http://israelvideosfeed.com Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, when the Negev became part of Israel, an estimated 65,000--90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev. According to Encyclopedia Judaica, 15,000 Bedouin remained in the Negev after 1948; other sources put the number as low as 11,000. An Israeli study in 1999 estimated a total Bedouin population in Israel of 170,000 for 1998, of which 110,000 in the Negev, 50,000 in the North and 10,000 in the "central region". This figure may also include non-Israeli Bedouins residing in Palestinian Authority-governed areas[citation needed] who do not hold Israeli citizenship. All of the Israeli Bedouin were granted Israeli citizenship in 1954.[58] The Bedouin who remained in the Negev belonged to the Tiaha confederation[59] as well as some smaller groups such as the 'Azazme and the Jahalin. After 1948, some Negev Bedouins were displaced. The Jahalin tribe, for instance, lived in the Tel Arad region of the Negev prior to the 1950s. In the early 1950s, the Jahalin were among the tribes which, according to Emmanuel Marks, "moved or were removed by the military government."They ended up in the so-called E1 area East of Jerusalem. About 1,600 Bedouin serve in the Israel Defense Forces, many as trackers in the IDF's elite tracking units. Famously, Bedouin shepherds were the first to discover the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts from antiquity, in the Judean caves of Qumran in 1946. Of great religious, cultural, historical and linguistic significance, 972 texts were found over the following decade, many of which were discovered by Bedouins. Successive Israeli administrations tried to urbanize Bedouins in the Negev. Between 1967 and 1989, Israel built seven townships in the north-east of the Negev, with Tel as-Sabi or Tel Sheva the first. The largest, city of Rahat, has a population of over 53,000 (as of December 2010); as such it is the largest Bedouin settlement in the world. According to the Israel Land Administration (2007), some 60 per cent of the Negev Bedouin live in urban areas. As for the rest, they live in so-called unrecognized villages which are not officially recognized by the state due to general planning issues. They were built chaotically without taking into consideration local infrastructure. These communities are scattered all over the Northern Negev and often are situated in inappropriate places, such as military fire zones, natural reserves, landfills, etc. On September 29, 2003 Israeli government has adapted a new "Abu Basma Plan" (Resolution 881), according to which a new regional council was formed, unifying a number of unrecognized Bedouin settlements - Abu Basma Regional Council.[64] This resolution also regarded the need to establish seven new Bedouin settlements in the Negev,[65] literally meaning the official recognition of unrecognized settlements, providing them with a municipal status and consequently with all the basic services and infrastructure. The council was established by the Interior Ministry on 28 January 2004 Israel is currently building or enlarging some 13 towns and cities in the Negev. According to the general planning, all of them will be fully equipped with the relevant infrastructure: schools, medical clinics, postal offices, etc. and they also will have electricity, running water and waste control. Several new industrial zones meant to fight unemployment are planned, some are already being constructed, like Idan haNegev in the suburbs of Rahat.[67] It will have a hospital and a new campus inside.[68] The Bedouins of Israel receive free education and medical services from the state. They are allotted child cash benefits, which has contributed to the high birthrate among the Bedouin (5% growth per year). But unemployment rate remains very high, and few obtain a high school degree (4%), and even fewer graduate from college (0.6%). In September 2011, the Israeli government approved a five-year economic development plan called the Prawer plan. One of its implications is a relocation of some 30.000-40.000 Negev Bedouin from areas not recognized by the government to government-approved townships.According to Jonathan Cook, the European Union has recently begun to call these relocations instances of forced transfer.In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament called for the withdrawal of the Prawer plan and respect for the rights of the Bedouin people.

• published: 26 Nov 2013
• views: 67