Negev: Israeli government demolishes Bedouin villages, sells land to settlers
The latest case concerns Umm al-Hiran, razed to the ground to build Dror, a new Jewish Orthodox town. Some of the land was offered at ridiculously low prices to members of Garin Torani's Zionist religious group. Peace Now warns that with the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government, authorisations for new homes in the settlements are breaking new records every week.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – The Israeli government is selling off part of the land that historically belonged to Negev Bedouins at ridiculously low prices, after razing their villages, turning the land over to West Bank settlers.
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the main beneficiaries include members of Garin Torani, a Zionist religious group from the Eli settlement, north of Ramallah, to which the authorities have sold much coveted plots at prices comparable to those of a used car.
Plots of a few hundred square metres worth more than US$ 80,000 at market value can be bought for US$ 3,500 to US$ 19,000 without a tender.
Meanwhile, displaced Bedouins forcibly moved to a local Bedouin town have been denied the status of "local residents”, so have little chance of buying, except in rare cases of small plots, far smaller than the original properties, at market value.
Before the creation of Israel in 1948, the Negev was home to about 92,000 Bedouins. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, only 11,000 remained within Israel's borders. Many ended up living in unrecognised and unplanned villages, without basic services such as running water, sewage and electricity.
Very few have access to air-raid shelters (the only victim of the Iranian attack in early April last year was a Bedouin girl), while most refuse to be resettled and so face great difficulties in Israeli society. Today they number 300,000, half of whom live in cities and half in villages not recognised by Israel.
Israel recently resumed the construction of new buildings in Dror, a newly created Orthodox Jewish town, which stands on the land of the southern Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, which was never recognised and demolished in November.
A month later – on 29 December – two tenders by the Israel Land Authority were closed, concerning the construction of the future village, near Meitar and Hura.
Several firms have been awarded contracts to build 620 residential units, for a total price of 40 million shekels (just under US$ 11 million), with development costs at 108 million shekels (US$ 29.5 million).
This was followed by the tender for 36 single-family homes, with a plot for a single-family home priced at 303,000 shekels (around us$ 82,000), plus construction costs and the entrepreneur's profit, based on reasonable prices.
However, it appears that in 2023 and 2024 Israel Land Authority made three assignments without a tender, to buy plots for private construction in that same future community, at completely different prices.
Priority was given to "local" buyers, defined as follows: members of the Rabbinical Academy of Eli in the West Bank, who founded a Garin Torani (Torah Nucleus), or residents of the Tamar Regional Council.
Thus, without a contract, Eli academy members received 115 of the 345 lots of up to 740 square metres at a ridiculously (or symbolic) price, ranging from 13,000 to 70,000 shekels, driving out the Bedouins who had been settled in the area since the 1950s even though they had won in court in 2015 the right to live in the area and be moved only in exchange for an agreed replacement plot of land.
Meanwhile, the Higher Planning Council (HPC) met today for the sixth consecutive week to give the green light to the construction of new housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank: 448 in today's session alone.
Under the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (and his two, far-right allies, Smotrich and Ben Gvir), settlement activity has reached unprecedented levels. In 2023, the HPC approved 12,349 new housing units, an all-time high, followed by 9,884 units in 2024.
According to Peace Now, the move to weekly planning meetings represents both a "normalization of the process and intensification of settlement construction.”
If today's numbers are approved, the total for the six weeks will be 2,377 housing units. At this rate, 2025 will set new records, with projections exceeding 1,500 units per month.
“The Higher Planning Council’s weekly meetings indicate an attempt to normalize settlement planning, aiming to maximize housing unit approvals while minimizing public and international criticism,” based on an annexationist agenda that will likely lead to “a political and security crisis.”
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