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Occupation magazine - Activism

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Jewish and Muslim clergy protest planned destruction of Bedouin cemetery

Some seventy Jewish and Muslim activists and clergy participated in a joint
prayer and interfaith encounter yesterday in opposition to plan by the state
and the Mekorot national water company to build a water storage tank on the
cemetery of Hashem Zana, an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev

The event was initiated by Rabbis for Human Rights. Participants included
Sheikh Atia Al-A`asam, Chair of the Regional Council of Unrecognized
Villages of the Negev, Reverend Gabriella Zander of the Augusta Victoria
Church in Jerusalem, Imam Musa, Rabbi Leah Shakdiel, Rabbi Prof. Michael
Marmur, Chair of Rabbis for Human Rights, Kayed al-Ethman, head of the
village of Hashem Zana, and Rabbi Nava Hefetz, director of Education at RHR.

RHR executive director, Avi Dabush: `In addition to the harassment and
hardship that the state puts on the unrecognized villages, it now seeks to
shatter the dignity of the dead and massively distress the residents who
have lived in the village for decades. Since the founding of the state,
there has never been any urgency to connect the village to water, but now
all of a sudden the state- through a utilities company- arbitrarily comes
into the village and forces its residents to accept its conditions for
establishing a water tank system? We have come here tonight to stand with
the village and its residents, raise an alternative voice, and show a
different face of Judaism that respects the many faiths among us and seeks a
shared life based on mutual respect.`

The residents of the Bedouin village Hashem Zana in the Negev have been
using their local cemetery for decades, even before the establishment of the
state, with occasional burials occurring into the 90s. According to Bedouin
tradition, the saint Hashem Zana is buried there. Mekorot first announced
its plan, which was meant with strong opposition from the residents, to
build the storage tank on the village`s land in 2017. Recently the
residents came out against a plan to relocate the cemetery to an alternative
location, filing a petition to the High Court against Mekorot`s plan.

Dror Mizrahi
Media | Strategy | PR

Cell: +972-50-7248688
Email: dror@dror-mizrahi.org

TEL AVIV-JAFFA, ISRAEL
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