The Regional Council's Plan for Kammana

Kammana Village was unrecognized until 24 dec 1995. On this day, the Government decided to recognize five Bedouin villages in the north (Decision #206). This is the plan that the regional council suggested for the village's development after the decision.

This plan recognizes only two out of Kammana's five neighborhoods - Kammana East and Kammana West. Even these do not completly fit within the borders of the plan.

A total of approximatly 120 families are left outside of the borders shown here. This plan ignores their presence and will leave them to continue to suffer - without the basic human services that should be available to all. Building will continue to be illegal here and the natual expansion of Kammana will still be constricted.

This plan did not meet our expectations nor our standards. Not only does it leave many families living in an illegal area, but it seperates our village into the "haves" and "have nots". Families will expected to move to other neighborhoods where there is simply no availble space (from decades of law enforcement preventing construction and expansion). This will create terrible conflict in an already suffering village.

It has been proven that this plan is unjustifiable. Prof. Leon Yubert (The Israel Institute of Technology), Dr. Yusef Ben David (Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies), Nahom Palid (a former planner from the Ministry of Building), and Dr. Hannah Swed (member of the Council of Planning for the Ministry of the Interior) have all come in and assessed that it is not logical to have the other neighborhoods not be included. They agree that this plan must be changed to fit the true needs of the situation.

Past cases have shown that the government has attempted to partially recognize Bedouin villages and force the rest of them to move. The cases of Zarzir and Salama village had very similar unjustifiable plans. Both these villages eventually were able to gain full recognition as they fought to show their right over thier land - we plan to do the same.

Compare this with the plan suggested by the Association for the Relief and Welfare of Kammana.