Jordan condemns Prawer-Begin Plan

Jordan’s House of Representatives has condemned the Israeli parliament’s approval of the Prawer-Begin Plan which allows for the confiscation of land and displacement of the indigenous population in the Negev Desert. The Jordanian legislators believe that the plan approved by the Knesset is part of Israel’s Judaisation policies for the occupied Palestinian territories.

More than 210,000 acres of land will be confiscated and the 40,000 Palestinians living in 36 villages will be displaced under the plan. The largely Bedouin population will be concentrated in specially-designated areas by the Israelis. According to Jordan’s Petra News Agency this is Israel’s way of squeezing as many Palestinians as possible into as small an area of land as possible.

The Israeli move was described as “another Nakba [catastrophe]” by the legislators in Amman. They affirmed their support for the Arab Knesset members who have rejected the “racist” plan. The Lower House called on the international community, in particular other parliaments and legislative councils, to condemn this law and put pressure on Israel to retract it before it can be implemented.