Today, Tuesday, July 21, 2009, the Government of Israel demolished three homes in the Bedouin villages in the Israeli Negev.
Two homes in the unrecognized village of A-Sir. One belonged to a young couple that had married this Friday: Haled Iben Aida and his new bride. One home was demolished in the recognized village of Bir Hadaj. Habib el-Hetersi, the father, had asked permission from the Abu-Basma Regional Council to build his son a home to live in, so he can marry. Hetersi said that they told him- go ahead a build. He did – and completed the two-room tin home eight months ago. Today it was demolished by the government of Israel – a couple of weeks before the planned wedding. Now the young couple will have to wait until they can find a way to build another home…
Racism in the Israeli Courts. On Thursday the Israeli courts decided that Shai Dromi, who had killed one Bedouin, with a shot from the back, and wounded another, was not guilty of manslaughter, but rather acted out of self defense. Dromi shot these as they were attempting to steal from his livestock. Dromi’s farm was established in the 1980s, together with a handful other single-family farms, on land cleared of Bedouin sheep – to make sure that the Bedouin community will no longer have access to their traditional grazing grounds. Since that time there have been strained relations between the settling farmers and the indigenous people. The farmers see themselves are the true Zionists, and see the Bedouins who feel animosity towards them as “troublemakers”. The court decision to drop all charges of manslaughter has been a heavy blow to the Arab community in Israel, as there was no threat to Dromi’s life, certainly not from fleeing men…
For more information contact Yeela Raanan at yallylivnat@gmail.com