In the Negev today, about 70,000 people live in over 40 villages which the State does not officially recognize. Unrecognized villages do not receive a regular supply of running water or electricity. They are offered minimal services by the school system, and the health and welfare authorities. The meaning of this "officially unrecognized" status of a village is that it has no master plan. Without such a plan, no building permits are granted and any construction there - be it for dwelling, public building or infrastructure - is considered illegal. As a result of this, such communities have no paved roads, sanitation or other infrastructure.

Furthermore, such villages are not recognized as local authorities, and therefore not entitled to any local services such as garbage collection, public health or sanitation. Residents are also denied their democratic right to elect their local representative government.

Historical background
Just prior to the 1948 war, about 60,000 Bedouins were living in the Negev. After the war only around 10,000 Bedouins remained inside Israel's borders. The rest left or were expelled, most of them to the Sinai and to Jordan.

The policy of dispossessing Bedouins was established by Ben Gurion at an official meeting with his advisers and members of the IDF General Staff. This meeting took place on September 11th, 1950, and concluded with the decision to "concentrate the Bedouins in the northern Negev in order not to disturb development plans".

To this end, the State began to relocate the Bedouin population inside an area called the "Sayag", ranging over about 1,500 dunams in the northern Negev - between Beer Sheva, Beit Kama and Arad (which was founded later). By 1954 most of the Bedouins had been concentrated within this area. They were forced to live under military rule until 1966. At the same time, numerous Jewish settlements were established in the Negev - moshavim, kibbutzim and towns - some of them on Bedouins' land that had been evacuated and confiscated.

In 1962 the government decided to concentrate the Negev Bedouins in several towns. An inter-ministerial committee was appointed, which did not include a single Bedouin representative. This committee resolved to found 3 towns: Tel Sheva, Rahat and Kseifa. In 1973, 4 additional towns were planned: Aro'er, Segev Shalom, Hura and Lakia.

At present, these 7 towns are inhabited by about 60,000 Bedouins, approximately half of the Bedouin population in the Negev. The rest - mostly land-owners - remained in the unrecognized villages and does not show any willingness to move to the towns. Over the years these towns, built with no consideration of employment (and with extremely deficient infrastructure), have become poverty stricken and suffer from the highest rates of unemployment in the country.

The problem of unrecognized villages is the product of a racist settlement policy, a result of the Zionist ethos upon which the state of Israel was founded. The settlement policy for the Jewish population was that of distribution: encouraging the establishment of as many small and scattered settlements as possible. The policy towards the Arab population, however, was quite the opposite: concentration in order to reduce the areas which are inhabited by Arabs. Arab residents who refused to adjust to this rationale were left "unrecognized".

According to a wide-spread fallacy, Bedouin communities residing in shanties and tents represent the Bedouins' traditional lifestyle, and are of their own free choice. This is not so: Bedouin villages in the Negev are a result of the lack of master plans and development. All Israeli governments have hoped that the by not recognizing villages, denying vital services and issuing demolition orders, they would make the village residents abandon their land and move to the towns built for them by the State. This did not happen.

The situation at present
Following increased organization among Arab residents in the Negev, and public and legal activity, there seems to be the beginning of a certain understanding on the part of the authorities, that recognition of at least part of the Bedouin villages is inevitable. Still, such understanding has not yet yielded any clear policy, and violent means are still used against residents of the unrecognized villages, such as house demolitions and the poisoning of fields.

Khirbet-el-Wattan
The village "Khirbet-el-Wattan" (Wattan means "homeland") is an unrecognized community east of Beer Sheva, close to the Bedouin town of Hura. The village was built before the State was founded and at present inhabits about 6,000. The residents belong to the Al-Aassem, Abu-Traash, Al-Nabari, Al-Hawashla, Al-Atrash and Al-Asla families. An elementary school at the village was established in 1996, and now has 450 students ages 4-13. The residents receive water from the town of Hura by means of a 4 km long 2-zol pipe, paid for by the residents. Electricity is supplied by generators. Some residents are employed in Beer Sheva and other settlements nearby. Few farm the land (grains and livestock), and many are unemployed.

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