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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-bedouins-negev-resilient-after-week-intense-israeli-crackdowns">middleeasteye.net</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Palestinian Bedouins remain resilient after week of Israeli crackdowns in Negev</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Huthifa Fayyad - January 14, 2022<br></div>
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<div><p>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. </p>
<p>What was meant to be a large rally against <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israel</a>'s latest "land grab" in the Negev quickly descended into mayhem, protesters told Middle East Eye. </p>
<p>"They want to deter us from protesting again," Rafat Awaysha, a Palestinian activist from the Negev, told MEE. </p>
<p>"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."</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/we-will-only-be-moved-bodies-israel-and-bedouins-face-negev" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/birh_hamam.jpg?itok=8jJYgeI3" alt="" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p>‘We will only be moved as bodies’: Israel and Bedouins face off in the Negev</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/we-will-only-be-moved-bodies-israel-and-bedouins-face-negev" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-negev-villages-tents-destroyed-demolitions" target="_blank">earlier in the week</a>. </p>
<p>Palestinians from the Negev and the rest of the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-citizens-who-explained" target="_blank">48 Palestinian community</a> -
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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>"They want to impose a new reality on the ground," Awaysha told MEE. </p>
<p>"[But] people here don’t want anyone taking their ownership of this land from them."</p>
<h3>'Frantic attack'</h3>
<p>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. </p>
<p>A large number of Israeli special forces, mounted police and a unit of elite undercover agents known as <em>Mustarebeen</em> were positioned around the protest as chanting crowds began to arrive at 15:00 local time.</p>
<div><p>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.</p><p>
"I was on the frontlines, it took only 20 seconds after the announcement
for them to fire the first [sound bomb]," Awaysha told MEE. </p></div>
<p>"It was a frantic attack on everyone present," he added. </p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/000_9W43CK.jpg" alt="An injured protester is helped by other Palestinian Bedouins as Israeli forces cracked down on a protests against an afforestation project (Afp)" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="302"></p>
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)</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.adalah.org/ar/content/view/10522" target="_blank">letter</a> submitted to the attorney general and the inspector general of police.</p>
<p>"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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Police also deployed skunk water and tear-gas drones, protest dispersal methods rarely seen in the Negev. </p>
<p>"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. </p>
<h3>'A glorious day'</h3>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Hind Salman, a local activist from the Negev, told MEE that what she witnessed was a "glorious day".</p>
<p>The protests were led by young men and women, some as young as 16 years old.</p>
<p>"Our youth restored my faith," Salman said. "Their determination was unmatched."</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/000_9W43NY%20%281%29.jpg" alt="Bedouin protesters gather during a demonstration against the afforestation project on 13 January 2021." style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="298"></p>
Bedouin protesters gather during a demonstration against the forestation project on 13 January 2021 (AFP)</div>
<p>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. </p>
<p>"There's a young generation breaking into the scene," Salman said.</p>
<p>"They understand very well what they’re up against and they have no fear."</p>
<h3>Arrest of minors</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But the troubles have now moved to the courts, as volunteer Palestinian lawyers scrambled to defend the detained protesters. </p>
<p>Since Monday, at least 130 Palestinians have been arrested, including several minors. The majority are still detained. </p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-negev-forestation-crisis-government-collapse" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/Israeli%20police%20forces%20arrest%20a%20Palestinian%20citizen%20from%20Israel%27s%20Negev%20region%2C%20south%20of%20the%20country%2C%20during%20a%20protest%20against%20forestation%20plan%2C%2012%20January%202022%20%28Reuters%29.jpg?itok=Vwmnx7PI" alt="" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p>Israel's crackdown on Palestinians in Negev threatens Bedouins and its own government</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-negev-forestation-crisis-government-collapse" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>The toll of the arrests and the violence seen has been heavy, Awaysha said, but it has not broken the spirit of the protesters.</p>
<p>"Families are understandably worried for their children," Awaysha said. "They are in a war against land theft.</p>
<p>"But people remain steadfast."</p>
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