The Bedouins of the Negev represent part of the Arab-Palestinian minority in the State of Israel and number approximately 120,000 persons. About half of them reside in seven urban communities (permanent communities), which were established by the State, and the rest are in traditional communities which are not recognized by state authorities.

Towards the end of the sixties, the government began implementation of a program to settle the Bedouins of the Negev in urban communities. This program was carried out without taking their traditional lifestyle into consideration, and without consulting them as to the character of the communities. The plans for urbanization – were, ostensibly, intended to create conditions under which basic services to the Bedouin population could be consistently supplied. The true purpose, however, was to centralize the Bedouins in urban communities, and prevent them from working, settling, and/or demanding rights to lands which were expropriated by the State. As a result of the Israeli government policy towards the Bedouin population, the Bedouins of the Negev were systematically transferred en masse to permanent communities, and the Bedouin lands registered as state lands.

In reality, as stated, in the seven urban communities that were planned and established by the government without Bedouin input, there is serious unemployment, the level of services in them is low and the government budgets allocated to them is minimal. It can be definitively stated that the program for urbanizing the Bedouins, in the manner that it was planned and executed, has been a failure.

Another characteristic of the lack of consideration and disregard for Bedouin desires and rights, is the manner in which the heads of the Bedouin local municipalities were appointed for the permanent communities. Four of the seven permanent communities’ leaders are not from the local Bedouin population, and were appointed by the government, not by the residents, as is customary in every other community in the State of Israel.

The “Green Patrol” was established in 1978 by the government in a quasi-military format. Outwardly, its function was to preserve nature, but in reality, it is active primarily in evicting, warning and bothering the Bedouins of the Negev. In addition, its function is to oversee state lands and to protect them against squatters. Green Patrol members freely traverse the Negev and are charged with destroying Bedouin dwelling, confiscation their animals, and intimidating the Bedouins in order to force them into permanent communities.

The policy of destroying dwellings is, in particular, the means by which the government forces the Bedouins, residing in unrecognized communities, to leave their lands and move to permanent communities. The State annually prosecutes hundreds of Bedouin residing in these unrecognized communities for illegal building infractions. After their conviction, they are ordered to destroy their homes, and if they do not comply with the destruction orders, they are liable to heavy fines and imprisonment. In these cases, the government sends in bulldozers, levels the building and then holds the owners responsible for the costs involved in the destruction. Court judges repeatedly confirm the destruction orders, based on the argument that the Bedouins invaded “unoccupied lands” and state lands.

The Negev Bedouins attempted to fight expropriation of land by the government of Israel, without success. The debate on expropriation of lands is based, among other things, on the questions of legality and public ownership. From the aspect of legality, there is a legal dispute between the government and the Bedouins: the government requires that the Bedouins prove their ownership of the land, while the Bedouins maintain that their lands rights are implied, based on their proximity to the land, and their land working traditions and practices.

The Bedouins claim that during the Ottoman Empire they did not bother registering their land ownership in the land registry records, because registration and use of documents is foreign to the Bedouin culture.

The disregard of the judicial system for Bedouin culture and their historical rights, and emphasis on the registration and presentation of documents to prove land ownership, creates a situation in which the Israeli judicial system participates in perpetuating the myth that the Negev is a wasteland in necessity of being revived. Indeed, a review of the various judgments with regard to land issues reveals that the courts tend to ignore the existence of the Bedouins’ historical and cultural connection to Negev lands, and enable systematic destruction of houses, permit registration of lands as state lands, and endorse the semi-forced transfer of Bedouins to permanent centers.

During the past five decades, the Bedouin population of the Negev has undergone extreme changes of modernization and urbanization. These changes exacted a heavy societal toll on the Bedouins, socially, economically, and structurally. The Bedouins of the Negev are losing their unique identity, their past and their legacy. Their future is also in danger of extinction. The status of the economic and traditional social frameworks of the Bedouins has been seriously undermined by the rapid transition from their traditional lifestyle to the urban society of the 20^th century. These changes were effected without any prior preparation in either the socio-cultural or the economic-employment terms.

This transition is accompanied by characteristic signs hardship:

0. Dramatic increase in the rate of unemployment: the Bedouin communities are at the bottom of Israel’s socio-economic scale, approximately 65% - 75% of the entire Negev Bedouin population lives under the poverty line;
1. Crime and drug abuse are continually on the rise;
2. School drop-outs rates are among the highest in the State;
3. Matriculation success rates are among the lowest in the State;
4. The rate of Bedouins’ integration into Israeli society is marginal. The education gap, which begins in elementary school, reaches it apex in higher education: among the Bedouin residents of the Negev, the number of university graduates is 2 per 1,000, compared to the national average of 100 per 1000. The main factors contributing to this low rate of higher education among the Bedouins are:

1. A low level of state provided educational services;
2. The poor economic situation of the Bedouin community;
3. The viability of investing in higher education for minorities;
4. Inaccessibility to the institutions of higher education for the Bedouin community, that is, academic requirements (the psychometric examination), the application process, educational scholarships, financial assistance, etc.

This situation represents a danger both to the Bedouin community and the fragile and delicate fabric of Israeli society in its entirety.

Demographically, the problems are becoming more acute:

The median age (the age where half of the population is above it and the other half below it) in the Bedouin communities of the Negev is between 12.7 and 16.9 years, while in the Jewish communities of the Negev the median age is between 21.1 and 37.6 years. Children represent more than 65% of the total population, with a 5.5% annual rate of increase, one of the highest growth rates in the world. The Bedouin population of the Negev feels neglected, and that the State has no intention of accommodating them. This situation creates increased feelings of frustration and distress. The results of a survey carried out among the adolescent Bedouin youth, indicate strong feelings of alienation and hostility towards the State of Israel. This type of tension may potentially lead to a crisis in confidence and unrest.

Conclusion:

Since the establishment of the state, the government policies towards the Bedouin population of the Negev has been hostile and to a great extent characterized by discrimination towards its residents in every aspect of their lives (education, housing, municipal development, budgets, civic rights),. These policies led to radical changes in the ’ lives, which harmed them and rendered their traditional lifestyle unworkable. Within a short period of time, the Bedouins became a group without the means to cope with western orientation, a state defined as for all the Jews and not a state for all its citizens.

The Bedouin population of the Negev is in serious crisis and suffers from cumulative problems which are:

1. The struggle for land ownership;
2. The Green Patrol and its rigid policy towards the Bedouins;
3. A foreign and unsuitable settlement policy forced upon the Bedouin by the state;
4. The absence of economic and employment infrastructures in the permanent communities;
5. A low level of municipal development;
6. The system for appointing heads to the municipalities;
7. Life in unrecognized communities;
8. The policy of destroying houses;
9. Inadequate provision of services (education, health, welfare, roads, sewage, public transportation’s, etc.);
10. Inequality

In order to rectify these problems, the State of Israel must offer equality to its Arab citizens, including the Bedouins. As well, it is necessary to formulate a government policy, which will take into account the tradition and unique requirements of the Negev’s Bedouin society, and present suitable solutions for all the basic problems of the Bedouin population. The state must recognize Bedouin land rights and desist from its policies which discriminate against them.

These actions will assist the Bedouin population in meeting the new challenges and opportunities presented by the new reality of Israeli society in the 21^st century.

0. Abu Saad, A. (1999) Bedouin Society Towards the Year 2000, a paper presented at the Bedouins of the Negev conference towards the year 2000, the Center for Research of the Bedouin Society and its Development, Ben-Gurion University and others, Beer-Sheva: Heychal Hatarbut, March 23, 1999.
1. The Central Office of Statistics, An overview of Beer-Sheva and the South, 1999.
2. Campbell, (1999) Trapped in Reservations: the Situation of the Bedouins in the Negev (Part 2), second side, Volume No. 16, pages30-32.
3. Shamir, R. (1999) suspend: Bedouins and the Judicial Regime in Israel by Daniel Gotwin and Menachem Motner (editors) Law and History, Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center for the History of Israel.
4. Hayton, B. (December 1998) Israel: Bedouin, Simpson’s World, London: BBC, Documentary Film.