Adalah Demands Agriculture Ministry to Designate Pastures for Grazing Camels in the Naqab and Set Forth Clear Criteria for the Camels' Registration
On 9 July 2008, Adalah sent a letter to the Head of the Southern District of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Director of the Ministry of Agriculture demanding the designation of pastures for grazing camels in the Naqab (Negev), and the determination and publication of clear criteria to govern the registration of camels in the ministry’s register.
Adalah's letter follows numerous approaches by camel rearers, who are members of the Livestock Raising Committee in the Naqab, and the head of the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab, Mr. Hussein al-Rafaya, to the Ministry of Agriculture, for failing to find a solution to the severe lack of designated pastoral land for camels, and for refusing to introduce registration for the camel sector, as is the practice for other agricultural sectors.
The camel raising sector is among the most important of the traditional Arab Bedouin livestock sectors. It is based on a desert lifestyle and on natural resources from the desert. Given the scarcity of water, this sector in fact saves on water resources, and differs from other sectors in this regard, and does not pollute the air or damage the health of human beings or the environment.
The Ministry of Agriculture has refused to designate a specific sector for camel rearing for years, or to preserve it. It has also failed to establish and publish criteria for allocating pastures for camels and to grant other rights in this field. Further, there are currently no clear procedures for the registration of livestock or the allocation of pastures for them. The ministry designates large areas of pastoral land for some livestock rearers, mainly Jewish Israelis according to committee members, while denying others, predominantly Arab Bedouin farmers, in the absence of clear and known criteria.
In the letter, Adalah Attorney Morad el-Sana emphasized that, “The lack of clear and equitable criteria to govern the allocation of large areas of pastoral land harms the livelihood of a large number of Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel, leaving many families without a source of livelihood and in poverty. This policy violates the basic rights of Arab Bedouin camel rearers and discriminates against them."
