Allow me to rain on the Prawer parade

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man December 12, 2013 | Edit

So the Israeli government is scrapping the Prawer Bill. Please allow me to rain on the parade.

A few months ago many on the Left celebrated when the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law allowing the indefinite detention of asylum seekers. This week, circumventing the court’s decision, the government passed a new law allowing the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, only this time in an “open prison.”

The Bedouin, the Left and the — not all that large — protests did not kill the Prawer bill. The Right killed this bill.

The current Israeli government did not wake up overnight and decide to take seriously the grievances of its Bedouin constituents.

No.

Right-wing members of Knesset thought they had gone out on a limb and had been too generous to the Bedouin by granting them so much compensation and allowing so many of them to stay on their own land. When they realized that neither side actually wanted this compromise, they invoked Bibi’s new favorite phrase, stolen from scary speeches about Iran and the Palestinians: No deal is better than a bad deal.

So what will happen next? The most right-wing government Israel has ever seen will draft a new plan, without the moderating voice of now-banished old guard Likudnik Benny Begin. It will be worse than Prawer-Begin. Much worse.

Or maybe there won’t even be a new plan. Maybe they’ll just quietly evict one village at a time without any master plan that offers financial compensation or new housing. Try organizing mass protests against that.

Mostly, the result will be that Israel’s poorest and most disenfranchised citizens will have even fewer chances to build a secure, let alone better future for their families. That would have been the case under Prawer and it will be the case in a world with no Prawer.

That is not to say that anyone should have supported the Prawer Plan. It was/is a racist plan that would have displaced native Arab citizens for the benefit of Jewish settlement.

But the end of Prawer is no reason to celebrate. Not this time.

***

Note: Haggai Matar is slightly more optimistic about this topic. I suggest reading what he has to say too.

V1 Journalism against apartheid

Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

Make a Donation

End of article module for Members

TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

Make a Donation

End of article module for Registered users

Make a Donation