Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
פורום דו-קיום בנגב לשוויון אזרחי
منتدى التعايش السلمي في النقب من أجل المساواة المدنية

Update from Negev Coexistence Forum

08.03.2012

• Homes demolished and hundreds of dunams of crops destroyed
• Open Letter to the Minister of Justice

Homes demolished and hundreds of dunams of crops destroyed

Last week saw several major incidents of home and property destruction by the Israeli Lands Authority:

• On the morning of March 6^th in Lakia 3 homes were demolished.
• That same day the remaining homes in the village of Al Arakib were destroyed for the 33^rdtime. For the first time village residents were asked to hand over their Israeli identity cards and were held until the end of the demolition.
• On March 7^th 2,000 dunams of crops were destroyed when Israeli Lands Authority tractors deep plowed through planted fields in Tel-Arad, Aroer area and Wadi Al-Na’am. This destruction took place after the rainiest winter in ten years, and destroyed a particularly fruitful harvest.

On February 28^ththe NCF sent an open letter to Professor Yaakov Neeman, Israeli Minister of Justice, protesting the Prawer plan and outlining its contradictions to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Committee on Economic (ICSECR), Social and Cultural Rights. The letter quotes the latest covenant ICSECR recommendations against forced evacuation of Bedouin from their homes, and asks several questions concerning how the ministry plans to assimilate and implement these recommendations. The full letter can be found here on the NCF website.