Post date: Dec 12, 2013 10:17:11 PM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalls from council's agenda the plan to resettle thousands of Bedouin in the southern Negev.
BIR MSHASH, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 11, 2013) (REUTERS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is recalling from parliament's agenda a plan to resettle tens of thousands of Bedouin Arabs in the southern Negev region pending further discussion, an adviser to his government said on Thursday (December 12).
The step follows violent Arab protests against the envisaged uprooting of 40,000 Bedouin from their homes, alongside threats by Netanyahu's right-wing political allies to topple the bill which they view as offering the Bedouin too much compensation.Former cabinet minister Benjamin Begin, an architect of the plan, and a shadow government adviser, told reporters Netanyahu had "accepted" his proposals to "halt Knesset debate of the bill" or removing it from parliament's agenda.
"Hostile take-over shouldn't be permitted over the bill, and it shouldn't be hijacked and distorted. Of the two evils we should choose the lesser evil. therefore I put before the prime minister two recommendations: one is to continue to carry out the development plan for Bedouin settlements in the coming years via the implementation committee; the prime minister accepted this proposal. The second, to halt the Knesset debate of the bill; the prime minister also accepted this recommendation," Begin told reporters in press conference.
Begin said Netanyahu had also agreed to "carry out the development plan for Bedouin settlements in the coming years," suggesting that the plan would be revised rather than shelved.
An official in Netanyahu's office sent reporters copies of Begin's remarks at a news conference held in Tel Aviv, but spokesmen for the Israeli prime minister declined any comment.
Netanyahu's government introduced the planning measure in parliament earlier this year. It calls for moving the Bedouin from "unrecognised" villages into seven townships, as a way to improve their standard of living and develop the Negev desert.
Many Bedouin say they reject the plan as an effort to dislodge them from the area, saying Israelcould authorise existing communities to provide them with better school facilities and infrastructure for electricity, water and roads.
Debate of the measure had bogged down in a parliamentary committee, where far-rightists opposed its offer of cash and land ownership to the Bedouin, while left-wing lawmakers charged it sought to uproot Arabs so as to expand housing for Jews.