Association for Support and Protection of
Bedouins'
Rights in Israel
Press
Release June 23, 2010
Bedouin Lands Case: The state's expert witness has no clear answers
Judicial
proceedings in the Bedouin Land Case resumed this morning (Wednesday) at the
Beersheba District Court, with Att. Michael Sfard continuing the
cross-examination of Prof. Ruth Kark of the Hebrew University, the state's
expert witness.
Among other things
Sfard asked: "In your expert opinion submitted to the court, you stated that the
Negev lands have always been state land – "Mawat Lands" in
Ottoman Law – in which the Bedouins had no ownership
rights. How, then, would you explain the fact that when the city of Be'er Sheba
was established in 1900, the Ottoman authorities bought the land on which the
city was established from the Azazme Bedouin Tribespeople? Why should the
government have to pay for the land which was its own property anyway?"
Professor Kirk said that she had no clear answer, and that this case was
probably an exception.
Sfard later asked how
the Jewish National Fund as well as private Jewish buyers were able to purchase
from Bedouins some 150 thousand dunams of Negev lands, under the under the
British Mandate. "How could the British authorities have duly registered these
sales, if Bedouin had no land ownership rights?" Professor Kark admitted that
she had no satisfactory answer.
In the earlier part of
her testimony today, Prof. Kark stated that Bedouins were making private land
sales deals among themselves, but these had no official status. Adv. Sfard asked
if she knew that a Tribal Court had long been active in Be'er Sheba, whose
judges were Bedouin sheiks deliberating in accordance with Bedouin Customary
Law; that this Tribal Court was an official organ of the Ottoman government
structure and later the British one as well; and that this court was authorized
by the central government to rule on matters of land ownership. Professor Kark
said that she was not an expert on Bedouin Law, and admitted that she had no
knowledge of important academic books and articles on this subject - such as a
new book by Dr. Clinton Bailey, a renowned expert in the subject of the
Bedouins.
Judge Sarah Dovrat,
who presided over the proceedings, often asking questions of her own, making a
reference to a fundamental principle of jurisprudence: customs long current in a
given society can eventually crystallize into a binding legal practice. After
the conclusion of Prof. Kark's cross-examination, Adv. Sfard
stated that he would ask for Dr. Bailey to file an expert testimony of his own,
to clarify the issues which had come up during the proceedings.
The historical-legal
issues taken up in these proceedings have direct and highly significant
implications for the present-day legal status of the Negev Bedouins.
Specifically, they apply to the claim put forward by Bedouin
human rights activist Nuri al Okbi, who in this case demands to get back the
land at al – Arakib, northwest of Be'er Sheba, from where Nuri and his
tribespeople were expelled in 1951.
The next session
scheduled for July 7, 2010, before Judge Sarah Dovrat at the Be'er Sheba
District Court.
Contact:
Attorney Michael
Sfard 054-4713930, Nuri al Okbi 0545-465556, Haya Noach 052-4269011, Adam Keller
054-2340749