775 Rabbinic Leaders Urge Fair Treatment of Bedouin and Withdrawal of Legislation that Would Lead to Forced Relocation of 30,000-40,000 Citizens

Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights will deliver a plea from hundreds of rabbinic leaders urging the withdrawal of the “Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev” at the beginning of hearings of the Knesset’s Interior Affairs Committee, headed by MK Miri Regev (Likud Beiteinu), on November 6th.

Along with copies of a public letter signed by more than 775 rabbis, cantors, rabbinical students, and cantorial students urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reconsider so-called “Prawer-Begin Plan” bill, RHR and T’ruah will provide each member of the Knesset’s Interior Affair Committee with passages from the Bible and Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Each will demonstrate how the legislation, which is expected to lead to the forced relocation of 30,000-40,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel, runs contrary to the Jewish values on which the State of Israel was founded.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, President of RHR, will also request permission to testify at the committee hearings on behalf of the rabbinic opponents to the bill.

The bill seeks to resolve longstanding land disputes between Bedouin Israelis and the state, but it will lead to widespread dispossession, the demolition of entire villages, and instigation of animus among the Bedouin towards the state. Knesset members approved the first reading of the Government sponsored bill on June 24.

Bedouin community leaders and their supporters, including RHR and T’ruah, have been outspoken in rejecting the plan as discriminatory, failing to recognize historical Bedouin land rights, and threatening their traditional clan structures and agrarian ways of life.

Who/What: Rabbis to deliver copies of a public letter and testimony citing passages from the Bible and Israel’s Declaration of Independence in support of Bedouin rights at Knesset’s Interior Affairs Committee hearing

Where: Knesset Interior Affairs Committee

When:  Wednesday, November 6, 8:30 AM
To view the letter and the full list of signatories, visit:http://bit.ly/BedouinRabbis.
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