The Israeli Prawer Plan that aimed to forcibly relocate over 40,000 Israeli Bedouin from their ancestral lands is no longer under consideration by the Israeli Knesset. Demonstrations on both sides of the Green Line, and throughout the world, succeeded in raising enough doubt about this plan to help take it off the table, however temporarily.

This does not mean the Bedouin communities in the Negev will be treated as equal citizens, hooked up to the basic services they require, or that their ancestral land claims will be recognized. Dozens of Bedouin villages remain unrecognized by the Israeli government, lacking basic infrastructure such as water, sewage, and electricity, and Bedouins continue to be forbidden from building, buying or selling a home, receiving full government services, or running for or voting in local government elections. Many Bedouin homes and villages are still slated for demolition (the village of Al-Araqib has already been demolished over 60 times). (Jewish Voice for Peace).

The Bedou have been wandering in this part of the world for thousands of years. Modern frontiers and restrictions on movement forced them to settle reluctantly in villages. These people are a proud and noble people. Epicureans believe in the right of peaceful nomadic people, if they are to be forced into desert settlements, to at least be given decent facilities, schools, hospitals and homes etc. If it were not for the power of money in American politics the story would be very different. It is deeply shameful.