Food security for Unrecognized Villages

04/04/21

"We wish to thank all the activists that worked so that we can receive the aid we deserve" - ​​this is the message that we received from the Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev. Thanks to the incredible organizing of hundreds of activists, a field coordinator is currently moving between villages in the Negev, ensuring that thousands of families will have food on their tables. 

 

The economic hardship that the Bedouin villagers suffer from, worsened this year due to the Coronavirus, leaving many families with no income and with a lack of food security for their families. The Unrecognized Villages Council and Rabbis for Human Rights reached out to us for assistance in ensuring a salary for a field coordinator that will move from village to village, assisting residents with submitting forms for food stamps while training volunteers to help people manage the bureaucracy entailed in the process. The mobilization of our members was overwhelming.

 

But even after the food stamps are distributed, and even if many of us have begun to recover from the damage of the pandemic — fighting for justice for the Bedouin citizens in the Negev still has a ways to go. We will continue to demand recognition of the villages and work together so that Bedouin in the Negev will be granted their equal citizens.

Photo courtesy of Yaela Raanan and the Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev.