Zionism neoliberal style
Attempts to prettify Israel's land-grabbing policies are not new, but have metamorphosed over time, writes author.
Last Modified: 11 Feb 2013 10:03
In the recently adopted revisions to the Prawer Plan, which would forcibly relocate up to 70,000 Bedouins in the Negev, Israeli Knesset Member Benny Begin attempts to distract attention from the overtly racist tone of the original plan proposed in 2011. Instead of characterising Bedouins, whose impoverished communities are scattered across the vast Negev, as illegal squatters, foreign invaders and land robbers, Begin's report coolly asserts the mutual advantage the Prawer Plan will have on Jewish and Bedouin communities alike.
Disregarding the fact that Bedouins have uniformly rejected the Prawer Plan, Begin writes:
"It is the government's responsibility to take action in order to enable the Bedouins to extricate themselves from these circumstances and to grant them, and particularly the younger generation the tools necessary to successfully cope with the challenges of the future."
The language of benevolence and goodwill decorates Begin's 16-page report and disguises the Plan's actual intention of displacement as one of "development". At least 44,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel will be displaced from their homes if the plan goes forward.
Attempts to prettify Israel's land-grabbing policies are not new, but have metamorphosed over time. Once the Jewish National Fund's tree-planting project greenwashed the expropriation of Palestinian land; today, promises of egalitarian progress through joint industrial zones and a blossoming private sector accompany the Zionist project in the Negev.
remainder: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/201321094433931990.html
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