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

NCF Statement at UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues

16.05.2012

This week, Mansour Nsasra read a statement on behalf of the Negev Coexistence Forum (NCF) during the 11th Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues in New York. Nsasra’s statement focused on Israel’s intensified efforts to displace the indigenous Bedouin from their ancestral land, and in particular, to the government’s recently passed Prawer-Amidror Plan, which would displace 30,000 Bedouin citizens from their homes and villages throughout the Negev.

“There was no consultation process with the Bedouin community regarding the formulation of the Prawer-Amidror Plan. In other words, there was no opportunity for the affected indigenous community to provide their input,” the statement reads. “Furthermore, it seems clear that the Israeli authorities are prepared to use aggressive force to carry out the Plan, especially given a recent report that the Israeli police established a unit of 200 officers to enforce evacuations and demolitions of Bedouin homes and villages.”

Nsasra explained how the Prawer-Amidror Plan violates the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including most notably Article 10, which states that, “indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories” and that “no relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned.”

He urged the Panel and the international community at large to intervene in order to prevent the Israeli government from implementing the Prawer-Amidror Plan, which will only further dispossess the Bedouin of the Negev, undermine the delicate social fabric of the area and inflame Arab-Jewish relations.

Nsasra will meet with James Anaya, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, on Thursday, May 17, to further discuss the situation of Bedouin displacement in the Negev.

To read the full statement, click here.