Bustan means grove’ in both Hebrew and Arabic and it is the title of a grassroots partnership addressing the plight of indigenous and marginalised people in Israel/Palestine. Bustan’s coalition of NGOs are inviting people of all traditions such as appropriate technology engineers, green builders, artists, environmental lawyers, medical practitioners, peace educators and writers to join them in the Holy Land for Pesach and Easter to participate in the Medwed Work Week.

Wadi Na’am is an unrecognised village next to Israel’s toxic waste incinerator in the Northern Negev. It is home to 4,000 citizens and is an area devoid of all rudimentary services. There are over 100 such unrecognised’ places not on the map of Israel with some 68,000 Bedouin living in the Negev. During a six-day work camp, volunteers and the com-munity of Wadi Na’am, will build a solar powered, straw bale medical clinic. Art and music workshops will be held and lectures given about unrecognised villages, sustainability and Bedouin culture. This will combine modern information with ancient wisdom offering a unique opportunity to gain insights into an all too fragile culture.

The Bustan partnership, which includes Rabbis for Human Rights, The Israeli Coalition Against Housing Demolitions and eco builders from Kibbutz Lotan, Samar and Ketura, works with indigenous Bedouin from the Unrecognised Villages.
The clinic will bring vital medical relief to a population determined to maintain their only claim to land. Despite the fact that Wadi Na’am is degraded and polluted due to its close proximity to a military fire zone, an oil drilling site and a hazardous waste site, 98 per cent of the population is unwilling to move and do not wish to be transferred into the ghetto-like Recognised Townships’ which are entirely unsuitable for their traditional pastoral way of life.
FURTHER INFORMATION : Devorah Brous in Israel: Telephone: (00 972) 992 0981
EMAIL: bustanlshalom@yahoo.com