According to the communist newspaper “Al Ittihad”, the state has warned planners and engineers involved in state contracts to establish new Bedouin communities in the Negev that they may be charged with breaching state security if they divulge the plans.
Planners and engineers who have worked for the state before say they have never encountered such demands in a development contract. Bedouin rights activists and Hadash MKs say the warning indicates that the government has secret plans for the Bedouin, and treats them as enemies. All the Bedouin communities in the Negev will go on strike today and hold a demonstration in the center of Be’er Sheva to protest the cabinet’s approval of a plan to expel the Negev Arab-Bedouins.
A protest against “Begin-Prawer plan” during the Land Day rally, Wadi El-Na’am, March 2012 (Photo: Activestills)
A few weeks ago, the Planning Authority to Regulate Bedouin Settlement issued a contract for “planning and management services,” consisting of preparing master plans for new Bedouin settlements and expanding existing ones. The contract was issued following the cabinet’s approval last month of the so-called Begin-Prawer plan to relocate Negev Bedouins and the legislation expected in its wake. An appendix to the contract requires all contenders to sign a commitment “to keep the professional information and secrets in complete secrecy…Failing to do so constitutes a violation of clause 7 [state security, foreign relations and official secrets] of the penal code.”
Breaching the secrecy obligation will entail charges of one of the offenses listed in clause 7, the document says. Among the offenses listed in clause 7 are treason and espionage.
Attorney Shahda Ibn Bari, a leading Bedouin rights activist, said “we fear this is a plot against the Bedouin residents and communities. What could [the state] have to hide in planning Bedouin settlements that can be described as state secrets?” Hadash leader MK Mohammed Barakeh demanded a withdrawal of the contract and the bill to “resettle” the Bedouins. “The appendix proves the government treats the Arab citizens of the Negev as enemies,” he said. “Apparently the government has secret plans beyond its declared and dangerous plan to confiscate about 700,000 dunams from the Bedouins and transfer some 40,000 people from their homes,” he said.
Arab-Bedouin leaders harshly criticized the plan, calling it immoral and impractical. “This is a step that harms the basic rights of the Bedouins and we must stop the Prawer Bill!” They called to “join a protest march from Be’er-Sheva Market to the City Government Center (Kiryat Hamemshala) on Thursday, June 13, at 10 am. We will start marching at 10:00 from the city market, at the end of the march a protest rally will be held near the city court.”
Related:
http://www.aljabha.org/index.asp?i=77441 (in Arabic)
