Israel will bring the Bedouins in the Negev desert into a regulated, formal framework, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
“We must stop the criminal violence there,” he says after visiting the area with top security and law enforcement officials last week. “We want to settle the Negev. We want to change the distribution of citizens in the country in terms of settlement in the Negev, which constitutes 70% of the country.”
Israel, he promises, is going to carry out “a massive national project that involves all government ministries and, of course, the citizens of the country, to fundamentally change this situation. This begins with enforcing law and order, and it will certainly include the formalization of the Bedouin residents, the Bedouin citizens of the Negev.”
Tens of thousands of Bedouins in southern Israel live in unrecognized townships, without access to basic government services. Most have resisted years of government efforts to move them into recognized towns and cities.
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