Tell Netanyahu and Lieberman: Stop Demolishing Bedouin Villages!

Say no to Netanyahu’s plan to expel 1,000 Bedouin for a new Jewish settlement in Israel’s Negev.

Urge Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Lieberman now to:

cancel the Israeli government’s plan to expel 1,000 Bedouin and demolish the Negev Bedouin villages of Atir and Um Al-Hiran for the new Jewish settlement of Hiran;
recognize the Negev Bedouin villages and provide a just solution to the plight of the Negev Bedouin community in full consultation with the residents.

Send your message to Israel's leaders now:

Subject:

Your Letter:

As someone who cares deeply for Israel and democratic values, I urge you to cancel your government’s plan to expel 1,000 Bedouin men, women and children from their homes and demolish the Negev Bedouin villages of Atir and Um Al-Hiran, to replace them with the new Jewish settlement of Hiran. 
 
I implore you to reject any plan for the Negev and the entire Bedouin community which attempts to benefit the Jewish majority by discriminating against the Bedouin Arab minority.   Israel cannot build a future of peace, security and democracy on the soil of injustice.
 
David Ben-Gurion wrote: “We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their place.” I ask you to heed these words as you plan Israel’s future.   Israel must not develop the Negev by trampling on the basic rights of its Bedouin Arab minority. 
 
Israel has established over 100 Jewish settlements in the Beer Sheva district in the Negev with an average population of only 300 residents. Yet your government refuses to allow Bedouin Israelis to live in agricultural settlements in the Negev, denying them building permits and basic human services provided to Jewish settlements.  The 46 Negev Bedouin unrecognized villages, each with between 400 and 4,800 residents, meet all the criteria for recognition used for Jewish settlements in the Negev. 
 
I urge you to:
 
1.      recognize the Negev Bedouin villages, legalizing and developing them based on objective planning criteria applied equally to Jewish and Bedouin settlements in the Negev;  
 
2.      treat the Negev Bedouin as equal citizens and partners in the development of the Negev, involving them fully in planning for their, and the region’s, future. 
 
3.      recognize the Bedouin system of land ownership and the historic ties between the Bedouin and their land, no longer slandering them as “trespassers squatting on state land;”
 
4.      adopt a fair and comprehensive solution for the Negev Bedouin which will insure Israel’s long-term security, reflecting the founding promise of Israel’s Declaration of Independence to “foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants,” ensuring “complete equality of social and political rights to all.”

Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister of Israel

Jerusalem,
IL

Avigdor Lieberman

Foreign Minister of Israel

Jerusalem,
IL

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