Estrolabio

On February 16th and again on February 17th the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib was destroyed for the 17th and 18th times, the culmination of a week of repeated demolitions, vicious police beatings and shooting of Bedouin children, women and men with rubber bullets by Israeli Riot Police. All so the Jewish National Fund can plant a forest over the remains of the village.

Thousands of you already signed the petition telling the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to stop demolishing Al-Arakib.

Now we have to escalate. We have to pick up the phone now and call the JNF at (212) 879-9300 to tell them to stop planting forests on Bedouin land.

JNF and the Israeli Government hope to wipe out the village once and for all.  As in previous demolitions, the residents were forced into the village’s 100-year old cemetery, but this time the JNF bulldozers crashed right up to the cemetery's gates. Villagers held them closed with their bare hands, causing five people to be injured and hospitalized. Their courage in facing down bulldozers and risking injury should inspire us all to take the next step.

That's why we’ve partnered with the Jewish Alliance for Change to organize a national call-in day Today, February 18th. Call the Jewish National Fund and tell them:  No more demolished villages!

We'll provide you with video of the destruction as well as phone numbers of national and regional JNF offices.

Thanks to you, JNF is already feeling the heat. A prominent JNF board member has now publicly urged them to stop planting forests on confiscated Bedouin land(1). We can encourage more people to speak out by calling on a single day. Your voices will do so much to make sure the voices of Al-Arakib and the rest of the Negev Bedouin are heard.

The people of Al-Arakib, together with nearly 200,000 Bedouin throughout the Negev, are fighting for their rights to their land and homes.  Your calls to the JNF will give them heart as they continue their struggle.   As they fight on another day against expulsion and dispossession, they are waiting to hear about our calls on their behalf.

Tell the JNF: Not another demolished home!  Not another brutal expulsion of Bedouin, or wiped out village, for JNF forests!  Stop sowing conflict between Jews and Arabs in the Negev!

Jesse Bacon
Editor, The Only Democracy?