Summary
The first elected Bedouin Rosh Ha’Moatzah of Segev Shalom, elected in September 2000 and unseated narrowly in September 2004, whose long 1992 statement anchors Chapter 2 of Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin (PDF p.74, 79).
Details
- Amir, born in a tent in December 1959, is the eldest son of town founder Ouda Abu-Mu’amar; he taught school for six years, served two years as Secretary of the Moatzah Shoket, and moved to Segev Shalom in 1984 at 25 (PDF p.74).
- Interviewed on 10 December 1992, he argued the town was not planned well for two economic reasons — in town the Bedouin economy’s foundations, agriculture and animal-raising, do not exist — and a political reason, the state’s claim to the land: “This town is our grave” (PDF p.77-78).
- In the same interview he rejected the sheikh’s role for himself — “The next ‘sheikh’ should be the mayor of Segev Shalom” — and concluded that despite service in the army and his father’s work with the British before the state existed, “We still don’t have equal rights” (PDF p.78).
- His four years governing the town centred on equality and justice for its residents, especially local job opportunities inside the town; he was unseated by Saeed El-Harumi in elections held in September 2004 (PDF p.79).
- The Postscript reports that Amir was again elected for a five-year term in November 2008 as Rosh Ha’Moatzah of Segev Shalom, replacing El-Harumi, just after the death of his father Sheikh Ouda in early 2008 (Kher El-Baz, as reported at PDF p.233).
Related pages
Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin, Segev Shalom, Ouda Abu-Mu’amar, Saeed El-Harumi, Ilan Sagie