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ISRAEL-OPT: Bedouins lack protection from incoming rockets |
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Wednesday, 07 January 2009 11:51 |
NEGEV, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - Israeli cities and towns within range of Palestinian militants’ rockets fired from Gaza have air raid shelters, but Bedouins in the Negev desert outside Beer Sheba, southern Israel, say they are being treated unfairly and have nowhere to hide.
In the past week the incoming rocket danger zone in Israel has been extended to include areas in which Bedouins live, but the latter say there is no warning system in the area. They also say they have not been contacted by the Home Front Command about how to protect themselves.
The estimated 180,000 Bedouins in the Negev are Israeli citizens and many serve in the army.
Several Grad missiles (larger and more deadly than Kassams) have exploded in Beer Sheba in the past week. But while children in Beer Sheba are kept indoors and schools are shut, Bedouin children are left unprotected, say the Bedouins.
The Israeli government tightly controls building permits and has a policy of demolishing unauthorised houses belonging to Israeli Arabs in the Negev desert. As a result, many Bedouin live in shacks with no protection from incoming rockets.
Residing in what is known as “unrecognised villages”, but also in recognised towns including Rahat and Tel Sheba, many Bedouins are in danger of being hit.
According to estimates by the Regional Council for Unrecognised Villages in the Negev, about 120,000 Bedouins in the Negev are now within range of the rockets from Gaza.
An Israeli Home Front Command spokesperson told reporters on 4 January they were trying to send army soldiers (Bedouins) into Bedouin villages to give instructions on what to do in an emergency. Thus far it has not been possible to get an official Israeli response regarding shelters and sirens for the Bedouins.
Suleiman Abu Abeyd, a father of eight and resident of Lakiya, a Bedouin municipality in the Negev with a population of 10,000, and 15km from Beer Sheba, told IRIN: “We do not hear sirens before the mortars land so even if we had shelters, we would not know when to hide. The children are terrified; mine have resorted to sleeping in one room with us. We try to explain that they [the rockets] might not land here and calm them down. The people here feel let down. It has been years of neglect, but now we are left totally unprotected, while Israeli children in nearby towns… are protected.”
Suleiman said no one from the Home Front Command had contacted municipality representatives to instruct them on the current situation.
Wassim Abbas of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an Israeli NGO dealing with the health and welfare of minorities, told IRIN: “The state must protect residents of unrecognised Negev villages as much as it protects Jewish settlements nearby, particularly given the unstable buildings in which many of them live. A mortar landing in this situation is a death sentence. They [the Bedouins] are Israeli citizens and deserve the same protection as everyone else.”
The NGO sent a letter to the defence minister on 1 January asking for immediate action but has so far received no response.
JORDAN: Persistent drought could devastate crops
AMMAN, 25 December 2008 (IRIN) - Jordan's plight with drought has been highlighted this year with almost no rain falling on the kingdom, prompting officials to call on citizens to pray for rain on Friday 26 December.
Fear is growing that if no rain falls in the coming few days, the agriculture season for vegetables, wheat and barley would be wasted.
In the Jordan valley, one of the kingdom's main vegetables suppliers, rain has been scarce and farmers fear for the viability of their crops.
Farmers from Deir Ala, in the northern Jordan Valley, told IRIN the government stopped pumping water to their farms to preserve the water for drinking purposes amid declining levels of rain.
"What can I do with my plants?" asked Mohammad Barawi, a farmer. Also in the southern city of Kerak prospects for this year's wheat and barley produce are bleak as farmers worry that without water seeds might rot underground.
"I only pray that rain falls very soon, or else I will lose all my harvest," said Salim Abdullah, a farmer with 100 donums of barley on the outskirts of Kerak.
However, Aktham Medanat, head of Karak agriculture department, said that more farmers might be seeking government aid in 2008 compared to past years.
Water problem highlighted
A ministerial conference for the Mediterranean region was held on 23 December under the auspices of the European Union on the shores of the Dead Sea to discuss means of tackling climate change and its impact on water resources.
Of the 19 countries taking part in the one-day event, Jordan is the poorest in terms of water resources. Jordanian officials presented their case to donors with a call to support the long sought-for Dead Sea/Red Sea canal, that might prove to be the only life line for the 5.6 million population as water resources continue drying.
The strategy aims to maintain the quality of water and reduce pressure on water resources through better water management. Ministers in the conference decided to adopt a long-term strategy to tackle the water problem, but for Jordan an urgent solution is needed to provide water.
However, implementing the Dead Sea/Red Sea canal project could be harder than Jordanians hoped, according to Jordan's former minister of water Hazem al-Nasser. He said political problems among the neighbours might delay the project.
Israeli minister of infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Elieze said his country strongly supports Jordan's calls for building the canal. He said Jordan would pump around 60 percent of the water from the canal while Israel and the Palestinian territories would get the remaining 40 percent combined.
Jordan is counting on the project to be one of the kingdom's main energy resources.
The canal would cut through the desert bordering Jordan and Israel in Wadi Araba, creating a natural borderline between the two countries, which signed a peace treaty in 1994. According to the plan, a total of 650 million cubic metres would be pumped from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea annually.
The flowing water would also help generate electricity as water is drawn from the Red sea, raised 170 metres above sea level and then released to the Dead Sea at 400 metres below sea level.
A rapid decline in Dead Sea water levels has alarmed environmentalists in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories who fear the biblical site might dry up within 50 years.
Experts are at the final stages of a feasibility study funded by the World Bank to determine the environmental impact of the canal, with Egyptian authorities already saying they fear for the corals on the Red Sea if the canal is built.{jcomments on}
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 January 2009 12:15 |
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