A small but spirited group of Bedouin and Israelis demonstrated outside of the Jewish National Fund's Jerusalem offices on Sunday. The protesters, who numbered in the dozens, called for the JNF, a quasi-governmental organization, and the state of Israel to end discriminatory policies towards Bedouin residents of the Negev, including home demolitions and relocations.
Protesters outside of the JNF/KKL offices in Jerusalem on Sunday, demonstrating against the JNF's and the state of Israel's racist, discriminatory policies including disposession, expropriation of land, home demolitions, and relocations
A number of residents from the Bedouin village Al Arakib, which Israel has demolished over thirty times since July of 2010, took part in the protest. Like many Bedouin villages in the Negev, the state does not recognize Al Arakib and the JNF intends to use the land for a forest.
Israel's plans to Judaize or "develop" the Negev include the Prawer plan, which will see between 30,000 and 40,000 Bedouin relocated from their villages to impoverished townships. The Prawer plan, which the Israeli cabinet approved in September of 2011, has been slammed by human rights groups. Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel likened the Prawer plan to "a declaration of war."
