The military face behind the Prawer Plan's civilian mask

[Alfalfa]

The military face behind the Prawer Plan?s civilian mask | +972 Magazine


‘The Bedouin will not live on his land with his flock, but rather will be part of the urban class that comes in the afternoon and puts on his slippers,’ Moshe Dayan said in 1963.

In the 50 years since, not much has changed regarding Israel’s efforts to justify its policy in the Negev: as many Arabs as possible on as little land as possible and as few Jews as possible on as much land as possible.

The government’s consistent policy regarding the Bedouin is also evident from the body overseeing it: the Israel Defense Forces. Until 1966, the Bedouin were under marital law, which controlled all aspects of their lives. After that, because they were seen as a “security threat,” the military continued to indirectly control their lives. A quick look at those involved in the planning and implementation of the Prawer-Begin plan reveals khaki fatigues underneath civilian clothing: Colonel (res.) Ehud Prawer, who began drafting the plan back in 2006 while serving as deputy head of the National Security Council; Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, who examined the Prawer Plan as head of the National Security Council and is responsible for making it “less generous” to the Bedouin; Lt.-Col. (res.) and retired police Commander Yehuda Bachar, who heads the authority for arranging the Bedouin settlement in the Negev; and of course, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. As Amiram Oren and Rafi Regev point out in their book A Land in Khaki: Land and Security in Israel, the IDF directly and indirectly controls half the lands of the State of Israel. This of course applies to the Bedouin as well, who are subject to its authority.

More history on israeli racist policy towards the bedouin.