Israel’s coalition in crisis over tree planting in Bedouin areas
The crisis within the coalition over a forestation project on lands used by Bedouin communities in the Negev has won Israel’s opposition some victories in the Knesset.
On Jan. 12, Israel’s Change coalition suffered its worst crisis since its establishment seven months ago. The Islamist Ra’am faction abandoned ship and the opposition scored a series of victories.
The downfall followed three days of riots in the Negev region, with stone-throwing and clashes between Bedouins residing in the area and the police. Some of the Bedouin rioters were arrested.
The unrest was a reaction to a tree-planting project by the Jewish National Fund that the Bedouins saw as an attempt by the state to displace them from lands they were cultivating.
Ra’am and its leader Mansour Abbas were largely supported at the last elections by the Bedouins in the south. Abbas knows that if he does not serve their interests, he may well find himself outside the political system in the next election round. But the coalition Abbas is part of includes right-wing ministers and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, to whom any concession on the issue would be an ideological faux pas.
