Blogging the UK Task Force Study Trip in the Negev: Day Four

Day Four: 23/02/2012

"When a stranger dwells within your land, do not vex him."  (Leviticus 19:33)

In 1963 Israeli Minister of Defence, Moshe Dayan, told Haaretz: "We should transform the Bedouin into an urban proletariat.  88% of the Israeli population are not farmers, let the Bedouin be like them. Indeed, this will be a radical move which means that the Bedouin would not live on his land with his herds, but would become an urban person who comes home in the afternoon and puts his slippers on. His children will get used to a father who wears pants without a dagger and who does not pick out their nits in public. This will be a revolution, but it can be achieved in two generations. Without coercion but with governmental direction ... this phenomenon of the Bedouins will disappear."

As we have heard more complementing and conflicting narratives about the issues of the Bedouin communities of the Negev this week, the only thing that has become clearer is that the situation is not clear-cut.   "Man who knows something knows that he knows nothing at all." (Erica Badu)  I understand that I do not even close to understand the legal, political, cultural and socio-economic complexities but I have an uneasy feeling that the disrespectful, colonial attitude expressed by Moshe Dayan in 1963 has permeated Israeli opinion and policy for too long.  I am fearful that the Israeli government may be doing exactly that which is prohibited in the Book of Leviticus; vexing the stranger in its land.  I was pleased then that today we had the opportunity to meet with Cabinet Minister Benny Begin who is responsible under the Netanyahu coalition government for implementing the Prawer Plan.  I appreciate that there is much work to be done within the Bedouin community, both in terms of addressing cultural challenges and developing local empowerment, but today is about considering Jewish/Israeli responsibility. 

I formulated my questions last night: Irrespective of legalities and politics, as a Diaspora Jew, as a Liberal Rabbi and as an Israeli citizen, I wanted to know why my government is not providing basic amenities to its own citizens.  But Minister Begin had his own agenda and was highly skilled in presenting his case, attributing responsibility for the current situation to previous governments, professing to be committed to reaching a solution in open consultation with the Bedouin community and describing the bureaucratic, financial and practical obstacles that are slowing him down.  "The public penalty on action is higher than the public penalty on inaction and humans have a natural tendency to postpone.  So in politics, particularly in the Middle East, the pace is slow.  This issues has been postponed for many years but we decided to take the bull by the horns and to take action to improve the life of the Bedouin community."  We were told that the government has a five-year plan worth 2.5 billion shekels that is not concomitant with the resolution of land claims.  "It's a nice package," concluded Begin, "If you come back in three years you will already see improvements in the lives of the people in the region."

The minister's eloquent speech did not leave me satisfied but it did leave me deflated.  I wanted to challenge his conviction, demand to know why the Bedouin community feels that it has not been consulted when Begin claims that he and his team have held over 100 direct consultations.  I wanted to ask how it can be that, as we sit and talk, children who are citizens of this country are going without running water and plumbed sewerage; children who in the past may have grown up to volunteer in the Israeli army but are now becoming politicised and radicalised.  I did not ask these questions but others did raise concerns that were expertly quashed by the minister who seemed to be impatient to leave.  Begin's final words: "We shall do our limited best to implement those comments that can be implemented, taking into consideration wider issues."  Gee, thanks!

I am so glad that our spirits were lifted again in our next meeting with Orthodox Rabbi Michael Melchior who is a Member of Knesset for the Meretz party.  "You have to be passionate about Israel but the time of our passion for Israel being expressed by hating Arabs is over – you are harming Israel and doing an injustice to our Jewish heritage."  Drawing on the same parallels from the Exodus narrative, he invited us to become partners in seeking a holistic solution.  So it was to this challenge that we turned our attention during the final session of the study trip in which we started thinking of ways that we, as British Jewish educators and leaders, might want to bring the issues we have covered back to our communities.  The Rabbis on the trip and those who work directly with Synagogue communities worked together.  After some general reflection, we looked to bluer skies and, imagining that we had unlimited funds, resources and willing participants, articulated our wildest ideas.  Just as the motifs of outlandish catwalk fashion make their way into Marks and Spencer the following season, our ideas were full of inspiration for more tangible future programming.

Could we bring some of the speakers we saw this week to the UK to tour our communities, JSocs and youth movements, sharing their experiences and insights?  Should we persuade our communal and youth movement Israel tour organisers to boycott the staged, sanitised Bedouin 'experience' visits that are so common and to opt for serious engagement with representatives of unrecognised villages or planned Bedouin towns instead?  Could we work in partnership with some of the innovative social projects in the Bedouin community to create volunteering programmes for our young people that allow them to interact with the needs of both Jews and Arabs within the State of Israel?  Is there value in dialogue between pioneering Bedouin women who are fighting to break the mould of gender expectations and embrace the modern world and cynical Western/Israeli women who are questioning modernity and looking at ways to reconnect with a more traditional lifestyle?  Could these and other ideas offer new ways for disenfranchised Jews to connect to their Jewish heritage and reconsider their relationship with the Jewish State?  It is these questions that we must consider in the coming weeks.  I commit myself to do just that, to undertake further research and to choose one concrete way to act on the incredible learning that this study trip has given me.  I will report back before Pesach when we will once again sit down and remind ourselves of our obligations to the stranger.  "When a stranger dwells within your land, do not vex him.  The stranger who dwells among you shall be like a native to you and you shall love him like yourself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Eternal One, your God."  (Leviticus 19:33-34)