Nuri el-Okbi's Day in Court
Bedouin property and Israeli law

by Adam Keller


December 7, 2009, 9.45am - "What is going on here? So many visitors, and all for one case!", asked the guard at the entrance of the high rise housing Be'er Sheva's courts of law.

Indeed, all 22 chairs for the public in Justice Sarah Dovrat's hall, at the District Court, were occupied and many were left outside, waiting for a place to become free. Peace and Human Rights activists came, some from far, especially for this session. And Dr Becky Cook, of the political science department of Ben Gurion University, brought the 15 students of her seminar to witness the proceedings, as part of their studying the problems of Israeli society.

It was the day the testimony of the veteran Bedouin human rights activist Nuri el-Okbi would be heard. The suit presented at this point by Nuri is about getting recognition of his family's ownership over lands in the el-Arakib area - a personal matter but with the potential of becoming an important precedent for all Bedouins in the Negev. The lands in question are where Nuri was born and lived his first years. His family and the whole tribe were expelled from there in 1951.

The ownership claim was carefully prepared by advocates Shai Gavsi and Raduan Abu-Harara. At last, Nuri got the chance to present to the court the historical documents which he is carefully preserving over decades and which he has always shown to journalists and activists during his prolongued struggle.

The following is excerpted from the notes I made during the part of the 5-hour session where I was present.

Nuri el-Okbi:
(...) As I said, in 1954, my father, Sheikh Sliman el-Okbi, demanded that the authorities will allow us to go back to the Al-Arakib lands from which we have been expelled. Thereupon, the military governor told him: "You are a trouble-making Sheikh. Therefore I am firing you, appointing your brother in your place." My uncle was the Sheikh instead of my father until 1963, when there happened in the area a rape and murder of a girl-soldier. The governor accused my uncle of not helping the authorities on the issue of finding those responsible for the murder, and therefore he fired my uncle and restored my father to be the Sheikh in his place. Those were the conditions under which we lived, the military governor controlled our lives, and he decided who will be our Sheikh.

Adv. Shai Gavsi:
I want to go back with you to the period before 1948, the time of your early childhood [Nuri el-Okbi was born in 1942]. How did the area look in this period, as far as you remember?

el-Okbi:
There were houses scattered all around. Each family had a house in its own plot. Each family ploughed and sowed its own plot. There were stone houses and also tents and fences around each. There were fences around the cattle, sheep and goats. There were also some cows, but only a few, because cows need a lot of water. There were camels. They ploughed the land. There was a big distance between the houses, the house of my father was about 400 meters of the houses on both sides, the houses of his brothers, my uncles.

Judge Sara Dovrat:
What more do you remember?

el-Okbi:
My father cultivated his lands. Sometimes he hired people to help. They were doing the work with the camels. My grandfather had 12 camels who worked in the sowing and the ploughing. It lasted three months, October, November, December, it ended about 5th of January. In 1948 my father bought a tractor. I remember the tractor very well, it was red. (...) We used to grow sharp berries and cucumbers - papus, the Arabic cucumber. We had pumpkins with a neck, the kind of pumpkin which you can empty and make to dry.

Gavsi:
You said that these were stone houses. What kind of stone?

el-Okbi:
Yes, houses of stone. The loess soil was wetted and then dried in the sun. From such stones you can build thick walls. Very good walls. (...) This house was not only a resisdence, it was also a court. The tribal court. Until 1948 the tribal court was in Be'er Sheva, in 1948 it was moved, and it was in my father's house.
I remember in my childhood the flag of the State of Israel flying on the house, and the menorah code of arms and the photo of Herzl. As a child i was very impressed with the beard of Herzl.
The cases were heard on Mondays and Thursdays. And always the flag of Israel was flown on the roof as a sign that the court was in session. This is the same house which the state afterwards destroyed, after we were expelled.

I would like to present to the court here some minutes from a session of the tribal court where my father was the judge.

Judge:
Are there objections?

Adv. Rawash, for the State:
Where do these minutes come from?

el-Okbi:
This is a copy from an original which is kept by Hussein el-Jawarrah how now lives in Qafr Qasem.

Rawash:
How did it get to your hands?

el-Okbi:
As chair of the Association for Support and Defense of Bedouin Rights in Israel I am collecting material relevant to our history and our rights, and in particular what is relevant to my own tribe and family.

Rawash:
And where did he get it?

el-Okbi:
He was party to a debate which my father heard at the court, and it was important for him to preserve the minutes and the ruling.

Rawash:
If the person who preserved this document is known, he could have been summoned here, to testify and present the document personally.
As I said before, the State reserves the right to contest the admissibility of the exhibits presented to the court (...)

el-Okbi:
Before the expulsion i had the chance to learn several years in the Arakib school. I would like to present my certificate from the third class, the last one in which I learned.

Gavsi:
I would like to present this as an exhibit.

Judge:
It will be marked as exhibit 14. (Looking through the certificate:) Now we know your schoolmarks; it is written here that you were weak in arithmetics.

el-Okbi:
Perhaps that is why I never succeeded to make money.

Judge:
But your teacher also wrote that you are clever and capable. (...)

Rawash:
I would like my reservations of all the exhibits presented in the court to be noted down in general, so that I don't have to repeat them every time again.

Judge:
We will deal with the admissibility of evidence before the summing up. (...)

Gavsi:
How many cemetaries were there in the area?

el-Okbi:
Five cemetaries in all, in different parts. The el-Arakib cemetary still exists, from time to time there are still burials, especially when a child dies. My grandfather was buried in the Sheikh Salah Cemetary. That cemetary was desecrated, nothing was left of it. (...) We found the gravestone of my grandfather. In 1953, my uncle Naif el-Okbi worked in this area on a tractor as a hired worker of the Jewish Agency, and got stuck on something. He thought it was a rock. he looked and saw that this was the gravestone of my grandfather which w     as taken out of its place. On that night he brought it to us, and we keep it until today.

Gavsi:
I would like to present as an exhibit the photo of the gravestone.

Rawash:
I repeat the reservation.

el-Okbi:
My father was very shaken by the desecration of his father's grave. On that night my father wrote in his notebook very, very sharp things. I keep the notebook but prefer not to present it and not to repeat what he wrote, because these were very sharp things (...)

Gavsi:
What did the tribes' people live from?

el-Okbi:
99% from agriculture. Perhaps there was 1% who lived from trade. The tribe always lived from agriculture, from herding and from sowing corn and wheat and durum.

Gavsi:
How do you know about what the tribe was doing before you were born?

el-Okbi:
I always hear of it. That is what I grew up with.
My aunt who is originally from the al-Huzail tribe, who was born in 1921, told me all the stories on how the land was cultivated. We wanted to bring her here to the court, but she is in bad health.

Rawash:
I object to a hearsay evidence. (...)

el-Okbi:
I would like to present to the court this agreement, a lease from 1362 in which my father leases a plot to Hussein e-Haj. The agreement defines exactly the borders of the plot, and specifies that Hussein el-Hadj must cultivate the whole of it, and leave nothing uncultivated.

Judge:
Of which year did you say?

Gavsi:
This is according to the Hajeri (Muslim) count. In order to get the civil year you should add 580, i.e.: this is from 1942 (...).

Gavsi:
What were the methods of cultivation?

el-Okbi:
Ploughing with camels, a man with a camel can get through 5 to 6 dunams per day. Three or four people together. My grandfather employed twelve workers.

Gavsi:
Family members?

el-Okbi:
Not only. There were also hired people who were not family members. You plough and then you spread the seed. Afterwrads the field should be guarded against the cattle, that they will not eat what grows. In winter you sow wheat and corn, in summer durum and water melons. Bedouins work the whole year. Except for January and two-thirds of February there is no time of rest. My father used the whole land. He left nothing unsown. At the end of the British mandate he bought a tractor. After the creation of the state he asked a permit to buy a sowing machine. (...) At the end of September you harvest, for storage you dig a hole 20 centimeters deep, you put a layer of straw, above it the wheat or durum, then another layer of straw, then a layer of loess soil - to defend against the rain.

Gavsi:
Why was this needed?

el-Okbi:
It was needed to preserve the food for the coming year and the seeds for the next year. It could not have been kept under the sky. Everything would have gotten spoilt. Sometimes they were digging far deeper holes, as far as six meters, where you could keep whole tons.

Gavsi:
What were the water sources?

el-Okbi:
There were two kinds. Wells which get to the underground water, and holes to preserve rainfall. Every family had such a hole, or sometimes it was common to two families. Water was a very precious commodity. (...)

Gavsi:
Did the British authorities know that you were cultivating the lands?

el-Okbi:
Of course they knew! They collected the Tithe Tax over the harvest. I have here documents about the payment of the taxes for 1937.

Judge:
Where do you get these documents?

el-Okbi:
My mother gave them to me. She kept all the documents in her Halva box. Most of the Bedouins didn't keep these kind of documents.

Gavsi:
I present this as an exhibit. (....)

Gavsi:
Nuri, i present to you this document. Do you recognize what it is?

el-Okbi:
This is the letter which my father wrote to the military governor in Be'er Sheva on November 15, 1950, a request to get a permit to buy a sowing machine.

Rawash:
Where does this document come from?

Gavsi:
This is a copy of a document which is preserved in the IDF archive.

Rawash:
Does the date appear in the original?

Gavsi:
Yes. (...)

Gavsi:
How did the British relate to the fact that Bedouin rights over the land were not registered in the Tabu (Land Registration Office)?

Judge:
As what are you asking him this question? Is he an expert on this subject? As far as his personal knowledge is concerned he was then a small child.

Gavsi:
I will phrase it differently: From the stories which you hear in your family, did the absence of Tabu registration influence the attitude of the British?

Judge:
Mr Gavsi, by the nature of things what he knwos of the stories of his family members is relevant here, but there is a limit. This is a question for an expert witness.

Gavsi:
How did the land get to your father's ownership?

el-Okbi:
From the division of my grandfather's land. In general, Bedouins have two kinds of lands, Jadia lands which pass by inheritance, and land which is bought. Bedouins sell lands among themselves, I have documents about this even from Turkish times and also from the sale of Bedouin lands to Jews.

Specifically about this land, I have here an agreement for division of the land from 1930, with the names of my father and his brothers. My grandfather was old and was no longer able to cultivate the land. He divided it among sons, who had in return to support him, five British Pounds each.
[The agreement is presented as an exhibit].

Judge:
In clause five of the agreement there is reference to an arbiter's ruling. Do you have this ruling?

el-Okbi:
No, I don’t, but I can tell you what it was about. There was a debate between my grandfather and his elder son Ibrahim. Ibrahim got double as much as the other sons. This was disputed and the arbiter dealt with this dispute. (…) The debate between my father and his brother Ibrahim reached the Tribal Court, whose ruling was confirmed by a regular court in May 1930. (…)

[el-Okbi takes out of his bage a series of onwhership documents dating from the 1930's and 1940's and passes them on to Gavsi, who hands them to the court].

Gavsi:
What is the document now registered as Exhibit 19?

el-Okbi:
This is a sale agreement from April 15, 1935. The seller's signature, Haj Muhammad el-Okbi, my grandgfather; the buyer, Sliman el-Okbi, my father. The plot is sold and its borders marked. (…)

Gavsi:
How were the boundaries marked?

el-Okbi:
In the old way, the boundaries were marked according to conspicuous landmarks, which marked the boundaries between my father's plot and those of his brothers, as you can see here in the document. Things like a wadi, a house, a road or a water source. My father of course knew the land very well, When he was shown the Isralei map he pointed out the plot's boundaries on the map. (…)

Gavsi:
Can you recognize the places and landmarks appearing in this document?

el-Okbi:
Of Course I can. I was born and grew up on this land, and since 2006 I live in a tent in close proximity to the ruins of the house where I was born (…).

Judge:
Where had all these documents been?

el-Okbi:
My mother…

Judge:
In the Halva box ?

el-Okbi:
My father completely relied on her to keep on the documents, and as you see did keep them.(…)

Gavsi:
Were already before involved in a judicial proceeding about the land?

el-Okbi:
Yes, in 1973 we started cultivating the land, and then proceedings were opened against us on charges that we were illegal squatters. This ended with the ruling that we may cultivate the Arakib 1 land plus 300 dunams of land which was not ours, pending the end of the land arrangement procedure (hesder Ha'karkaot).

Judge:
So, this did not refer to the lands subject to the resent proceedings?

el-Okbi:
That's true. (…)

[el-Okbi presents another ownership document]

Rawash:
This document does not refer the five plots at issue in this court,

el-Okbi:
That's true, I presented it in order to show our attachment to the land. I also have documents about the purchase of land by my grandfather in Turkish times.

Judge:
If this is not related to the lands subject to the present proceedings, than it is not relevant. I suggest that you preent what is relevant to the plots here discussed.

Gavsi:
We wanted to present documents about Bedouin land ownership, even if they don’t directly relate to these plots, because of the opinion presented on this subject by the state's expert witness.

Judge:
We are stuck, we don’t progress.

Gavsi:
I would like to present documents on the purchase of land by Bedouins in this area.

Judge:
Well, of his family members – but not the documents of just any Bedouins.

Gavsi:
They are all his family members.

Judge:
I would like to divide documents relating to the plots here discussed with those relating to other plots. Do you have more documents regarding these specific plots?

el-Okbi:
I have a document about the sale of these lands' harvest by my father.

Judge:
No, I am talking about documents relating to sale or purchase of these plots.

Gavsi:
There are two further documents of this kind.
[The documents are registered as exhibits] (…)

Gavsi:
When the State of Israel was created and there was a military government, what kind of reports did you present?

el-Okbi:
Military governor Avraham Shemesh demanded for reports of the winter cultivation and the summer cultivation.

Gavsi:
Do you have documents about that?

el-Okbi:
Yes.

Judge:
Are they about the plots under discussion in these rulings? If not, you should state it at the outset.

Gavsi:
This document, of July 21, 1949, relates to these plots.

Judge:
In this document there is a demand of the military governor to give him a report of what was sown on the ground, in detail for every plot. Did you comply?

el-Okbi:
Of course, my father answered as the governor demanded.

Judge:
Do you have this report?

Gavsi:
No, this was not filed in the IDF Archive. There was a list of those who gave a report, among them Nuri's father, but not the reports themselves.

el-Okbi:
We have paid the state a Tithe Tax for these harvests.

Judge:
Mr. el-Okbi, please answer only the questions you are asked. (…)

Gavsi:
What happened during the war in '48?

el-Okbi:
I was a child. For ten days there were every day towards sunset airplanes flying towards Be'er Sheba and then we heard explosions. There was fear, people were killed nearby. We moved a distance of five kilometers, to the Bir al Fuhri area. Afterwards, after the conquest of Be'er Sheba, we went to Be'er Rohan, this is now between Kibbutz Lahav and the Lehavim Junction. We were in great fear. There was a case of fourteen people who were killed, they had been gathered up and shot. My father was at that time under arrest in Hebron. An uncle from my mother's side accompanied the family. (…) While my father was under arrest, my mother took care of the people who worked with us. There was Ibrahim Abu Jarbu'a, who still lives in Rahat, an old man now. He and his father Ali Abu Jarbu'a were landless, they worked on our land, plowed and sown while my father was under detention.

Gavsi:
Why was your father under arrest in Hebron?

el-Okbi:
My father was arrested when the Egyptians were in Hebron, on charges of collaborating with the Jewish Zionists. When the Jordanians came to Hebron instead of the Egyptians, my father was immediately set free. We held a big celebration when he was set free.
Ibrahim, the elder brother of my father, resisted the Israeli rule and he went to Gaza before the Israelis arrived. My father wanted to remain on his land. He got the instruction from the military governor that a new tribe was being formed and he will be the Sheikh.
There were many guests coming from the military government and sheep were slaughtered in their honor. I remember that at this time we ate more meat because of the sheep slaughtered for the guests.
We have sown that year and harvested in '49. It was an extraordinarily good year as far as the harvest was concerned.
In 1949 we voted in the Knesset elections. I have here the voter registration slip noting that my father and my mother's residence are in Al_Arakib.
[Voter registration slip presented to the court as an exhibit]. (…)

Gavsi:
How were the relations with the authorities in the first years?

el-Okbi:
We lived under a military government,. a kind of siege. For example, my father wanted to travel to Jaffa and was not allowed, But our lands were not touched until 1951, when we were expelled and told that it was only for a short time.

Gavsi:
I present as exhibits a receipt for a payment, given by the Negev Military Government on October 1950; a letter from the military governor to all tribal chiefs in the Negev of October 1950; a a letter from the military governor to Sheikh Sliman el-Okbi of July 7, 1949; another such letter from May 14, 1950…

Judge:
All these letters, are they also from your mother's Halva box?

el-Okbi:
Yes, she kept everything.

Gavsi:
Also a letter from a military government officer of October 1951, a military government document of August 15, 1955, relating to prohibition upon presence on the ground, exit permit from November 7, 1955, as well as a letter from the Ministry of Defence to Sheikh Sliman el-Okbi of December 1965.

Judge: Now that you finished passing on the family archive, are there any further questions?

Gavsi:
Nuri, tell of what happened in 1951.

el-Okbi:
The military governor decided to move us the Hora area, claiming that our land was needed for military exercises for half a year. My father was given a note that we could cultivate lands in the other place until our return. Trucks were brought and we were loaded on the by force. We were brought to where the tribe lives until now, like in a refugee camp. But tribespeople scattered everywhere. Some left Israel, some are in Kalansawa, Lod, Rahat, Be'er Sheba.

Gavsi:
I would like to present the minutes of an internal meetings held at that time in the army on this issue, as photocopied in the IDF Archive.

Judge:
Registered and marked.

Gavsi:
Also a report presented to the members of the Knesset Security Committee, a letter of the Ministry of Defense of June 29, 1966 and another Ministry of Defense letter of July 3, 1966, a proposal by the Minister of Agriculture of May 1960, a letter of the tribal chiefs of the Negev to the Prime Minster of June 6, 1966, re the Negev land arrangements.

Judge:
Anything further, Mr. Gavsi?

Gavsi:
Also a document of the military governor from September 1957, re the situation of the tribes. (…)

Gavsi:
Nuri, please tell me – you were forced to evacuate the area in 1951, why did you not come back until now?

el-Okbi:
We were told that in the Hora area we would get lands of the same size as we had. But it turned out that all these lands belonged to other Bedouins. Immediately after we arrived there, the leaders of the local Bedouins came and talked with my father and my uncle, and they immediately decided not to try cultivating these lands. So, in practice we were left landless.
We wanted very much to leave immediately and go back to our own lands, but it was the time of the military government and there was needed a permit to move from one place to the other, and we were not given an exit permit. When my father tried to leave he was told that he was a troublemaker.
A parliamentary question was presented about un in 1954. Also in 1954 my father with the whole family returned to the house in al-Arakib. The governor Ben Tzvi came and asked what are you doing here. My father told him – you said only for six months and already more than three years had passed. Ben Tzvi said nothing further, and went away. Towards evening the military police arrived and they took my father in the command car to the Be'er Sheba Prison.
My mother involved Sheik Al-Huzayel who had good relations with the authorities, and he got my father released, but only on condition of his going again to Hora and not trying again to return to Al-Arakib.
We lived under the military government between 1948 and 1966, we could not move freely. We could not move without a permit. Here is my travel permit from this time, I would like to present it to the court.

Judge:
Did you keep it in case it might still be needed?

el-Okbi:
In 1973 we tried to return and cultivate the land of al-Arakib, that was the reason for the judicial proceedings which I told of already. It is not true that we did not do anything to return to the land. My father was always saying that he could not sleep at night because our land was taken away and he was all the time thinking of it. He was saying: I can’t believe that I was the first Sheik to declare loyalty to the state, and this is what they have done to me and to my tribe, they have taken away our land and our honor.(…)

Gavsi:
Do you have any more documents to present to the court?

el-Okbi:
I have here a map published by the Jewish National Fund in 1946, where the name "Arab el Ukba" appears on the Al-Arakib lands. And here is a document on the sale of land by Bedouins to the Jewish National Fund via Adv. Zuckerman, showing that before 1948 the Zionists did recognize Bedouin land ownership.

Gavsi:
Is that all?

el-Okbi:
I have also the British map, also giving the name "Arab el Ukba" appears on the Al-Arakib lands, it shows that we are living in this area for decades.

Judge:
It will be marked as Exhibit T-63. (Looking). This map is unreadable. You will have to produce the original or a better copy, otherwise the court would not be able to refer to this exhibit.

Gavsi:
This is a British Mandatory map, it is not possible to produce the original to the court. (…)

Judge:
If you need a recess before the cross-examination, Mr. el-Okbi, you can have one.

el-Okbi:
Thanks, I have no need. Unless Your Honor needs one?

Judge:
I never need it. At least if you have water, Mr. el-Okbi, you should drink. You are speaking all the time, don’t let yourself become hoarse.
Let's start the cross-examination.

Rawash:
You said you were born in 1942, so in 1951 you were nine or ten years old?

el-Okbi:
Yes.

Rawash:
I don’t suppose you remember things from when you were one or two years old. What is your first memory?

el-Okbi:
I remember well the death of my grandfather, when I was three years old. My other memories are apparently later.

Rawash:
So, these documents are not about things which you remember personally, but are what your mother kept?

el-Okbi:
My father talked with me about it all the time.

Rawash:
When were you exposed to the documents?

el-Okbi:
Since 1954, when my father became sharp, became involved in struggle all the time. I lived the life of my father.

Rawash:
Did you know about the documents?

el-Okbi:
He all the time was asking her for a document, using it and giving it back to her to keep. Taking and giving back.

Rawash:
You said that until 2006 you did not live in Al-Arakib. You lived in Lod.

el-Okbi:
I lived in Lod between 1964 and 2006, that's true. But I never cut myself off from the Al-Arakib lands. I lived there until 1951. In 1954 I was with Father on the ground, in 1973 we came back again…

Rawash:
Kindly answer the questions and not what I did not ask. You lived in Lod, and what did you do there for your livelihood?

el-Okbi:
I had a garage.

Rawash:
Is it true that of all your family, the uncles and cousins etc., you are the one who coordinated this struggle?

el-Okbi:
I head the Association for Support and Defence of Bedouins' Rights in Israel. I care for all Bedouin struggles, and certainly for those of my own family.

Rawash:
Is it true that until 2006 none of the el-Okbis went into the area?

el-Okbi:
Not true, we entered in 1954, we entered in 1973.

Rawash:
Let me re-phrase my question: is it true that from 1973 until 2006 none of the el-Okbis entered the area?

el-Okbi:
Not true, we did enter the area. For example in 2001 we entered and planted olive saplings which were afterwards uprooted again and again and again by the [governmental] Green Patrol. And I entered the area to prevent the Jewish National Fund from watering trees which they planted there by stealth.

Rawash:
Is it true that until 2006 you did not go into the area with the purpose of erecting a tent and living in it?

el-Okbi:
All the time until 2006 I was regularly entering the area to conduct struggles and hold press conferences. We have erected a memorial stone which was afterwards removed, here is its photo. Several times we planted olive saplings which the Green patrol afterwards uprooted, and we presented a complaint to the police against them. On April 14, 2006, I erected a tent on the ground and started to live on it. On October of the same year there was a ruling that I was not allowed to be in part of the area but I was allowed to stay in another part, and I adhered to the court's ruling.

Rawash:
Is it true that from 1951 on these plots which you call the el-Okbi tribal lands are in possession of the state?

el-Okbi:
Not true, we never agreed.

Judge:
The question is not whether or not you agreed, but whether factually the plots were in possession of the state.

Rawash:
In you Statement of Claim you write "throughout the years the appellants tried to return to their real property and were prevented from returning to their real property". But I put it to you that since the 1950s the state is in possession of these plots and also leases them to other Bedouins. Do you or do you not confirm this?


el-Okbi:
I don’t.

Rawash (taking a brochure out of his bag):
Did you write this propaganda brochure which I hold in my hand?

el-Okbi:
This is not a propaganda brochure, these are facts.

Judge:
Did you write the brochure?

el-Okbi:
It is not propaganda.

Rawash:
I take back the word. Did you write in this brochure, without calling it propaganda, the words: "The lands of the el-Okbi Tribe which are from then until the present in possession of the state"?

el-Okbi:
I did write this. Don’t take things out of context, the state prevented us from coming back.

Rawash:
Do you confirm that you wrote this?

el-Okbi:
Do you confirm that the state expelled us by force?

Rawash:
You are the one being cross-examined here, not me. Do you confirm that the plots Sharia 133 and Sharia 134, over which you claim ownership, are held since 1948 by Moshav Talmei Bilu?

el-Okbi:
They were taken from us by force, these plots were already taken in 1948, when we were still living in al-Arakib. Since 1948 we were forbidden to cross the road and reach these plots.

Rawash:
Is it true that these plots are held by the state and leased to the Moshav Talmei Bilu?

el-Okbi:
Because we were forbidden to cross the road and reach these plots.

Judge:
You can't answer what you were not asked. The question was not if you consented or did not consent but if it is factually true that the land is not in your hands.

Rawash:
Have you been in these plots?

el-Okbi:
I was there two months ago.

Rawash:
Is it true that you saw there flourishing orange groves of the Moshav members?

el-Okbi:
I saw there citrus trees. There was no sigh stating who is the cultivator.

Rawash:
But they were not el-Okbi Family trees, were they?

el-Okbi:
The land was taken from us by force.

Rawash:
Earlier, I saw that you have a good memory for details. Here, you suddenly don’t know who is cultivating the land. (…)

Rawash:
Do you confirm that the plots Arakib 6 and Arakib 60 are planted with trees which were put there on behalf of the state of Israel?

el-Okbi:
There are a few trees scattered in plot 6. I have prevented workers of the Jewish National Fund who came from Rahat from to watering these trees. I prevented them from planting more trees and creating more accomplished facts while a judicial proceeding is going on.

Rawash:
When did you prevent it?

el-Okbi:
Last year.

Rawash:
So, in earlier years you did not prevent it. Do you confirm that there are trees there which were planted by the state?

el-Okbi:
Without my consent.

Rawash:
I did not ask if it was with your consent, I asked if there were trees there. And do you confirm that throughout the years the plot was leased to other Bedouins?


el-Okbi:
But is it right to do that?

Judge:
We are not discussing if it is right or it is not right. Take the political issues out of this hall.

el-Okbi:
This is not politics.

Judge:
Focus on the facts, not on politics.

el-Okbi:
It is not politics, it is my property which was robbed from me.

Judge:
I heard your pain twenty times and even fifty times. Now we have to focus on the facts. We have to move forwards, you should answer to the point.

Rawash:
Is it true that there is a judicial ruling forbidding you to enter Arakib?

el-Okbi:
It is true.

Rawash:
Is it true that the ruling determines that it is forbidden…

Judge:
The details of that ruling are known. There is no need to repeat it.

Rawash:
You were told that you are forbidden to enter, you or anyone acting on your behalf. And I put it to you that you nevertheless organized sowing on the ground and that people acting on your behalf went in to demonstrate.

Judge:
Mr. Rawash. Why is that relevant?

Rawash:
An attempt to establish a claim by de-facto possession is relevant here.

Judge:
Any charge of contempt of court, if there was such, belongs to another case, not here.

Rawash:
An attempt to establish a claim is relevant to this case, it is the issue of how he treats the plots.

Judge:
This is not relevant to the ownership issue. Let’s focus on the facts. (…)

Rawash:
You have mentioned earlier judicial proceedings in the 1970s regarding the plots over which you claim ownership. By whom were you represented then?

el-Okbi:
By the late Adv. Meir Lam.

Rawash:
Is it true that in those proceedings the state representative asserted that you have embarked on squatting the land in the midst of the Yom Kippur War?

el-Okbi:
We have started to work the land in good faith, long before the war broke out, We did not know there was going to be a war.

Rawash:
Did you at the time get a permit to work the land?

el-Okbi:
We have registered out claim with the Land Ownership Arrangement Clerk (pkid hahesder) in the Ministry of Justice, and we have the ownership acquired by my father. We thought we had the right to work the land.

Rawash:
Did you then present the same version in court as you do now?

el-Okbi:
Yes, but the court pressed us to reach a compromise. We got the right to cultivate 500 dunams [dunam = 0.25 of an acre] of our land and another 300 dunams elsewhere. Adv. Lam advised us that this was what we could achieve. (…)

Rawash:
I put it to you that what you stated here – that you were told you were to move only for half a year, due to army exercises – you did not state in the court in 1973. In addition, in the beginning you claimed that the issue of half a year was given to you in writing, and now you say it was only by word of mouth.

el-Okbi:
We did definitely present to the court the note from military governor Avraham Shemesh where it was written that until military exercises on our land end, we will get alternate lands – which in fact belonged to other Bedouins. The note was written down at the governor's dictation by clerk Suliman Muhammand al Asaybi.


Judge: Is there a document confirming that the evacuation was supposed to be only for a period of half a year, for the purpose of military exercises?

el-Okbi: That was said verbally. The note says that until we return to our lands we get other lands.

Rawash:
I put it to you that not only there is evidence that you were told about half a year, but you also did not assert it in the proceedings you started in the 1970s.

el-Okbi: We did say it. My father and all the other Bedouin Sheikhs. (…)

Judge:
You are virtually a walking archive. How come that exactly of your own 1973 judicial proceedings you have no copy?

el-Okbi:
I tried to get it. After Adv. Meir Lam passed away everything went to his son, Adv. Lam. He changed office three times, and these papers got lost. We preserved especially the original documents proving ownership, less so the claims we made ourselves. (…)

Rawash:
In your 1973 judicial proceedings, your lawyer talked of the confiscation of the lands under the Absentee Properties Law.

el-Okbi:
He talked of an alleged confiscation, which in fact did not fulfill all the legal requirements for such a confiscation. A not definite confiscation, whose final disposition would be determined via the claim registered with the Land Ownership Arrangement Clerk.

Rawash:
But already in 1973 you knew of the confiscation. Now you have written that you got no warning of an intention to confiscate the lands.

el-Okbi:
Indeed, we got no warning of an intention to confiscate the lands. They were confiscated without giving us any prior warning. (…)

Rawash:
Is it true that since 1953 you have lodged no appeal to the Supreme Court. Answer me simply, with a yes or a no?

el-Okbi:
We have lodged no appeal to the Supreme Court, but we did approach the state authorities with all kinds of appeals and demands.

Rawash:
Please repeat in a clear way: did you or did you not appeal to the Supreme Court?

el-Okbi:
Not on this issue. We did not appeal to the Supreme Court on the house demolitions. (…)

Rawash:
Did you make a request to the Land Ownership Arrangement Clerk, to expediate the proceedings initiated through him?

el-Okbi:
Yes, as the head of the Association for Support and Defense of Bedouins' Rights in Israel, I have made a request to expediate and accelerate the proceedings of determining land ownership. This was already in 1974, in the time of the Bedouins' Rights Committee which preceded the Association.

Rawash:
But did you ask to expediate proceedings on this specific case?

el-Okbi:
No, we spoke of the entire Negev Bedouin Community, a very sensitive public issue.

Rawash:
And you did not make a specific request to expediate proceedings in your own family claims?

el-Okbi:
No, we have made an overall pubic appeal to the Clerk. Only in 2005 did we make a specific request.

Rawash:
Why then?

el-Okbi:
I realized that my father had died and that they were waiting for me to die, too. (…) The State wanted to wait until all the old people would die and none would be left to come and testify. But I am still alive, and I came here, and I wait for Justice.(…)

Rawash:
Is it true that Adv. Lam was an activist involved publicly in all the issues of the struggle for the Bedouins' rights?

el-Okbi:
I knew that he was a seeker after Justice, that's why I approached him.

Gavsi:
Why is this relevant to these proceedings?

Rawash:
Would you be surprised if I tell you that Adv. Lam spoke in various public forums about the chances of Bedouins to win land ownership claims, and that he said the chances were not high? Is it not true that you chose not to expediate proceedings at the Land Arrangement Clerk because that was the advise you got?


Judge: A person can hardly be faulted for getting an advice on judicial matters from his lawyer and following that advice.(…)

Rawash:
Is it true that, except for the documents preserved by your mother, you have no land ownership deeds (Kushan)?

el-Okbi:
These documents are land ownership deeds under our traditions.

Judge:
That is not the question. The question is, do you or do you not posses land ownership deeds?

el-Okbi:
What are land ownership deeds?

Judge:
Don’t you know what are land ownership deeds?

el-Okbi:
Land ownership deeds are the registration of ownership, as commonly practiced.

Rawash:
Is it not true that you posses no registration in the Land Registration Office?

el-Okbi:
Throughout the Negev, there is no registration of land in the Land Registration Office.

Rawash:
Is it not true that the documents you have presented here include an obligation of approaching the Land Registration Office?

el-Okbi:
No, that's not true.

Rawash:
I will show you whether or not it is true. I am surprised, Mr. el-Okbi, that you know these ownership documents well enough to specify where were the boundaries of each plot, yet you seem unfamiliar with Clause 4 of the same ownership agreement, the clause which states that the parties to the agreement should present themselves at the Land Registration Office and register the ownership there.

el-Okbi:
There was no obligation of going to the Land Registration Office. This clause refers to it that, should the buyer want to register it in the Land Registration Office, the seller obliges himself to go with him and together register the transfer of ownership. But if both don’t want it, the agreement does not oblige them to do it.

Rawash:
Is it true that your had your own reasons for not wanting to present yourselves at the Land Registration Office and register your lands?

el-Okbi:
That's our tradition. No ruler before Israel had ever taken our lands, neither the Turks nor the British. Usually, we had no reason to register land at the Land Registration Office. Only on special occasions. In Turkish times there was a case when one of my family was arrested and wanted to give his land as a guarantee for being released on bail, and he then registered it in the Land Registration Office. But usually, they did not register the land.

Judge: In the agreement I see it written down that the parties should present themselves at the Land Registration Office and register the land. From the text of this agreement you can see that there was an obligation of registration at the Land Registration Office.

el-Okbi:
It was not in every case, only if the buyer wanted it did the land get registered. This was in the British times, at that time there was no danger of anyone taking away the land, even when it was not registered at the Land Registration Office. (…)

Rawash:
You have mentioned the attitude of the British Mandatory government. Is it true that you have no permit or agreement, from the Mandatory or Ottoman authorities, for your living on and cultivating the land? Was your presence on the land approved by the authorities?

el-Okbi:
The government levied tax on the harvests which we raised on these lands, I have already presented to the court the document about these taxes.

Rawash:
But except for the payment of taxes, did you get from the authorities any permit to live on these lands?

el-Okbi:
This never came up. We have lived on these lands before the British and also before the Turks.

Rawash:
I am asking you: was there or was there not a permit?

el-Okbi:
There is the official document of the British Government demanding the payment of taxes and specifying who are the land owners who have to pay these taxes. (…)

Rawash:
Let's take, for example, the Arakib 60 plot. On what basis do you claim ownership there?

el-Okbi:
It had belonged to my grandfather's brother. He mortgaged it to my grandfather, from whom it passed to my father.

Rawash:
Through being mortgaged?

el-Okbi:
Yes.

Rawash:
Why, then, does it state here "sale" and not "mortgage"?

el-Okbi:
A mortgage develops into a change of ownership, if the loan is not paid back.

Rawash:
So you admit it was a mortgage. Why did you write in your Claim Statement that it was "acquiered in 1946" by your father? Where you get a mortgage over a land that does not mean that you already "acquiere" it.

el-Okbi:
It was a mortgage which developed into ownership.

Rawash:
Do you have a specific document about this plot?

[el-Okbi looks through his papers]

Rawash: Let's move forward, you can go back to this point afterwards. (…) Let’s go to Arakib 6. Also there your claim is based on a mortgage.

el-Okbi:
No. This is ownership.

Rawash:
Is it true that Salame el-Okbi, your father's brother who according to the document mortgaged the land to him, is an absentee?

el-Okbi:
Yes, but he has a son who lives here?

Rawash:
In all these agreements, if the purpose had been to sell the land they would have made a deed of sale. Why should it be formulated as a mortgage? And why did you not mention this in your Statement of Claims?

el-Okbi:
It is a conditional sale.

Judge:
If it is a mortgage agreement where the land owner mortgages it because he needs money, there should be one of two: either an explicit clause stating that if he does not give back the money the land goes to the other party's ownership, or there should be a separate document of transferring the ownership.

el-Okbi:
Our tradition is that if he does not give back the money, the land becomes the property of the one who loaned it to him. (…)

Judge:
How do we know that he did not give back the money?

el-Okbi:
Had he given back the money, he would have demanded to get back the document. The fact that it remained in my father's possession is proof that he did not give back the money.

Rawash:
Do you have a proof that Salame himself owned the land?

el-Okbi:
There is the 1930 land division agreement. (…)


Rawash:
How come that exactly before the war Salame chose to mortgage his plot?

el-Okbi:
It was not exactly before the war, it was some years earlier. He needed money and my father needed land, there was nothing else.

Rawash:
The court already asked you, how do you know that he did not give back the money?

el-Okbi:
There is no such thing in the Negev that a Bedouin mortgages land for money and than gives back the money without getting himself the paper.

Rawash:
What good would the paper have done him when he is an absentee?

el-Okbi:
What has that got to do with it? (…)

Rawash:
And regarding the Sharia 134 plot, what is your claim based on?

el-Okbi:
There was a judicial Inheritance Decree published in the paper. My grandmother left this plot to my father, who was her only son. Grandpa had several wives, from Warfa, my grandmother, he had only one.

Rawash:
This newspaper we have not seen.

el-Okbi:
In truth, I don’t have the newspaper. I only have the receipt for my father's publishing the court's Inheritance Decree in the paper.(…)

Rawash:
Perhaps you can make some order and tell us the names of all the brothers and sisters of your father.

el-Okbi:
The elder, Ibrahim, was the Sheikh until 1948 and moved to Gaza. Salame was after Ibrahim, of the same mother. Salem, of a different mother, her only one. Sliman, my father, of a different mother.

Judge:
Are you never getting confused?

el-Okbi:
My aunt was the widow of the El-Huzayel Sheikh. That's why my father in 1948 took the advise of the El-Huzayel Sheikh to remain in the Negev after the creation of the state. Then Haj Hamed, the youngest son, who had a rich mother. He was the richest of all the brothers, he got my grandfather's house at a distance of a thousand metres from ours.

Rawash:
And who were your father's sisters?

el-Okbi:
Jazia, she married…

Rawash:
Just their names, please.

el-Okbi:
Jazia, Ahma, Ayahsa, Wadha.(…)

Rawash:
About the Sharia 133 and 134 plots, from whom did your father get or acquire them?

el-Okbi:
From my grandfather and Uncle Ibrahim.

Rawash:
Do you have a document from the Land Registration Office proving that your grandfather and uncle had rights over this land?

el-Okbi:
There is the tax document. Stating that they were paying taxes over this land, which meant that they were its owners.

Rawash:
I am talking about a document form the Registration Office proving that your grandfather had rights over this land.

el-Okbi:
Whatever you try, you will not get from me a statement that these are not el-Okbi lands.

Judge:
Do you have a document?

el-Okbi:
The tax document. (…)

Rawash:
Until when did you cultivate these plots?

el-Okbi:
Until 1951. In 1951 we have still ploughed and sown the land, but it was not us who harvested.

Rawash:
All the plots?

el-Okbi:
Yes.

Rawash:
Also Sharia 133 and 134?

el-Okbi:
No, these are beyond the road, already in 1948 we were forbidden to cross the road and get to them. (…)

Rawash:
On many things you spoke in great detail, but about what your family did in 1948 you were very concise. For example, what was your father doing in Hebron?

Judge: Where does this lead?

el-Okbi:
Father said he was going to get supplies. Everything was closed. Gaza was inaccessible. Before the war we had been going for supplies to Gaza, to Be'er Sheba or to Hebron. The road to Gaza was blocked, and also Be'er Sheba was impossible, so that left Hebron. And then the Egyptians arrested him.

Rawash:
On what date?

el-Okbi:
I don’t know. I do know that later he was among sixteen Bedouin Sheikhs…

Rawash:
Kindly answer what I am asking you. I know that you arrived in Dahariya [in the West Bank]. Is it not true that as a child you were in Dahariya in 1948?

el-Okbi:
Not true. My uncle went to Dahariya and remained there and died there in 1990 and his sons still live there. But not me and not my own family. When Be'er Sheba fell I was taken on the donkey's back to a place near what is now Kibbutz Lahav, not anywhere else.(…)


Rawash:
You have presented many documents, also from the IDF Archive. Do you know of a reference by Defense Minister David Ben Gurion to the matter?

el-Okbi:
A Parliamentary Question was presented by Emile Habibi, on the basis of a sharp letter by my father and other Sheikhs, that we were left stuck without water. Ben Gurion answered that the Bedouins had gone there voluntarily and that the army was supplying them with water, which was simply not true.

Rawash:
This is an important document relating to your tribe, and you just decided that what it says is not true.

el-Okbi:
This is a political issues, you know what kind of things are going on in the Knesset.(…)

Rawash:
Why did you not mention the fact that your father signed an agreement, that he agreed to move?

el-Okbi:
It was against his will, they forced him.

Rawash:
In your Claim Statement you wrote down the entire history, but you did not mention that he signed. You wrote "expulsion".

el-Okbi:
It was an expulsion, sir. They forced him and expelled him. (…)


Rawash:
You said that your uncle Ibrahim "resisted" and immediately moved to another subject, because it did not fit the narrative which you are presenting to the court. (…) I pit it to you that he resisted with weapons, with guns, took an active part in the war.

el-Okbi:
I am not responsible for his acts.

Judge:
But he opposed the creation of the State?

el-Okbi:
That's why he left, run away to Gaza.

Rawash:
Did others of the tribe join him? You are talking of a man who was the Sheikh until 1948, a powerful position. You depict him as an isolated person who resisted alone.

el-Okbi:
Those who resisted with him went with him to Gaza, he did not go alone. But my father remained and made a deal with the State.

Rawash:
How many people are there today in the el-Okbi Tribe?

el-Okbi:
About a thousand. Also then, in 1948, there were a thousand, but at the end of the war there were a lot less left, perhaps three hundred.(…)

Rawash:
I will ask for the record something of which I know already the answer. You have presented to the court maps and historical and geographical documents. Do you have any formal expertise in these fields, in surveying or in history?

el-Okbi:
I am no surveyor, but I know the land.

Rawash:
Did you get the documents from the IDF Archive by yourself or with the help of an expert?

el-Okbi:
Jews who share my struggle researched and found them, and that is important.

Rawash:
How long do you know Prof. Oren Yiftahel?

el-Okbi:
For several years.

Rawash:
Is it true that he is participating with you in demonstrations, petitions, struggle?

Call from the audience:
What's wrong with that?

Judge:
This is a court of law, there will be no heckling here. The audience sits and listens. The only ones to speak are the attorneys and the witnesses. I very much dislike having people ejected, if I have no choice I will do it.

el-Okbi:
Professor Yiftahel is a political activist, you can ask him. In general, he is certainly active for Civil Rights.

Rawash:
Is it true that you are the head of the Association for Support and Defense of Bedouins' Rights in Israel?

el-Okbi:
That's true, first I initiated the Bedouins' Rights Committee which became the Association. I wanted to resign from leading it but I was asked to stay.

Judge:
You have done a good job.

Rawash:
Is it true that you wrote that according to you all the land in the Negev belongs to the Bedouins?

el-Okbi:
No, here you can see you are wrong. The Bedouins have registered a claim over…

Judge:
You have answered the question. Next question.

Rawash:
Is it true that in a press release which you published and distributed you called upon activists to come to the court today and support you?

Judge:
The fact that people came to support him and that's why the hall is full today is completely immaterial, it will not influence my ruling.

Rawash:
He regards the court as a forum for conducting a public struggle.

Judge:
The court rules on the case only and solely on the basis of the facts. According to the facts, not according to the audience in the courtroom, not according to the newspapers, not according to TV, only according to the facts. I hope this is clear to everybody. In asking this kind of questions you are simply wasting time.(…).