Yesterday, Israel’s high court ruled that the state is not obligated to provide bomb shelters to its Bedouin citizens, following an incident in which a Bedouin man was killed and his family injured, by a rocket which hit his encampment on Saturday, in the Negev Desert.The ruling came in response to a petition filed by local Bedouin and human rights organizations who appealed to Israel for provision of mobile bomb shelters to desert-dwelling residents.
About 200,000 Bedouin are considered citizens of Israel, according to the Palestinian News Network, half of them living in villages throughout the Negev.
And, since many of these villages are not recognized by Israel, residents are forbidden from constructing their own shelters, and have no protection under the Iron Dome defense system, which was, in fact, recently described by an Israeli defense expert to be one of the biggest bluffs that he’d ever seen.
During the family’s court hearing, an Israeli state attorney was quoted by the PNN as suggesting to lie on the ground as an alternative to a bomb shelter:
‘Bomb shelters are a last resort from a security perspective. Lying on the ground reduces danger by 80%’.
As of the time of this report, several international airlines have ceased flights to and from Israel indefinitely, citing, ironically enough: ‘security concerns’, while the international community hangs suspended in state of horror over the death and devastation currently being inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Israel.
Hundreds, mostly civilians, have been killed — young, old, entire families — and thousands injured, with tens of thousands now seeking shelter at a small number of UNRWA schools located in the region.
