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Introduction "Since the foundation of the state over 80% of the land owned by Arabs has been confiscated and placed in the exclusive disposal of Jewish citizens (These figures represent data as of 1993 - Association of the 40. Memorandum; The Association for the recognition of the Arab unrecognized villages. Haifa. Pg. 6). Nowhere is this fight for land more devastating than for the approximately 80,000 Bedouin who live in Arab unrecognized villages (There are no unrecognized Jewish villages)(Association of the 40. Memorandum; The Association for the recognition of the Arab unrecognized villages. Haifa. Pg. 9)." - Introduction to The Unrecongnized Bedouin Villages in the North: A Conflict Over Land, written by Shoshanna Spector, School for International Training student, May 1998 Kammana Very little has been done to develop Kammana and raise its standard of living to an equal level to nearby Jewish villages. The community is deprived of such basic services as electricity, roads, telephone service, and a feasible development plan. This is despite the fact that the village has more than double the population of the nearby Jewish villages and is hundreds of years older. There is no way to improve the current structures as construction is illegal. The roads remain unpaved, there is no community center, and the only health services are located in a rickity old caravan in one of the neighborhoods. This "health center" which is open only a few times a month, lacks supplies and equipment, and is out of reach for most of the residents of the other neighborhoods. There is no access to prenatal care or early child care at the clinic. The gap between standards of
living can easily be seen in Shahada, where right across the street stand the
homes of Kamon.
There are only two educational institutions in the village - small nurseries. Any student above nursery level must seek education elsewhere. There are no places for children to play, there is a 60% drop out rate among kids in Kammana. Having to travel far, overcrowding in schools, poor conditions, and lack of resources, are among the causes. This is also overcrowding in Kammana, a common problem with unrecognized villages that have not been allowed to expand. Government Policy The regional council has recently suggested a plan for the village's development. This plan divides Kammana - recognizing only two out of Kammana's five neighborhoods. A total of approximatly 120 families are left outside its borders without basic human services. This plan did not meet our expectations nor our standards and will create terrible conflict in an already suffering village. The Regional Council is a governing body made up of one representative from each of the communities in the Misgav region. Regardless of population, each community has only one representative. That means that Kamon with a population of roughly 300 has the same representation as Kammana with a population of 1,200. It also means that of the 35 members of the regional council only 4 are Arab - despite that Arabs make up 45% of the region's population. For many years the Israeli government has been working to concentrate the Arab population into isolated communities and bring them to a minority level in the country. All the money for schools is given to the regional council by the ministy of education for Allocation. The Association for the Relief and Welfare of Kammana estimates that only 20% of the amount of money spent on Jewish schools gets to the Arab schools. Please read more to find out what is being done to change this. |
