Israel halts tree planting on disputed land after Bedouins protest


Rosie Scammell
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  • Arabic

Israel halted a tree-planting campaign on Wednesday after protests rocked the Negev desert, with Bedouin residents rallying against the project on disputed lands.

The demonstrations exposed deep divisions within the ruling coalition, a fragile alliance made up of eight parties from across the political spectrum.

After days of wrangling, the government agreed to suspend the project on Wednesday, Israeli media reported, and to launch negotiations.

The tree planting was met with protest as it got under way on Monday, in an area where Bedouin residents claim ownership. The Israeli state says it is public land.

At least 16 people were arrested for throwing stones and other offences, police said on Wednesday. Five officers sustained minor injuries.

Dust filled the air as mounted officers and others in riot gear advanced on protesters, near the village of Sawe Al Atrash.

Roads were also shut for the initial land-levelling work to go ahead, preventing access to villages, according to Adalah, an Israeli organisation for Arab rights.

“Everyone living there, those who protest and those who don’t, including the kids coming back from school, became hostages to this closed area,” said Suhad Bishara, who heads Adalah’s land and planning unit.

The protests in the sparsely-populated south thrust the Bedouin community to the top of the political agenda.

The Negev is a key supporter base for Ra’am, the Arab party in the coalition, which threatened to abstain from voting with the government.

“A tree is not more important than a person,” party chief Mansour Abbas said on Monday.

The coalition, led by right-wing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, commands a one-seat majority in parliament.

Israeli police officers detain a Bedouin man during a protest in the Negev on January 12. Reuters
Israeli police officers detain a Bedouin man during a protest in the Negev on January 12. Reuters

The centrist foreign minister, Yair Lapid, called for a halt to the project. Tree planting in the Negev was also paused in 2020, during the premiership of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel’s Bedouin minority has claimed ownership in the Negev for decades, while consecutive administrations have been unable to find a lasting resolution to the issue.

Many residents lack direct access to water and electricity, because they live in villages which the Israeli state has not formally recognised.

Israeli authorities have repeatedly pressed residents to leave their homes and move to towns.

Mr Abbas, representing the first Arab party in government, had pledged to improve the lives of the Bedouin community.

But seven months since the coalition took office, there are few tangible changes to daily life in the Negev.

“The way things are happening now, it doesn’t look like there is an attempt to change the policy, vis-a-vis the Bedouin citizens,” said Ms Bishara.

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Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home. 

Election pledges on migration

CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections" 

SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom" 

Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?

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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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Ms Al Ameri likes the variety of her job, and the daily environmental challenges she is presented with.

Regular contact with wildlife is the most appealing part of her role at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.

She loves to explore new destinations and lives by her motto of being a voice in the world, and not an echo.

She is the youngest of three children, and has a brother and sister.

Her favourite book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville helped inspire her towards a career exploring  the natural world.

The biog

Name: Younis Al Balooshi

Nationality: Emirati

Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn

Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design

The struggle is on for active managers

David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.

The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.

Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.

Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.

Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.

At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn. 

MATCH INFO

Manchester City 2 (Mahrez 04', Ake 84')

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Man of the match: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

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SQUADS

UAE
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While you're here
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Other must-tries

Tomato and walnut salad

A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.

Badrijani nigvzit

A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.

Pkhali

This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.

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3/5 stars

Honeymoonish
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Updated: January 12, 2022, 5:51 PM`