“Thousands of Bedouin settlements in the Negev are built illegally under the nose of the Israeli government with no regard to safety codes,” said Ari Briggs, International Director of Regavim. “The NGOs filing suit have a history of undermining the State of Israel, and now they have found a way to further slander and distract Israel while the State is under attack. The only solution to Bedouin security is ensuring that Israeli law is applied equally to all citizens.”
Dedicated to ensuring responsible, legal, and environmentally sound use of Israeli state land, Regavim monitors more than 2,000 illegal Bedouin outposts in the Negev, warning that their severe violations of Israeli law, which amount to a mass land grab, cause danger to the State of Israel and to Israeli lives.
The spurious suit the NGOs brought to the Supreme Court completely disregards facts on the ground and the integrity of Israeli law. Furthermore, bringing such a suit at a time of national crisis and sorrow reveals their harmful political intentions against the State and people of Israel.
Since the early 1990s, Israeli law requires safe rooms to be built in all new homes and commercial buildings, a responsibility that falls upon home and property owners – not the government. Citizens who do not abide by government safety codes place themselves at unnecessary risk of injury, fines or eviction. As a result of ignoring Israeli law, not only have Bedouin settlers not built safe rooms, they have erected thousands of homes in the middle of open expanses of state-owned land in the Northern Negev where knowingly sirens do not reach.
Unfortunately, the government has turned a blind eye to rampant Bedouin illegal settlement. Regavim calls on the Israeli government to respond vigorously to the NGOs’ spurious claims. The best way of ensuring the safety of all citizens at all times, whether peace or war, is by equally applying the rule of law to all.
*The NGOs referred to in this release are Council of Unrecognized Villages, Physicians for Human Rights, Dukium NCF and ACRI.
