Arab Knesset Member Taleb El-Sana (United Arab) participated in a large demonstration Thursday night on the Be'er Sheva-Dimona highway against the Israel Lands Authority plan to demolish illegally built shacks and structures in the nearby village of Bir al-Mashash.
"If this government's stupid policy continues, it will cause an intifada that will rip off the roof [of the country]," El-Sana said. "The Bedouin are citizens and not enemies, but if the government continues along its current path, the situation will change.”
Since the founding of the State of Israel, Bedouin tribes, once nomadic, have built thousands of houses and makeshift tin shacks in hundreds of villages throughout the Negev which are illegal but which the government calls unauthorized. Police, acting on court orders, have demolished several of the villages over the past few years but most remain standing.
The Regional Council of Unauthorized Villages staged last night's protest, and no violence was reported. Several demonstrations in the past included stoning of buses and cars, and motorists often have been stopped by Bedouins and robbed.
The Bedouin claim the land is theirs by tradition, and the government argues that most of the areas are government lands and that the Bedouins are squatters. Negev police spokesman Etai Dotan estimated that Bedouins have erected 35,000 illegal shanties. He said every police action to demolish them can be done only by court order, and that it requires enormous manpower because of the threat of retaliation.
Many businessmen in Arad and Be'er Sheva have reported that they pay "protection money" to local Bedouin gangs to prevent their shops from arson or theft. Moshe Landsman, director of psychological services for the villages, blames the government for Bedouin problems. "There is more violence among themselves and it is going to blow up."
Negev Bedouins are Israeli citizens, but since the Oslo war many have married Arab spouses from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The government exempts them from the prohibition of polygamy because they claim that marrying two, three and sometimes four women is a matter of religious freedom. Polygamy, along with government child allowances that until last year gave generous amounts of money for large families, has enabled them to receive thousands of shekels a month. It is not uncommon for men in their 60s to marry a third or fourth woman in her teens.
Before the government began to slash the child allowances, a family with 25 children, which is not rare, received more than 12,000 shekels ($2,700) a month. One Jewish woman who works with Bedouin women said the birth rate is "the true intifada."
Their population in the Negev has grown 11 times the number in 1951 and now is more than 150,000, accounting for more than one-third of the total number of citizens in the Negev region. Most of the Jewish residents live in Be'er Sheva, leaving the Bedouin as a majority in the rural areas near the Jewish towns of Arad and Dimona and up-scale communities of Metar and Lahavim, north of Be'er Sheva.
Bedouins traditionally have been excellent IDF soldiers, especially as scouts tracking down terrorists. Since the Oslo War broke out in 2000, they have increasingly become involved in terrorism. Security officials have discovered Hamas cells among Bedouin tribes and have arrested Negev Bedouins for smuggling weapons. Earlier this year, a gang from the city Lakiya, north of Be'er Sheva, was arrested for planning a terrorist attack.
A Bedouin intifada already is a fact, according to regional leaders and businessmen, who say law and order are totally foreign to the local Arab population. Drug dealing and car thieves are common, Landsman states. Police officially deny charges that law enforcement officers are afraid to enter the villages, but policemen privately have confided they stay away from the villages.
Security officials are worried about the increasing tie between Hamas terrorists and Negev Bedouin and believe that many of them already are part of the intifada against Israel.
"If this government's stupid policy continues, it will cause an intifada that will rip off the roof [of the country]," El-Sana said. "The Bedouin are citizens and not enemies, but if the government continues along its current path, the situation will change.”
Since the founding of the State of Israel, Bedouin tribes, once nomadic, have built thousands of houses and makeshift tin shacks in hundreds of villages throughout the Negev which are illegal but which the government calls unauthorized. Police, acting on court orders, have demolished several of the villages over the past few years but most remain standing.
The Regional Council of Unauthorized Villages staged last night's protest, and no violence was reported. Several demonstrations in the past included stoning of buses and cars, and motorists often have been stopped by Bedouins and robbed.
The Bedouin claim the land is theirs by tradition, and the government argues that most of the areas are government lands and that the Bedouins are squatters. Negev police spokesman Etai Dotan estimated that Bedouins have erected 35,000 illegal shanties. He said every police action to demolish them can be done only by court order, and that it requires enormous manpower because of the threat of retaliation.
Many businessmen in Arad and Be'er Sheva have reported that they pay "protection money" to local Bedouin gangs to prevent their shops from arson or theft. Moshe Landsman, director of psychological services for the villages, blames the government for Bedouin problems. "There is more violence among themselves and it is going to blow up."
Negev Bedouins are Israeli citizens, but since the Oslo war many have married Arab spouses from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The government exempts them from the prohibition of polygamy because they claim that marrying two, three and sometimes four women is a matter of religious freedom. Polygamy, along with government child allowances that until last year gave generous amounts of money for large families, has enabled them to receive thousands of shekels a month. It is not uncommon for men in their 60s to marry a third or fourth woman in her teens.
Before the government began to slash the child allowances, a family with 25 children, which is not rare, received more than 12,000 shekels ($2,700) a month. One Jewish woman who works with Bedouin women said the birth rate is "the true intifada."
Their population in the Negev has grown 11 times the number in 1951 and now is more than 150,000, accounting for more than one-third of the total number of citizens in the Negev region. Most of the Jewish residents live in Be'er Sheva, leaving the Bedouin as a majority in the rural areas near the Jewish towns of Arad and Dimona and up-scale communities of Metar and Lahavim, north of Be'er Sheva.
Bedouins traditionally have been excellent IDF soldiers, especially as scouts tracking down terrorists. Since the Oslo War broke out in 2000, they have increasingly become involved in terrorism. Security officials have discovered Hamas cells among Bedouin tribes and have arrested Negev Bedouins for smuggling weapons. Earlier this year, a gang from the city Lakiya, north of Be'er Sheva, was arrested for planning a terrorist attack.
A Bedouin intifada already is a fact, according to regional leaders and businessmen, who say law and order are totally foreign to the local Arab population. Drug dealing and car thieves are common, Landsman states. Police officially deny charges that law enforcement officers are afraid to enter the villages, but policemen privately have confided they stay away from the villages.
Security officials are worried about the increasing tie between Hamas terrorists and Negev Bedouin and believe that many of them already are part of the intifada against Israel.