Head of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel, Mohammad Barakeh (center), addresses the protesters gathered in Be'er-Sheva last Monday. At the extreme right of the picture is Hadash MK Yousef Jabareen and next to him MK Ofer Cassif.

Arab-Bedouin Protest Negev Land Grabs by the Racist JNF and ILA

Hundreds of Arab-Bedouin protested on Monday morning, June 22, outside the regional administrative compound in Be’er-Sheva to denounce the far-right government’s policy of house demolitions and evacuation orders against unrecognized Arab villages in the Negev. The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel called for the demonstration and among the hundreds of participants were Hadash…

"Tough guys": Body language trumps all – MKs from Yamina during the tour they conducted in the Negev, last Thursday, June 11; Don't let the macho poses confuse you – these people are dangerous. Smotrich is second from right with arms folded. Yamina's leader, with even a more aggressive pose, is MK Naftali Bennet (third from left), Defense Minister in the previous government. Today, Yamina is in the opposition, in part because, with Netanyahu's hyper-inflated cabinet, they couldn't get the portfolios they sought; in part to outflank the Likud from the right. In the center, wearing the green blouse and brandishing a less "in your face" stance is MK Ayelet Sheked, a former Justice Minister who was and is committed to delimiting and weakening the status of the Supreme Court (High Court of Justice), so that the Knesset can be absolutely sovereign in fomenting ultra-right legislation that undermines universal human rights… Whose lives matter? According to Yamina's ideology, certainly not those of the Bedouin, let alone those of ay Arabs.

MK Smotrich from Racist Yamina: “Arab-Bedouin are a Time Bomb”

On Thursday, June 9, a racist far-right lawmaker called the birthrate among Arab-Bedouin women in the Negev desert a demographic “time bomb” that Israel needs to defuse. MK Bezalel Smotrich, Transportation Minister in Netanyahu’s previous government, made the remark during a tour of the Negev with fellow members of the Yamina (“Rightwards”) alliance. “This is the…