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Unrecognised Villages – Or what Orwellian country life looks like
Carl Sunbourg
Khaled from the Assoc40 in Haifa points out that the problem of the so-called unrecognised villages did not exist until the late 1980s. It was only through communal efforts that these disadvantaged villagers learned to formulate their problem.
Today they are players on the international stage. Their situation improves gradually but the future remains uncertain. They remain exposed to the arbitrary treatment of the authorities.
There are around 40 villages in Israel that are not officially recognised.This means that there are no services provided by the state authorities, such as water, electricity, paved roads, kindergartens or schools etc.
All the services that do exist are the result of a joint effort of the residents. These villagers are citizens of the State of Israel and they are entitled to vote and obliged to pay taxes. But their homes do not 'exist.'
Bedouin live in most of these villages in the north of Israel, and more particularly in the south. Many of these villages existed before Israel was established in 1948, for which British aerial photographs give proof.
The village residents were either expelled, re-settled or simply pushed aside during the establishment of the new state. Many were later re-settled, some several times. Only with the introduction of the 1965 Planning and Building Law did the legal illegality of these inhabitants become manifest.
To protest against this situation many join the crowds of the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel on Land Day in March each year, but they remain a group apart among the Palestinian-Arab citizens who are treated as second class citizens.
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