give us
compensation.”<br><br>
<b>Empowerment through weaving<br><br>
</b>Khadra El Saneh is the director of Sidreh, the only organization of
its kind in Israel working to educate and promote the rights of Bedouin
women. A mother of four, El Saneh overcame initial opposition from the
traditional elements in her community to set up a weaving center. The
center now employees seventy local women to make rugs that sell in
boutiques across Israel and are exported as far afield as New York and
Tokyo.<br><br>
“Our aim is to empower women here with basic things. Bedouin women are at
the lowest level of employment in Israeli society; 90 percent of Bedouin
women living in recognized villages are illiterate. In unrecognized
villages, that number is more like 100 percent. If a woman has education
and economic empowerment, she can take more control, make decisions, be
more useful to her society and her family.”<br><br>
In an effort to combat low literacy rates, Sidreh also runs courses
teaching Arabic, Hebrew and English. Since it opened in 1998, 1,400 women
have graduated from its literacy course. It also offers community
services, like early childcare.<br><br>
Sidreh’s weaving business was launched in 2007. The 70 women employed to
spin wool, stitch and weave the rugs each earn on average 2,000 shekels
($586) a month. The organization is supported by a number of
international and national aid agencies, including Oxfam, but has
received no support from the State of Israel.<br><br>
According to El Saneh, the solution to her community’s education and
employment crisis is simple: “If we have schools, girls can go to school.
If we don’t have schools, girls can’t go. If a woman doesn’t have skills,
transport and basic logistics she can’t open a business. If she has, she
can.”<br><br>
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information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the
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reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the
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conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.<br><br>
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