<a href="#MAIN">Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev</a>

LATEST ADDITION: 23th October 2003

"Go to the West Bank!" yelled the soldier
RCUV recommended article on the Negev

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The Bedouin unrecognized villages in the Negev:

overview of an unrecognized village in the Negev While walking along a bumpy, open-field, you sight an obstacle, a barrier and soon you come upon a wire fence several meters high. There is no sign that points to the village nor is there a road which leads into the village. Once you have navigated the obstacles you are staring at corrugated zinc, metal shacks and tents used as houses in the middle of the Negev Desert. There are 45 such villages with 74,000 citizens, living in what is known as an “unrecognized village”.

The difficult desert weather only magnifies the catastrophic housing situation. These houses are built with zinc roofs (people are forbidden to build permanent stone houses) which, according to the Israeli Ministry of Environment, is a dangerous material as it causes cancer. Considering that the temperature inside the house could reach as high as 55 C degrees, it is no wonder why so many Bedouin children are hospitalized. The severity of the problem is underlined by the fact (claim made by the head of the children’s department at Soroka hospital) that 90% of the children cared for in the hospital are Bedouin (while the Bedouin are only 25% of the total Negev population). The children suffer from many problems including dehydration as well burns during the summer. The population of the Unrecognized villages in the Negev also suffer from a high rate of infant mortality (19 per 1000) as compared to their counter- part, the Israeli Jewish children(5 per 1000).

Unrecognized Village: a term that the Palestinian community adopted in describing the villages which the Israeli government refer to as scattered settlements or populations. Many of these villages existed long before the establishment of the State of Israel. The population of these villages range between 600 to 5000 inhabitants and do not have even minimum services (public infrastructure) such as water, sewage, electricity, access roads and transportation, health services, communication, education, welfare, municipal infrastructure among others.

Since 1965, the problem of the unrecognized villages in Israel has become increasingly aggravated. During that year, the government legislated the law of planning construction as well as an outline plan, which included only 123 Arab villages. Thus, hundreds of Palestinian Bedouin villages and localities were deliberately ignored and according to the Planning and Construction Law, were considered not to exist. All the land upon which the Palestinian Bedouin Unrecognized Villages are situated have been classified as agricultural land, therefore, according to this classification all buildings erected are illegal, i.e. the villages are considered to be completely illegal entities.

Until today, the only solution offered by the Israeli government has been to settle the residents of the unrecognized villages in two towns (with Jewish names Ma’arit and Beit Falet) without any consideration to the people’s desire. Following the survey which was carried out by the Guiding Committee for Strategic house destruction in the unrecognized village of Al-Sarra, 1998 Planning of the Arabs in the Negev, it became clear that 98% of the population refuses to move (so as not to lose any more of their land).

As a result:

20,000 houses are threatened to be destroyed (16,000 in the unrecognized villages in the Negev).

Over 100 houses are destroyed yearly.

74,000 (people in the Negev) are threatened to be transferred out of the unrecognized villages.

74,000 (Bedouin in the Negev) residents of the unrecognized villages are denied the very basic civil right of electing their own local municipal bodies.

The Bedouins in the Negev (Naqab): The Negev is 60% of the total land area within the green line. The 130,000 Arab Palestinian Bedouin (25% of the Negev population of which approximately 50% live in “settled localities” while the remaining residents are living in the unrecognized villages) are a marginalized population in the south, existing on a very poor socio-economic level. The Bedouin population in the Negev suffers from a high unemployment rate (60% for men and 85%+ for women), very low educational achievement (only 6% of those students remaining in high school pass the matriculation exams and that is after approximately 60% of the students have dropped out of the education system), poverty, a high rate of infant mortality (10 per 1000), few skilled laborers, a high rate of illiteracy and high crime rate . The 1995 and 1997 Reports of the Central Bureau of Statistics draw attention to the poor socio-economic status of the 7 recognized villages as two (Tel Sheva and Rahat) showed an average family income that was 38% that of a comparable Jewish family. In fact, the1999 State Comptroller’s Report identified 6 of the 7 Arab Bedouin villages in the Negev as the poorest in economic, social, educational and health spheres.

As a result:

Less than one percent of those who received the High School diploma pursues a university education.
Girls have little opportunity to continue after 8th grade.
50% of families and 60% of children live under the poverty line.
62% of the available work force is unemployed.
42.9% are illiterate in Ara’rah village, 33.3% in K’seifa village, 29.5% in Rahat city.
25% of the teachers in the Bedouin communities are unqualified to teach.
The result has been a sharp increase in criminal activities of Bedouin youth: 20% Bedouin youth as compared to only 2.3% for Jews, and this is in the Jewish community of Ofakim, the most underdeveloped and poorest Jewish community in Israel. According to the Police report for 1999, there was a 37% increase in crime within the Bedouin community as compared to the prior year -1998.

“Settled Localities” (Bedouin Towns): 57,200 people live in 7 villages, planned and built by the Israeli government: Rahat, Tel Sheva, Segev Shalom, Arrara, Hura, Kaseifa and Lakiya. They were built with no active participation of the Bedouin themselves and with no consideration to their life-style and customs. Bedouin settlements were given Hebrew names –changed from their original, historical Arabic names. The government installed Jewish religious, right wing party members as heads of the municipalities, which are entirely populated by Bedouin Arabs. This has continued despite the growing protests of Bedouin leaders and numerous requests for naming Bedouin representatives. As the municipalities are responsible for apportioning and disbursing money to the communities for various programs, political appointments for directing the municipalities have had an impact on the loss of approved budgetary finances to the population.