The German Social-Democratic party (SPD) published a call for donations for trees planting in the German States Forest last week. The German States Forest is located in the Israeli Negev, and it was planted on lands of Bedouin citizens of the country. Negev Coexistence Forum (NCF) wrote a letter to the party’s members, urging them to stop the donations project, and explaining the complex reality in the Negev.

The NCF produced a video in cooperation with Dr. Awad Abu Freich, one of the owners of the lands where the forest is planted. In the video, Dr. Abu Freich describes the injustice caused to his family and to him, as a result of the planting of the German States Forest, and explains how expulsion of Bedouin from their land is being done through practices of forestation.

A demonstration in Tel-Aviv for Arab-Bedouins rights, December 2012 (Photo: NCF)

According to the NCF: “The campaign’s organizers have publicized it as a green venture that benefits local residents as well as the ecological system. However, this enterprise also plays into the Israeli government’s prolonged policy of dispossessing the indigenous Bedouin population. The forest, in fact, covers land owned by Bedouins – Israeli citizens who are engaged in a legal dispute over the status of precisely that land on which the ‘Forest of German States’ is being developed.”

A video with Dr. Awad Abu Freich:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHapM4Xeetg&feature=youtu.be

The letter to the SPD:                        http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=e8e84502ef33a494e8d51c62e&id=899f874556&e=da9f881428