Re: Illegal Jewish settlers on rampage ....

Ed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I have not seen one news story on TV or read an article in any newspaper
> regarding this.
>
> Oh, Karen "says" it's from Associated Press, but how convenient she
doesn't
> provide any link.
>
> Conclusion:  This story is a lie, just like everything else Karen
Goering
> posts.
>
>
>             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>             Stop Karen - Before she lies again
>
>             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> "Karen Gordon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > (K): Just one more reason why the UN and the world are getting
involved
> > in the Israeli/Palestine violence ....
> > ___________________
> >
> > Palestinian farmers seek protection against settlers
> >
> > Associated Press -  Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003
> >
> > Einabus, West Bank - Men with chainsaws turned Fawzi Hussein's olive
grove
> > into a wasteland overnight  255 trees cut down at the trunks,
fruit-laden
> > branches wilting on a West Bank slope, at the height of the harvest

Perhaps you like to compare this one?

**************************************

Another Arab Population Grows Angry at Israel
Long-Docile Bedouins Protest Their Second-Class Status After the
Government Destroys Their Crops

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 20, 2002; Page A23

LAQIYA, Israel -- A rectangle of brown, dead stalks lies sadly among
surrounding fields of newly sprouting wheat. At the edge of the ruined
field, a sign with a skull and crossbones warns, Danger Poison.

The field was among a number of plots ruined by Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's government, which last month sent out crop-dusters with
herbicides to destroy 3,000 acres of wheat planted, without
authorization, by Bedouin farmers in the arid Negev region of southern
Israel. The destruction has brought to the surface a long-simmering feud
between the small, impoverished Bedouin population and the government in
Jerusalem.

The Bedouins were nomads whose unfettered way of life, clannish sense of
honor and hospitality were the stuff of Middle Eastern legend. Since
Israel was founded in 1948, they have been among the most docile of its
Arab citizens. No longer. Years of second-class status have bred
resentment among the 140,000 of them, and for the first time they are
speaking out in militant tones.

To many Bedouins, the crop destruction symbolized a feeling that life in
Israel is a dead end. "If these problems are not dealt with properly, we
will have an uprising here, like the Palestinians," said Mohamed Abu
Ibrahim Bader, who lost 75 acres to the crop-dusters. "The longer this
goes on, the more likely we will have an internal explosion."

The incident came at a time when Israel is engaged in a grueling battle
with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while trying to tamp
down frustrations among its million-member, non-Bedouin Arab population.

"The more that Bedouins believe there is no end to their problems, the
more fearless they are becoming. They are willing to fight for rights,"
said Banna Shoughry-Badarne, a lawyer for the independent Association
for Civil Rights in Israel.

Disputes between Bedouins and the government date from 1948. Tens of
thousands of Bedouins fled the founding war, never to return. The
remaining population, which numbered about 13,000, was herded into the
northeastern part of the Negev, the spade-shaped expanse of southern
Israel. They were forbidden to return to ancestral areas, which they had
used for grazing and growing wheat.

In the 1960s, the government began an attempt to resettle Bedouins into
seven townships. About half the current population resides in the
townships, and the rest is spread among informal and, under Israeli law,
illegal villages. The population of each of the 45 "unrecognized
settlements" varies from 500 to 5,000, usually members of the same clan.
The settlements lack water, paved roads and schools. Most of the homes
are made of tin.

To attract Bedouins to townships, the government offered subsidized
housing -- as long as the inhabitants gave up claims to outside land.
Bedouins resisted. By tradition, they prefer to live among members of
their clan, rather than in a mixed urban setting. It also turned out
that the townships were bedroom communities -- no provisions were made
for industrialization or agriculture.

Bedouins were expected to find work in Jewish settlements or in
Beersheba, the largest Negev city. About 65 percent of the Bedouin
population lives below the poverty line.

Bader claims to own land near Laqiya, which is an officially recognized
town 13 miles east of Beersheba. After a few years of letting the land
lie fallow, he decided to plant wheat. "This was a good year for rain.
The return would be good," he said. "Anyway, I have land. Why shouldn't
I use it?"

He asserted that his family's ownership dates from Ottoman rule in
Palestine, which ended with the British mandate after World War I. He
did not register it with British authorities; many Bedouins resisted
paying land tax to the foreign occupiers.

On the morning of Feb. 14, crop-dusters appeared over the flat horizon.
"I thought it was strange, but that maybe they came to kill insects on
someone else's land. Instead they came to kill my crops," said Bader, a
retiree.

Within days, the entire crop wilted. Government agents arrived to put up
warning signs, even though the Infrastructure Ministry, which was
responsible for the poisoning, said the chemicals were harmless to
humans.

Bedouins protested in Beersheba. An Arab representative in Israel's
parliament, Taleb Sana, told a television interviewer, "The Bedouin
ought to equip themselves with arms and go to war with Israel."

The government contends the land belongs to Israel and the plantings
were illegal. It was more efficient to ruin the crops by air than to
send in security forces to clear the land, officials said. "These days
police cannot give us the backing of 400 policemen," said Gabi Weisman,
an official of the Israel Lands Administration, in an interview with the
newspaper Haaretz.

A lands administration spokeswoman, Ortal Tseabar, said that Bedouin
"invaders" had taken over land that was supposed to be rented to others
by Israeli authorities. The administration was "exercising its
ownership," she added, and had warned the Bedouins that poison was an
option.

Bedouins were already upset over the government's recent destruction of
a handful of Negev houses. They were built on land the government also
classifies as state-owned. Technically, all the houses in unrecognized
settlements are subject to demolition.

"Anyone can have his house torn down any time," said Salamah Atrash, an
army veteran who has received a demolition order notice.

He lives among fellow clansmen in Wadi Ghwein, a cluster of makeshift
houses where about 2,000 people reside. Staying on the property is a
means for the clan to maintain its claim to ownership, Atrash said.

Atrash, 25, served in the army for 5 1/2 years. His stint included duty
in the Gaza Strip. He said he joined to show Israeli Jews that Bedouins
supported the state. Moreover, because much of the Negev is used by the
military for training, Bedouins frequently deal with officers on issues
such as access to water and permission to build roads.

"It is good policy to have relations with the army," Atrash said.

Having served in the army, and now having been served with a demolition
order, Atrash is disillusioned. "In the end, we are just another Arab
enemy in Israeli eyes," he said. "If a young man comes and asks me if he
should join the army, I don't advise against, but I tell him it won't
solve any problems. It won't end discrimination."

Atrash said that Bedouin attitudes toward Israel have hardened since the
late 1980s, when Palestinians revolted and hundreds of stone-throwing
protesters were shot dead by Israeli troops. He kept his army membership
secret from his family for six months. He also endured insults from
neighbors who branded him a traitor.

Mohamed Abdul-Kariim Bader, a high school teacher in Laqiya, concurred
that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has awakened Bedouin anger. "We
now know," he said, "that an Arab is an Arab."

© 2002 The Washington Post Company



End

Werner Knoll