Bedouin villages in the Negev - al Fur'a
The journey into the Negev 26.09.19 The village of El Fur'a - population of 8000 people, no water or electricity. There is a school from kindergarten to high school. The village is also located on what turned out to a phosphate mining area and which threatens all the localities in the area, including Arad, and whose development has been postponed in the meantime.
The village of El Fur'a is an unrecognized village in the process of recognition. We visited Ali Abu Kabua who hosted Us in his Sig / Diwan which is under threat of demolition. The divan is, in Ali's case, "not even a structure": a ground floor, some planks and a tarp sheet, with half a tent which is about to fall. About 4 years ago Ali was given a demolition order for the Diwan, which according to his words was the place in which in the spring he liked to including Knesset members so as to stop the demolition, without success. He suffered from the harassment of the inspectors of the Bedouin Settlement Authority (Negev / Authority) and particularly the policeman who so saw him as of no account that the policeman actually urinated in the divan.
One day when he heard or understood that the demolition was imminent, he dismantled the dilapidated structure, loaded the materials onto a truck and drove off. After a while he returned, rebuilt it and to this day - 3 years - without the evil eye the Diwan stands
Ali has a lot of justified complaints about the situation in the village. It is divided between various tribes and received recognition in 2006 but because of the intervention it seems of Naftali Bennett and Regavim, the recognition was annulled. He also accused the Regavim movement of violating the order of the village. There is a "blue line" which in principle allows the creation of a master plan, which of course does not exist. People don't build because of the fear of demolition. There is no clinic despite great efforts to get approval for it. No services such as medicine, social security, banking, etc. They have to go to Arad. In the election the ballot was up to 80%, but there is no faith in Knesset members, including in the joint list (the combined list of Arabic parties).
Ali said that the situation at the school in the village is very bad, an old infrastructure, not enough classrooms and bad conditions. Rafi D. volunteered to work with Ali to build a plan to remedy the situation and to convince relevant officials to address the issues.
Excellent and practical Arab-Jewish partnership!
PS: The trip usually leaves on Thursdays at 6pm - which is an hour which is set to coincide with the people’s convenience and according to the time on which they return from work and also Muslim prayer hours. It must be taken into account that it is dark and also beginning to be very cold in the Negev at night! The goals are set according to the conditions in the area and there is always a risk of a last-minute cancellation or change, something we cannot control. Also, there is currently no way of deciding on a plan in advance. If there is an explicit request from the women of MachsomWatch to make a joint trip on another day we will endeavor to do so. There is regular transport from the center of the country to Be'er Sheva by train or bus but the rule is we get back in the late evening.
* Ali repeated this several times. It is unclear if this is true: the founder of Regavim, an organization founded with the aim taking Arab lands for Jews is MK Minister of Transport Bezalel Smutrich and indeed Regavim blatantly intervenes against the order and the recognition of Arab villages in the Negev and the North. www / regavim / org / il "Regavim is a public movement established to lead to a Jewish and Zionist agenda for the State of Israel with regard to land and the environment".