The Bedouins in the Negev - the struggle for recognition and civil equality for all

This event is over, you can access the recording here.

Dr. Yala Ra'anan, council member at All Its Citizens, CEO of the "Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages"  and a lecturer at Sapir College.

Fares Abu Abid, council member at All Its Citizens, a resident of Lakia, a social activist known among the Bedouin population in the Negev. Fares has worked for many years in the NGO "Bimkom" which in the past brought recognition to unknown villages in the Negev.

To this day, the Israeli governments do not have a plan to recognize the villages that remain unrecognized by the state, these villages do not even appear on the map of Israel.

The policy of not recognizing the Bedouin villages has a goal: to concentrate as many Bedouins as possible on as little land as possible. A policy of dispossessing the population of their land and turning the Bedouins into cheap labor in the Jewish settlements.

At the meeting we will talk about the difficult reality in which the Bedouin citizens of the country live and the bureaucratic tools that the State of Israel has used since its foundation to prevent the recognition and planning of the villages. About 180,000 Israeli citizens live without basic infrastructure, when the policy towards them leaves them poor, with minimal ability to acquire an education or a livelihood.

We will also talk about the organization, the actions and the successes of the residents of the villages, to promote their rights.