Um al-Hiran, ISRAEL-PALESTINE, January 18— Early in the morning, a large police force arrived at Um al-Hiran, an “unrecognized” Bedouin village in the Negev (southern Israel-Palestine) to demolish the village and evict its residents from the land. They have done this repeatedly over the years to set up a town for rich Jewish people from abroad, which will be named “Hiran.” The cops attacked with brutal violence and massive force. They killed Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an, a Bedouin teacher from the village, and wounded many residents and activists, including two members of the Knesset (the legislative body in Israel) from the leftist organization “Joint List.” The cops were armed as if going to war with heavy weapons and body armor. Before the demolitions, the police blocked the roads leading to the village and tried to stop activists from arriving to the aid of the residents.
To cover up their racist murder, the police quickly branded Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an a “terrorist”. The story they gave was that he was driving a truck during the demolition of his village, which he used to hit and kill a policeman. He was then killed by police fire. The government claimed that this was a “terrorist attack” aimed at police officers. However, Abu al-Qia’an’s autopsy revealed the regime’s blatant lies. The police shot him first, which caused him to lose control of his truck and hit them. Then they shot him again.
The attacks enraged people all across the country. On the same evening, activists went out to protest in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, and other cities. On the next Saturday, activists - both Jewish and Arab - came to Umm al-Hiran to show solidarity with the residents. All of this was done in defiance of the government and its slander of the Bedouins. The boss’ main strategy is to divide and pacify working class anger by scapegoating the most vulnerable. We must defeat this boss’ lies by building multi-racial unity, like the workers did here.
These events are typical of the Israeli government. For decades, its Zionist policy has been the same: give Jews as much land as possible, and take away as much land as possible from Arabs. When Arabs try to resist this, the regime brands them as “terrorists”. Compare this eviction to how the Israeli government wants to “evict” settlers from Amona (a blatantly illegal west-bank settlement) to a nearby hill, after being sued for building on (stolen) private Palestinian land. Each settler family will get 2 million NIS ($500,000) in compensation, and no one will be shooting at them. This hypocrisy is racism at work, plain and simple.
However, Israeli bosses also uses the same tactics against Jewish workers to enrich themselves. In 2015, Israeli police violently evicted working-class families from the Tel-Aviv neighborhood of Givat Amal Bet. The billionaire real-estate tycoon Yizhak Tshuva purchased the land - formerly state land - and decided to build luxury towers on it. Jewish workers housed on this land by the government since 1948 stood in his way, so he sent the cops to throw them out violently, without them having alternative housing.
This is why Jewish and Palestinian (including Bedouin) workers must unite against this racist policy and defend the right of all workers for their homes. The ones who should be evicted from this land are the tycoons, the fascists, and the cops. As long as capitalism exists, justice for workers is a pipedream. We need to continue to be in the fight exposing this racist system and struggling for more multi-racial, revolutionary, working class unity.