Edition english haaretz israel newspaper

This week, the Israeli government came close to falling when the United Arab List, led by MK Mansour Abbas, threatened to withdraw its support, in response to the forestation work undertaken by the Jewish National Fund on agricultural land used by Negev Bedouin. The government backed down and promised to negotiate the future of the planting work and other land-related issues with the Bedouin, ending this crisis for the time being.

But for readers wondering how the issue of Negev forestation could lead to a crisis and, more generally, where the Islamic Movement and its two branches fit into the larger political picture, Haaretz responds to a number of questions you may have on the subject The planting of trees by the Jewish National Fund may sound like something no one could object to.

In this case, the trees were being planted something that required a special rabbinical allowance, since this is a shmita year, when the soil of the Land of Israel is supposed to be left fallow to forestall Bedouin from Sawa village from cultivating the wheat they planted on the same site last month. The JNF efforts, accompanied by large numbers of security personnel, were met with violent protests by local Bedouin, with many injuries and arrests.

That includes recognition of more of the plus Bedouin villages in the Negev that today do not have legal status, and thus suffer from a near-total lack of the most basic of services and infrastructure — including electricity, roads and connection to the water system. Most critically, it includes an end to the wholesale house demolitions that have continued in the area despite the presence of the Islamist UAL in the coalition.

The tract of land on which the JNF began planting trees this week is claimed by the Bedouin of the Al-Atrash tribe as their own. The JNF plan is seen as temporary and meant to prevent the Bedouin from using the land for either agricultural or residential purposes.

The Islamic Movement in Israel has two branches: southern and northern. The northern branch was declared illegal in and is led by Sheikh Raed Salah, considered a radical figure and recently released from Israeli prison after serving 17 months for inciting terrorism.

Wait, so the same movement has two branches — one of them affiliated with a party currently sitting in the Israeli coalition, the other led by a man recently sitting in an Israeli jail?

Of the murders this year, 98 involved a firearm. Police have increased their efforts to tackle the proliferation of firearms in Arab towns. Last month, police arrested 65 suspected arms dealers in an unprecedented sweep operation. However, the country's police have regularly come under fire for their handling of the rising crime wave. In a recent presentation to the government , police representatives outlined their plan to reduce crime in the Arab community by 10 percent in After receiving blowback for their goal of murders in , the Public Security Ministry was demanded to present a more ambitious goal.

Ofek Aharon and Maj. Itamar Elharar, should have been prevented. On no account should something like this happen. According to the initial investigation, which was held on Wednesday night and Thursday morning at the Nabi Musa training base, the accident occurred in the course of routine training by the Egoz unit, when the combat troops train and sleep in a tent camp in the field.

The two company commanders together with another company commander and soldier, went to the shooting ranges in the evening to search for the missing device and perhaps to capture weapons thieves. Their activity was not coordinated with the other commanders and soldiers in the field. It was known in the tent camp that they had left, but the patrol was not treated as a military mission. The four set out from the tent camp with weapons but without helmets or a military radio.

A younger officer — a team commander in the unit — also set out to scour the shooting ranges at the same time. According to the witnesses, the company commanders spotted a suspicious figure and followed it.

After they neared the team commander and he noticed them, gunfire was exchanged, with each side certain that weapons thieves or terrorists were confronting them.

The other officer and soldier who were with them were unhurt. As soon as the mistake was discerned, the firing stopped immediately and a rescue unit was summoned by cellphone, since the officers had no military radios. The young team commander will undoubtedly carry the terrible result with him for his whole life. But the matter cannot end there. We are not in the s, and the IDF does not improvise the pursuit of infiltrators and thieves.

The air force has seen a number of fatal accidents in the last few years. In , two pilots crashed and died in an agricultural field next to Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev, which according to the investigation was caused by the plane flying at low altitude. In , a helicopter pilot was killed in a crash near the Ramon base in the south.

According to the investigation, there was a malfunction in the steering rod. Yaniv Kubovich Jan. Get email notification for articles from Yaniv Kubovich Follow. Open gallery view. Chen Fogel, left, and Lt. Erez Sachyani.