Goals and Background of the Naqab[1] Department

Goals

The Galilee Society´s Naqab Department works to improve the health status of the Arab Bedouin, and to empower community members to take the lead in their own development and advancement.

In attaining our goals we work to:

• Increase Arab Bedouin women's awareness of good health practices, such as personal and family hygiene, pre- and post-natal care, and proper nutrition;

• Empower Arab Bedouin women to become health resources in their own communities;

• Launch health advocacy and outreach initiatives to secure rights and services for the Arab Bedouin community in the Naqab;

• Build and operate pre-school facilities in the unrecognized villages;

• Train Arab Bedouin women as pre-school teachers and teacher assistants;

• Work in partnership with Arab Bedouin NGOs, local elected representatives and traditional leaders to maximize the impact of development activities; and

• Compel the Israeli government to assume responsibility for providing early childhood education, healthcare, and basic infrastructure and services in the unrecognized villages.

Background

1. Introduction

The Arab Bedouin in the Naqab account for 12% of the Palestinian minority in Israel. Bedouin tribes have inhabited the Naqab desert, located in southern Israel, since the Byzantine period. They were almost its sole inhabitants prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The Bedouins relied upon agriculture and herding for their livelihood, and had clearly established patterns of land ownership, grazing and water access rights.

During the 1948 War, approximately 80% of the Bedouin population fled or was expelled from their land[2] . The rest were confined to a designated military area representing 10% of the territory they had previously controlled. As with all Arabs in Israel, they were under Military Administration until 1966. This meant that they could no longer cultivate their traditionally held lands, and needed special permits to leave their designated area in search of jobs or education.

2. Land Policies and the Unrecognized Villages

To the Bedouin, access to the land is synonymous with economic self-sufficiency. It is also central to the group´s communal identity and crucial for the preservation of the Bedouin heritage. According to British Mandate records, 12,600,000 dunams (1 dunam=1/4 acre) of Naqab land belonged to the Bedouin[3] . Today, the Bedouin struggle to retain ownership over the 240,000 dunams of land still in their possession[4].

The Israeli government seeks to resettle the Bedouin population in planned towns while requisitioning Bedouin land for Jewish community development. Presently, close to 120,000 Arab Bedouins live in the Naqab. Some 56% of the Bedouin live in seven government-established towns: Rahat, Hura, Tel Sheva, Laqiyya, Shegev Shalom, Kesifa, and Aror[5]. The recognized towns offer poor housing and infrastructure, and receive less than adequate government services. A recent Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) report on the socio-economic status of 204 local authorities in Israel indicated that the towns ranked at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale (Rahat - 1st, Aror- 2nd, Tel Sheva- 3rd, Kesifa- 4th, Segev Shalom- 6th).

The other 44% of the Naqab´s Bedouin population lives in scattered unrecognized villages. Nowhere is the inequity between Arabs and Jews in Israel as stark as in the unrecognized villages. These villages are viewed as illegal. As such they are excluded from official maps, receive scarce government resources, have no officially-recognized locally-elected governing bodies and receive few or no basic services such as water and electricity, much less educational and health facilities.

Most residents of the unrecognized villages live in tin shacks, tents or other non-permanent structures that offer little protection from the harsh desert environment. The Israeli authorities often demolish these structures. According to Ben Gurion University (BGU) estimates, 16,000 structures in the unrecognized villages have been served with demolition orders. Crop destruction is another official measure taken to persecute the Bedouin population in the unrecognized villages. Between 2002 and March 2004, the Israeli authorities destroyed 24,500 dunams of crops cultivated by unrecognized village residents. Aerial spraying of pesticides was the most common method.

3. High Rates of Illness

Inadequate or nonexistent access to water and sewage networks coupled with the lack of permanent medical facilities in the unrecognized villages contribute to the high rate of illness in the community. Israel's Ministry of Health (MOH) reports high rates of birth defects, infant mortality, household accidents, anemia among babies, infectious disease, and low rates of vaccination and immunization.

The entire Bedouin community suffers from poor or nonexistent healthcare. Women and children are hit the hardest. Bedouin women lack access to basic health information, further aggravating an already dismal situation. One example is breast-feeding. It is universally recognized as the best practice for raising healthy babies. Many Bedouin women believe that bottle-feeding is preferable. Powdered milk and baby formula must be mixed with water, which is frequently contaminated in the unrecognized villages, leading inevitably to sickness.

4. Alarming State of Education

The state of education in the Bedouin community throughout the Naqab is alarming. According to BGU reports, 54% of the Bedouin population is under the age of 14. The birthrate is a staggering 5.5% per year, compared to 1.8% for Jewish citizens of Israel. The dropout rate of Bedouin students before the 12th grade is approximately 60%. It is higher among girls, and worsens in the upper grades of high school. Between 1977 and 1998, 143 Bedouin students completed their studies at Ben Gurion University, the closest academic institution to the unrecognized villages of the Naqab. The number of graduates is increasing annually, from one graduate in 1977 to 18 graduates in 1998. The number is still small, though, meaning that there are few professionals in the area who can positively contribute to the community´s development.

The inferior quality of primary school education in the Naqab, small number of graduates from universities, and discrimination against the Arab community in general all contribute to the enormous difficulties the Bedouins face in obtaining adequate employment. Many men work as day laborers, rarely securing an income sufficient to support their large families. Traditional patterns of grazing and herding, which in the past ensured a high degree of independence and self-sufficiency for the Bedouin, have been lost to land disputes. The Arab Bedouin in the Naqab face the highest unemployment rates in the country, and constitute the greatest relative percentage of those living in poverty.