Rights group calls on Israel to end discrimination against Bedouin
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Jerusalem - Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Monday on Israel to declare an immediate moratorium on the demolition of houses and create a Bedouin independent commission to examine penetration and agriculture and housing discrimination against citizens Bedouin. ” In a 130-page report, “Off the Map: ground and housing violations of the rights of Israel’s unrecognized Bedouin villages,” Human Rights organization charged that “laws and discriminatory practices” by force Tens of thousands of Bedouin in the south of Israel to live ‘Is not recognized, or informal settlements, where it constant threat of having their houses demolished and their communities. According to HRW, Israel has demolished thousands of Bedouins in the Negev desert flats since the 1970’s, hundreds of them in 2007 alone. The report cites unspecified authorities indicate that 45000 homes in the Bedouin approximately 39 ‘unknown’ villages were built illegally, and are therefore potential targets for demolition. HRW accused the Israeli authorities, the “systematic” Bedouin demolition of houses, whereas the law to legalize or retrospectively by Israel for the construction of Jewish citizens. “Today, the Bedouin community comprises 25 percent of the population of northern Negev, but controls less than 2 percent of the land,” maintain the organization. The report explains that the Bedouin suffer, even if an “acute need for adequate housing, and for new (or accepted), the municipalities of residence, Israel has been building new houses and common for Jews, even if “some of the more than 100 Jewish communities in the Negev sat half empty.” Although Israeli officials that can reach seven existing Bedouin, the government planned cities, towns or newly recognized, HRW argues that the measures taken by the government of the proposed communities from Israel seven of the eight poorest communes and poorly equipped, in order to prevent any influx of residents. In addition, the report said that most of the Bedouin, contrary to move to the townships. HRW calls on a government commission that recently, the review of agriculture Ownership dispute between the state and the Bedouin in the Negev, their knowledge about “Israel’s international obligations in the field of human rights and the prohibition of discrimination, the right to an adequate security and safe accommodation and protection of forced evictions. ” A recommendation should be a specific role for conducting a thorough and impartial investigation on the problem of unknown villages, ‘Middle East director of HRW said Joe Stork. The HRW report has been prepared on the basis of knowledge on interviews in 13 unrecognized Bedouin villages and Government scheduled three cities Bedouin. The organization he said interviewed dozens of Bedouin, as well as diapers, community organizations, academics and lawyers. HRW has detailed a letter to the Israeli Government for the year 2007 and said it include relevant information from the response from the Department of Justice in the report. |