(dpa) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Israel Monday to declare an immediate moratorium on demolitions of Bedouin homes and create an independent commission "to investigate pervasive land and housing discrimination against its Bedouin citizens."
In a 130-page report, "Off the Map: Land and Housing Rights Violations to Israel's Unrecognized Bedouin Villages," the human rights organization charged that "discriminatory laws and practices" force tens of thousands of Bedouin in southern Israel to live in "unrecognized", or informal, shanty towns "where they are under constant threat of seeing their homes demolished and their communities torn apart."
According to HRW, Israel has demolished thousands of Bedouin homes in the Negev desert since the 1970s, hundreds of them in 2007 alone.
The report cited unnamed authorities as saying that 45,000 existing Bedouin homes in approximately 39 "unrecognized" villages were built illegally and are thus potential targets for demolition.
HRW accused Israeli authorities of "systematically" demolishing Bedouin homes, while overlooking or retroactively legalizing unlawful construction by Israel's Jewish citizens.
"Today the Bedouin community comprises 25 per cent of the population of the northern Negev, but controls less than 2 per cent of the land there," the organization maintained.
The report said that although Bedouin suffer an "acute need" for adequate housing, and for new (or recognized) residential communities, Israel was building new homes and communities for Jews, even though "some of the more than 100 existing Jewish communities in the Negev sit half empty."
Although Israeli officials insist that Bedouin can move to seven existing government-planned towns, or newly-recognised villages, HRW claimed that the government-planned communities made up seven of Israel's eight poorest communities and were ill-equipped to handle any influx of residents.
In addition, the report said, most Bedouin opposed having to move to townships.
HRW urged a recently-formed government commission charged with examining the land-ownership dispute between the state and the Negev Bedouin, to base its findings on "Israel's international human rights obligations prohibiting discrimination and guaranteeing rights to adequate and secure housing and protection from forced evictions."
"One recommendation should be for a special commission that can conduct an impartial and comprehensive examination of the problem of the unrecognized villages," HRW Middle East Director Joe Stork said.
The HRW report was based on findings on interviews conducted in 13 unrecognised Bedouin villages and three government-planned Bedouin towns.
The organization said it interviewed dozens of Bedouin, as well as layers, community organizations, academics and lawyers. HRW submitted a detailed letter to the Israeli government in 2007, and said it incorporated relevant information from the response by the Ministry of Justice in the report.