On 8 September 2008, the Magistrates’ Court in Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva) rejected a request by the Israeli police to expel Mr. Nouri Al-Uqbi from his land in the Arab Bedouin village of al-Araqeeb in the Naqab (Negev). The court also rejected a further demand made by the police to compel Mr. Al-Aqabi not to obstruct employees of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) who have been attempting plant a forest on his land, and thus in practice transfer his land to state ownership. The police sought these court orders after Mr. Al-Uqbi physically stood in the way of the JNF’s bulldozers and prevented them from digging up and foresting his land at 7 am on 7 September 2008.
Mr. Al-Uqbi was arrested for the first time in connection with this case on 2 September 2008. He was released later the same day, after committing not to obstruct the work of the JNF at any location other than on his own private property, which the state has refused to register in his name since 1972, and even refused to review his application for registration, as it has in the cases of thousands of Arab citizens of Israel in the Naqab.
During his arrest, Mr. Al-Uqbi was shown maps from the Israel Land Administration (ILA) and the JNF which showed the piece of land in question to be state land. However, Mr. Al-Uqbi raised objections and asked for a period of respite to allow him to bring official maps that prove the contrary. However, the police disregarded the official maps provided by Mr. Al-Uqbi and re-arrested him on 4 September. They released him on the same day after warning him not to enter his land again. On 7 September Mr. Al-Uqbi was arrested for a third time and, and brought before the court by the police, who demanded that the court force him to stay off his land and not to put up resistance to the forestation works.
Adalah Attorney Morad El-Sana represented Mr. Al-Uqbi before the court. Attorney El-Sana brought maps from the Ministry of Justice to the court that demonstrate that the land on which Mr. Al-Uqbi obstructed the JNF’s bulldozers is not state land, but belongs to Mr. Al-Uqbi. Attorney el-Sana argued that his client did not deny the charges against him and admitted to obstructing the forestation works. He further contended that the JNF did not have the right to carry out any works on the land as long as its ownership remains disputed and unresolved.
The court then strongly criticized the conduct of the JNF, which attempted to settle the legal dispute of Mr. Al-Uqbi’s land through illegitimate means, instead of through the civil courts.
After the hearing, Mr. Al-Uqbi stated that the JNF’s attempts to seize his land by planting forests on it began two years ago, when in December 2006 the JNF’s bulldozers entered onto his land for the first time. At that time Mr. Al-Uqbi successfully obstructed their work. He commented that the JNF had been carrying out work close to his land, but had only entered his land in the past few days, and stated that he would continue to defend his land and to resist attempts to confiscate and forest it.