29 November 2013 — Mondoweiss
Tomorrow (30 Nov), activists in Israel/Palestine, and around the world, will carry out a “day of rage” to protest the Prawer Plan, an Israeli government plan to destroy 35 Arab villages in the Negev desert that will lead to the forced displacement of up to 70,000 Bedouin citizens of the state of Israel in order to clear the land for Israeli Jews.
Here is the call to action for tomorrow’s protests:
On 24th of June, the Israeli Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin plan, which if implemented will result in the destruction of more than 35 unrecognized villages in Al-Naqab and the forced expulsion and confinement of more than 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins. The Prawer plan is the largest Israeli land-grab since 1948. It epitomizes the nature of Israel’s policy; Israeli-Jewish demographic expansion and Palestinian-Arab demographic containment.
The International community has repeatedly called on Israel to halt the implementation of the Prawer Plan due to its discriminatory nature and the severe infringement it causes on the rights of Palestinian Bedouins in Al-Naqab. The UN committee on the elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Israel to withdraw the proposed legislation of the Prawer Plan. Also, in 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Israel to stop the Prawer plan and its policies of forced displacement and dispossession.
Injustice, humiliation and forced displacement are a recurring theme in Palestine’s history. This is lesson that we as a group of youth take to the heart. We will oppose, resist and work against the continuous assault that our communities, across Palestine face. Therefore, we launched the “Prawer will not pass” campaign with an eye to preventing this plan to be yet another chapter in Palestine’s long and tragic history.
Opposing the Prawer Plan is to oppose ethnic cleansing, displacement and confinement in the 21st century.
Join us by organizing marches, protests, sending letters to those with positions of influence in your country or community, by doing whatever you can, in order to force Israel to stop the Prawer plan.
Join us on the 30th of Nov. in saying “Prawer shall not Pass”.
For more information, please contact us on:
The Israeli government is on notice. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Foreign Ministry is preparing for international condemnation in response to Prawer:
The Foreign Ministry was preparing to rebuff international condemnation of the government’s Beduin settlement plan, known as the Prawer Bill, amid a successful campaign led by human rights organizations and activists protesting the plan . . .
The Post learned that the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem is taking the international campaign against the Israeli government very seriously, in light of increasing interest in the issue from international organizations and world governments, particularly in the US and in the European Union, where objections and protests against the plan are garnering widespread publicity.
Protests have already begun in Israel/Palestine. Last weekend workers in the Negev held a general strike to protest Prawer, and the University of Haifa banned students from waving Palestinian flags during an anti-Prawer protest earlier this week.
We have been following the story over the last couple months. See Allison Deger’s in-depth report on one Bedouin village that is slated to be destroyed, Umm el-Hiran, and the rest of our Prawer Plan coverage. You can follow the latest news on the protests via the #StopPrawerPlan hashtag on Twitter.
Here is a video produced by the Haifa-based NGO Adalah on Umm el-Hiran called “Nomads Against their Will.” From the film’s YouTube page: “The film presents the viewer with two possible scenarios for the village’s future over the next ten years. The first scenario is based on plans for the village drafted by Arab town planners and architects, while the second scenario is based on the plans that the Israeli state has for Atir–Umm el-Hieran”:
The New Dark Age 