Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev Bill

The bill declares in Article 1 that its purpose is to “regulate land ownership in the Negev regarding ownership claims filed by the Negev Bedouin population” and also “to facilitate the development of the Negev for the benefit of all of its inhabitants, including making possible a solution for settling the Negev Bedouin population”. In practice, the draft bill outlines a framework to expedite procedures to enforce government policies regarding the Bedouin Arab population in the Negev on two parallel issues. The first issue is the evacuation of the unrecognized villages in the Negev, with the bill founded on the assumption that the residents of the unrecognized villages are squatters lacking any rights to the land, and therefore must be evicted. The second issue is the topic of land ownership in the Negev. The underlying premise of the bill is that there is no Bedouin land ownership at all in the Negev. Therefore, the arrangement it proposes is ex gratia.

Furthermore, the bill proposes establishing a mechanism to impose an “arrangement”, which will be carried out primarily through administrative authorities that will suspend application of constitutional law, administrative law, land and property laws and land-use planning laws. Thus, it adopts a formula of emergency law which also undermines the principles of the rule of law and equality before the law, separation of powers, due process, and judicial independence.