Saturday - A revealing trip to the Negev

                                                   

We were up bright and early this morning in time to catch our 8 AM bus to the Negev Desert where we were to visit a Bedouin town and talk with them about their situation and the Prawer Plan which threatens to displace them from their ancestral land. The day was sunny and hot but fortunately the buses were all well air conditioned. There were 4 buses in all - each carrying 30 passengers. After about an hour drive, we stopped top pick up our guide for the day, then drove on for another few minutes.
The driver took the bus up a very short but rough road, parking at the top of a hill overlooking several towns containing up to 10,000 residents. These are what are called unrecognized towns which basically means that the Israeli government does not recognize that anyone lives there. As a result they can have their land confiscated at any time, and they do not have any basic facilities such as a clinic, school, electricity or septic. The goal of the Prawer Plan is to move the Bedouins to a town filled with high rises and high density population. This makes it difficult for the Bedouins who basically have an agricultural background. Sheep don't do too well in high rises.
  The Israeli's also have a nuclear plant close by (yes they have nuclear weapons!) that has effectively taken and/or polluted the water supply. The area that we were in used to grow fruit and olives, now it is hard to find bits of grass, and they are not permitted to dig wells. We did stop to look at one well that no long has water, only garbage at the bottom.

The government is basically denying that the Bedouins have been on the land for generations, but we came across a cemetery that has been there since 1899. We stopped for lunch at a little town of Umtnan - which was at the end of a very windy, narrow dirt road which we traversed at a maximum of 5 KPH. This is a recognized town which means they have a clinic and a school that goes up to secondary school.
Their leader told us that he didn't think it had very high standards, but having said that, his son just graduated from Medical School and passed the exams to begin practicing medicine. There are 3 - 4000 people in this town with 2500 attending the school. There are an average of 35 students per class, and the teachers who come from the north or Galilee stay for the week, then go home on the weekends. They don't have proper housing because they can never get a permit to build accommodation for them. The villagers either work in a nearby Jewish Settlement, or engage in agricultural activities such as raising goats and sheep. Unemployment is at 30% for men and 80% for women. The villagers do not feel very hopeful as they figure they will be evicted sometime in the near future and be moved to one of the high-rise towns. They say this despite feeling they have good relations with the Jewish community, just not the government.
  After a lovely lunch served by the locals we returned by bus, stopping at one of the larger towns where we gathered with the rest of the group in the other 3 buses. Here we learned a little more about the Prawer Plan and were asked to write our government representatives to apply pressure on the Israeli government. A short ride back to our hotel, supper and time to relax this evening up on the 4th floor wine and cheese bar.