Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
are historically nomadic and give primary loyalty to their tribe and clan rather than to Arabs
or Muslims as a group. In Israel they have usually been resettled in permanent communities,
but a small portion of them continue to be traveling herders for part of the year, living in black
tents where they pasture their sheep and goats.
The Bedouin are poorer and less educated than the agriculturalist and town-dwelling Ar-
abs. They have the highest childbirth rate in the country — almost double that of other groups.
Health problems arise from unsanitary living conditions and lack of access to clean, potable
water, and the frequency of traditional fi rst cousin marriage causes a high rate of congenital
disease.
The permanent settlement of Bedouin into towns and villages in the south has been a major
project. At times, the green (environmental) police and Bedouin have clashed over use of land for
pasture. But the main problems in recent years have been poverty and the organization of govern-
ment services — like health and education facilities — for those living in unrecognized villages.
The law requiring children to go to school is now strictly enforced among elementary-school-
age Bedouin children, so disparities in education are decreasing, and literacy is on the rise.
Unlike the rest of the Muslim Arabs in Israel, a small percentage of Bedouin serve in the
IDF. This is truer of the northern Bedouin, who in general feel a greater affi nity for the state
than do their southern counterparts.
Tensions between Arab and Jewish Israelis
Until 1966, Arabs in the north lived under martial law, and regulations facilitated the expro-
priation of Arab-owned lands. The worst incident during this period came during the 1956
war with Egypt. Arab villages in Israel near the Jordanian-ruled West Bank were put under
curfew after 5:00 p.m., under penalty of death, because of fears that Jordanian forces might
infi ltrate and attack Israel. On October 29, 1956, in Kafr Qasim, forty-eight villagers returning
from work in the fi elds at night were killed. Eleven Border Police were charged with murder,
and the two offi cers were sentenced to seventeen and fi fteen years imprisonment, respectively,
sentences later reduced on appeal. Judge Benjamin Halevy, presiding over the trial, issued an
important ruling — since then accepted as precedent — that Israeli security personnel are re-
quired to disobey orders if necessary to avoid breaking the law.
In 1966, martial law was lifted completely in the north, and discriminatory laws were nulli-
fi ed. The incident that brought the greatest friction after that came in 1976, when the govern-
ment published a plan to take 5,250 acres (12,973 hectares) of land in the Galilee for its use.
About 30 percent of this land was Arab-owned. In response, Arab leaders called a general strike
on March 30, 1976. Police units opened fi re — the police say in self-defense, Arab critics say
unnecessarily. In the resulting clashes, six Arabs were killed, and many Arabs and police were
injured. The Arab community commemorates this event every year as Land Day.
In another incident, in October 2000, the outbreak of an intifada among Palestinians
in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip sparked brief, large-scale protests within Israel. Some
turned violent. Police killed twelve Israeli Arabs in clashes. The government commissioned an
independent investigation into the police reaction, as well as the conditions that existed in the
Arab sector leading up to the clashes.
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