After clashes, more police sent to guard JNF forestation work in Israel’s Negev

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The Israel Police sent additional forces to secure the Jewish National Fund’s forestation work in the Negev on Wedensday and disperse Bedouin protesters at the unrecognized southern village of Sawa, a day after clashes between protesters and police left two officers wounded and over a dozen demonstrators arrested.

Border Police forces joined police at the scene, as did special police forces and other units, and they were dispatched to a nearby village as well.

Walid Taha, a Knesset Member from the Islamist United Arab List party and the chairman of the Knesset Interior Committee, told A-Shams radio on Wednesday morning that his party, many of whose constituents hail from the Bedouin community, will be boycotting parliamentary meetings and votes until the forestation work is halted completely.

“The changes in agenda due to the coronavirus doesn’t change things for us,” Taha said. “We will not be present for meetings and votes, and we will therefore continue to pressure the politicians – party leader Mansour Abbas and I have personally contacted all the relevant figures.”

The United Arab List is part of the government coalition, and though Taha admits that there are those within the coalition and cabinet who would like to replace the Islamist party and see them in the opposition, they currently have no alternates.

While “It would be easiest to give them a vote of no confidence and take down the government,” he said, “we would prefer to reach an agreement that would first and foremost benefit the residents and their rights.” Leaving the coalition – which would lead the government to collapse – “is always an option,” he added, “but the question is how that would serve our public in the face of the alternatives; there are talks and discussions, but what was offered to us was not accepted, mainly by the residents.”

Kahanist Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir of the far-right Religious Zionism party tweeted on Wednesday morning that he was on his way there. Even though it is a shmita year, or a sabbatical year for working the land, Ben-Gvir wrote that he got permission from a prominent pro-settler rabbi to plant trees in order to “save the south.”

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“Together we will make the wilderness bloom,” he added, in a reference to David Ben-Gurion’s iconic remarks on the Negev.

The JNF plans to plant 5,000 dunams (1,250 acres) of forest along the Anim stream, which flows into the Be’er Sheva stream. The first phase of the project includes preparation and planting on 300 dunams, which local Bedouin farmers planted wheat on just a month ago.

The JNF’s forestation plan is especially significant for the United Arab List, as Bedouin constitute a substantial portion of the party’s voter base. Even before the current government was formed, Bedouin in the area said that the works occupy their farming zones and demanded that the plan be halted.

Political leaders and activists have slammed the plan as endangering the livelihoods of local Bedouin families. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called to halt the works on Tuesday. “Like the Netanyahu government stopped the forestation works in 2020, we can stop [it] and reassess,” Lapid tweeted on Tuesday.

During Tuesday’s protests, 18 boys aged between 13 and 15 were arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at law enforcement; two officers were lightly wounded by stones hurled by protesters.

Meanwhile, a group of some 20 protesters assaulted Haaretz reporter Nati Yefet as he was covering the events. One of the attackers stole his car and set it ablaze while the others attacked him. He managed to escape and was rescued by police.

Hundreds of police escorted JNF workers preparing the land for forestation on Monday, and the forestation works are expected to continue on Wednesday, with police supervision. A protest tent erected on the site on Monday night was demolished by JNF tractors.