thus, Bedouins can neither be elected nor vote in municipal representation in Israel. Since the 1970s around 85,000 Palestinian Bedouins have moved to townships in search of better services and living conditions.233 The Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed concern regarding Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Naqab, following Israel’s appearance before the Committee in 2007. The Committee expresses concern about the relocation of inhabitants of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev/Naqab to planned towns. While taking note of the State party’s assurances that such planning has been undertaken in consultation with Bedouin representatives, the Committee notes with concern that the State party does not seem to have enquired into possible alternatives to such relocation, and that the lack of basic services provided to the Bedouin may in practice force them to relocate to the planned towns [para. 25].234 This evident policy of denial of access to services creates a coercive environment that Israel deliberately uses to pressure Palestinian Bedouins to abandon their ancestral lands and move into the townships, resulting in the forcible displacement of these Israeli citizens.235 “I’m from al-Araqib village and I was born here in 1973. I grew up in this village; I also got married and raised my children here. I still live in al-Araqib and I hope that one day we will have our rights and be able to live freely on this land. Since 2010, after Israel destroyed the whole village, I made a promise to spend the rest of life fighting for the rights of al-Araqib and the people who live here. Here in the unrecognized villages, Israel doesn’t provide any services. My son is in first grade and if he wants to be in school for the first class at 7:45 am or 8:00 am, he has to wake up at 5:30 am. All of my children go to school in Rahat (nearby recognized town), which is a 233 Many observers believe that there are actually far fewer than 85,000 Bedouin living in the townships but that Bedouin often register their place of residence in the townships in order to receive an official address for mail and to facilitate receipt of benefits. In addition, some Bedouin who previously lived in the townships have actually moved to (or back to) the unrecognized villages without changing their official place of residence. See: Shlomo Swirski and Yael Hasson, Invisible Citizens: Israeli Government Policy Toward the Negev Bedouin, Adva Center - Information on Equality and Social Justice in Israel, February 2006, 33, available at: https://adva.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ NegevEnglishSummary.pdf 234 HRW, Off the Map, supra note 229. 235 Those Palestinians that remained inside the borders of what became Israel in 1948 were given Israeli citizenship. As such, Palestinian Bedouins from al-Araqib are Israeli passport holders. 65