The New York Times · New York, New York · 26 April 1979

CP-1979-030

Israeli Court Aids Bedouin Cause

By JONATHAN KANDELL

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JERUSALEM, April 25 — In a move with important implications for Israeli military security and the treatment of Bedouins, the supreme court issued an order today forbidding the Government to expropriate lands belonging to the Bedouins of the Negev region until the matter is ruled upon by local courts.

With the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, a vast redeployment of military installations will take place over the next three years from the Sinai Peninsula to the Negev, in the south of Israel adjacent to Sinai. The court’s decision may mean a delay in the construction of new military bases in the Negev, some of them on Bedouin land.

But the court’s ruling was also meant to assuage fears over Israel’s behavior toward the 35,000 Bedouins in the Negev. Earlier this month, Israeli police units, acting without a court order, began to bulldoze the property of a large Bedouin family in Lagiya, a small agricultural community about 10 miles north of Beersheba.

When the women of the family tried to interfere, they were severely beaten by the police. The Government intended to build a township on the property to house several thousand Bedouins whose land was being used for military purposes. The incident, now called the “Lagiya affair,” brought a rebuke by the supreme court against the Government on April 6.

The justices ordered the authorities to remove all equipment from the area and show cause by the end of the month why farm lands belonging to Bedouins had been expropriated for the construction of a township.

Government Is Declared Guilty Today’s decision in effect declared the Government guilty and ordered the authorities to pay the Bedouin family court costs equivalent to about $250 and to compensate them for damage to their property. The Government, represented by Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir, apologized to the court for its handling of the Lagiya incident. Mr.

Zamir also informed the court that disciplinary measures would be taken against the officials involved in the incident. Until recently the Government had extolled the good relations between Jews and Bedouins, a clannish people who have largely remained aloof to the nationalistic calls of other Arabs.

Many Bedouins voluntarily serve in the Israeli military and have achieved a reputation as scouts and trackers. But as plans for the development of the Negev have unfolded and as the value of lands held by Bedouins has risen, there have been increasingly frequent reports of high-handed treatment of the Bedouins by the Government.

In most cases of land disputes, the Bedouins have insisted that they are willing to turn over their property to the Government for security purposes, if they are compensated on the basis of market value. The Government has contended that most Bedouins do not hold legal deeds for their land, even though it acknowledges that they may have held the property for generations.

The Bedouin family involved in the Lagiya incident, the Abu Karen clan, said the Government had offered them about $80 an acre, despite the fact that only a few miles away in the suburbs of Beersheba, real estate values have soared to thousands of dollars per acre.

Salah Abu Karen, a member of the clan, said shortly after the clash with Israeli policemen earlier this month, “I have no objection if they need this land for security purposes or to build a township. After all, I’m an Israeli citizen — I am practically Jewish. But we want to negotiate with the Government and we want just compensation.”

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Date check: the masthead reads THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1979 — matches date and pub

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