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Oliventræet er et
fantastisk træ. Det har som fødevare og handelsvare været livsgrundlag
for familier og samfund i Mellemøsten siden oldtiden Det tager mange år
før et nyplantet træ bærer frugt, til gengæld kan det blive mere end
1000 år gammelt. I Palæstina er mere end 400.000 træer hugget ned, og ødelæggelserne fortsætter. Det har fjernet eksistensgrundlaget for mange familier, og ødelagt et bæredygtigt kulturmiljø, som er udviklet siden oldtiden. Kampen for oliventræerne er blevet et symbol for udvikling og solidaritet. I perioder, hvor det har været muligt, har medlemmer af den israelske fredsbevægelse taget til Palæstina i høstsæsonen for at hjælpe med høsten. Selv om hvert træ er en dråbe i havet i forhold til de over 400.000 træer, der er fældet, så består havet af dråber. At donere og at modtage et oliventræ har en stor symbolværdi og er samtidig en helt kontant håndsrækning til en familie. Som forberedelse til International Human Rights March indsamlede vi godt 80.000 kr. til genplantning af træer, og under rejsen plantede vi en lille del som en symbolsk handling. Se anvendelsen nedenfor. På vores nye rejse oktober 2005
vil vi tage del i olivenhøsten, og vi håber, at vi kan medbringe et
tilsvarende beløb til plantning af nye træer. Et
gavebrev koster 150 kr. Karen Henriksen eller indsæt beløbet på
vores konto mærket Oliventræ, HUSK NAVN OG ADRESSE Indsamling 2005 Vi har besluttet at iværksætte en ny indsamling i foråret 2005. Indsamling i 2003 - 2004 Ca. 46.000 kr. er bevilget til Rabies For Human Rights, som i samarbejde med den palæstinensiske organisation Parc har plantet træer i Tulkarem-området. Ca. 30.000 kr. er bevilget til Recognition Forum til en vandledning og plantning af oliventræer i en beduinlandsby i Negev-ørknen. Ca. 3.500 kr. er bevilget til The Forum for Peaceful Coexistence Between Neighbors - Kibbutz Metzer & Meisar Village |
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Forum Hakara (Recognition Forum) "Recognition" Forum is a coalition of human rights organizations and peace organizations which includes the following: The Association of the Forty (http://www.assoc40.org/), The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (http://www.icahd.org/eng/), The Negev Coexistence Forum (www.dukium.org), New Profile (http://www.newprofile.org/), Rabbis for Human Rights (http://www.rhr.israel.net/), Village committees of various Unrecognized Villages and Ta'ayush (http://taayush.tripod.com/new/). Recognition Forum’s mission is to campaign for recognition of the unrecognized Arab villages in the Israeli Negev, and promote the survivability of the villages and basic services and human rights for the villagers. Name: Recognition Forum (Forum Hakara) The Project Qatamat is a village of about 200 residents, located three kms from the road, between Arad and Dimona, in the Israeli Negev. Its residents are poor, and find it hard to make a living. Unemployment is high. As part of Israel’s government’s policy of concentration of the Bedouin population, the government has demolished houses in this village three times: the last two times six houses were demolished each time. The village, like many other villages who’s existence is not officially recognized by the government ("unrecognized villages"), is not connected to the national electric power grid, to running water, the sewer system, and has no trash collection service and other necessary and basic services. Recognition Forum wishes to help the residents of this village, as even within the hard existence of the unrecognized villages, the lot of the residents of Qatamat seems severe. The most important service that Recognition Forum can help provide in the climate of the Negev is running water. Currently the residents of Qatamat collect water in a water tank that is pulled by a tractor. This necessitates expenses such as the five km drive to the water outlet, a higher payment for every cubic meter of water, tractor maintenance, and an unsure source of water, as the tractor at times needs repairs. We wish to lay a water pipe, together with the necessary water meter from the closest available water outlet, and up to the village. The people of Qatamat will connect the main pipe with their homes. The pipe’s specifications will be the minimal needed to provide water for the houses at all hours of the day. With running water, also comes the ability to cultivate agriculture, and in particular olive trees, and thus improve the life reality: some important food resource, and a feeling of growth and survivability. Residents of Qatamat together with activists of Recognition Forum will do the physical laying of the water pipes and planting of olive trees as a joint effort. This is to promote the understanding that the survivability of the village of Qatamat is an issue of importance to all the citizens of Israel, and all people around the world who show care for human rights. Amount requested: $5,000 Total Project Budget in Dollars: Providing Running Water and Planting Olive Trees in the Village of Qatamat
Recognition Forum Recognition Forum acknowledges the State of Israel’s responsibility in the denial of full civil rights for the Arabs of the Negev. As a result it has set as its mission to encourage Jewish participation in the struggle for civil rights for the Arabs of the Negev. The Forum’s activities and projects therefore always involve Jewish-Arab cooperation. The Forum can count among its successes many projects that create cooperation between Jewish and Arab organizations. One such project is the water convoy organized in August 2002 to Tel Arad and again in September of 2003. Hundreds of participants drove in convoys that brought water to an unrecognized village, to protest the governmental policy of denying water supply systems to unrecognized villages. Another project includes visits of solidarity and action in the wake of governmental fumigation and destruction of crops in unrecognized villages (in two such visits we had at least 150 Jewish participants per activity). The Forum works with and within the communities of the unrecognized villages to promote their basic civil rights through as many avenues as possible. We work with the local leadership to organize the local population to petition governmental agencies for basic services such as trash removal and running water, support them in the effort to deal with these agencies and the systematic denials for these basic services, accompany, support and organize these communities in appeals to higher governmental agencies and the courts. An example of these efforts includes our work within the unrecognized village of Tel Arad, following the Water Convoy activity, in which we are working with the local population to collectively petition running water to the villagers. The Unrecognized Villages The concern of Recognition Forum is the plight of the 70,000 residents of the unrecognized villages. Since its establishment the State of Israel has attempted to minimize the land on which the indigenous Bedouin population can use and claim as their own. This has been done by deportation, relocation and concentration. In the late 60s the government began implementing resettlement of the Bedouins who remained within Israel’s borders into urban townships. This is in complete disregard to their traditional way of life and wishes. This policy is continuing up until today, where already half of the 150,000 Bedouins live within these government created towns. Because of discriminatory attitudes and policies towards the Bedouins in these towns, and because of their urban nature, which is in complete opposition to their traditions and traditional ways of life, these towns suffer from acute problems in municipal development, in employment opportunities, and have become the poorest and most undesirable places of residence in Israel. In accordance with their ongoing policy of concentration the government is attempting to re-locate and re-settle also the remaining 50% of the Bedouins into these towns and within seven more currently planned towns. This is again with complete disregard to the population’s wishes and needs. As part of the policy of concentration the government is refusing to acknowledge the existence of, or "recognize" the existing villages into which the Bedouin population has settled over the last 50 years, on lands that traditionally belonged to their ancestors. The villagers are resisting the policy of concentration with the only means they have – they refuse to leave their villages. The government is treating these villages and this population (who are citizens of Israel) with discriminatory laws and practices. As these villages ‘don’t exist’, there is no option for building permits and for the very basic services. The result is villages in which people live in fear that their homes, that they live in, could be demolished any day; they fear that the house that they wish to build will be demolished as soon as it is built; they realize too that the less squalid their homes, the more chances there are for the house to be demolished. They live without the basic services of running water, connection to the national electric grid, sewer systems, trash removal, road construction, and more. In addition the majority of this population is very poor and the region has a very high rate of unemployment. The acuteness of these conditions is a direct result of discriminatory governmental policies and practices. |
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