Government Recognizing More Negev Bedouin Villages

February 20, 2007

Next month, the Israeli government will lay the foundation stone for an elementary school in the Negev Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj, while last week work began on infrastructure to provide running water for Dirjat, another Bedouin village.

Dirjat and Bir Hadaj are among nine Bedouin villages that have been recognized by the Israeli government since 2004 and they now form part of the Abu Basma Regional Council. For the past two years, NIF and the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) have supported the villages as part of the Abu Basma Project.

"Two more villages are about to be recognized by the government in the coming months," explained Dr. Thabet Abu Ras, Executive Director of the Project. "Although this will mean that only a quarter of the villages are recognized, these settlements house 35,000, or almost half, of the 75,000 residents currently residing in unrecognized villages." And Dr. Abu Ras, who was Director of SHATIL's Beersheva office before establishing the Abu Basma Project, is confident that agreed solutions will be found for the remaining villages.

"Gaining government recognition is only the first step in the campaign to integrate the Negev Bedouin into Israeli society," stresses Dr. Abu Ras. "We then have to struggle to provide all the basic services that other citizens take for granted – electricity, water and sewage, schools and health clinics."

With this in mind, the Abu Basma Project strengthens the community leadership of the local committees and coordinates activities among the government, NGOs and the Bedouin communities. The objective is to ensure that the communities are involved in decisions and that community and social services are developed to fit their needs.

Dr. Abu Ras reports that three schools have already been built to serve previously unrecognized villages – a high school in Abu Granat and elementary schools in Kasr Sar and Tarabin, and other utilities and services are in the pipeline.

"We have come a long way over the past three years," remarks Dr. Abu Ras. "But there is still so far to go."