From: Center for Policy Research <cpr>
Subject: Desertification of the Negev


The desertification of the arid Negev
------------------------------------- by Moise Saltiel, I&P March
1990

I.      The Negev Bedouin Before and After 1948 II.     Jewish
Agricultural Settlement in the Negev III.   Development of the
Negev's Rural Population IV.    Economic Situation of Jewish
Settlements in 1990 V.     Failure in Settling the Arava Valley
VI.   Failure in Settling the Central Mountains VII.  Failure in
Making the Negev "Bedouinenrein" (Cleansing the Negev of Bedouins)
VIII. Transforming Bedouin into Low-Paid Workers IX..    Failure
in Settling the "Development Towns" X.      Jordan Water to the
Negev: A Strategic Asset XI.     The Negev Becomes a Dumping
Ground XII.   The Dimona Nuclear Plant XIII.  The Negev as a
Military Base XIV.  The Negev in the Year 2000

Just after the creation of the State of Israel, the phrase "the
Jewish pioneers will make the desert bloom" was trumpeted
throughout the Western world. After the Six Day War in 1967, David
Ben-Gurion declared in a letter to Charles de Gaulle: "It's by our
pioneering creation that we have transformed a poor and arid land
into a fertile land, created built-up areas, towns and villages in
abandoned desert areas".

Contrary to Ben-Gurion's assertion, it must be affirmed that
during the 26 years of the British mandate over Palestine and for
centuries previous, a productive human presence was to be found in
all parts of the Negev desert - in the very arid hills and valleys
of the southern Negev as well as in the more fertile north. These
were the Bedouin Arabs.

The real desertification of the Negev, mainly in the southern
part, occurred after Israel's dispossession of the Bedouin's
cultivated lands and pastures. Nowadays, the majority of the
12,800 square-kilometer Negev, which represents 62 percent of the
State of Israel (pre-1967 borders), has been desertified beyond
recognition. The main new occupiers of the formerly Bedouin Negev
are the Israeli army; the Nature Reserves Authority, whose chief
role is to prevent Bedouin from roaming their former pasture
lands; and vast industrial zones, including nuclear reactors and
dumping grounds for chemical, nuclear and other wastes. Israeli
Jews in the Negev today cultivate less than half the surface area
cultivated by the Bedouin before 1948, and there is no Jewish
pastoral activity.

I. Agricultural and pastoral activities of the Negev Bedouin
before and after 1948
-------------------------------------------------- In 1942,
according to British mandatory statistics, the Beersheba
sub-district (which corresponds more or less to Israel's Negev, or
Southern, district) had 52,000 inhabitants, almost all Bedouin
Arabs, who held 11,500 camels, 6,000 cows and oxen, 42,000 sheep
and 22,000 goats.

The majority of the Bedouin lived a more or less sedentary life in
the north, where precipitation ranged between 200 and 350 mm per
year. In 1944 they cultivated about 200,000 hectares of the
Beersheba district - i.e. 16 percent of its total area and *more
than double the area cultivated by the Negev's Jewish settlers
after 40 years of "making the desert bloom"*

The Bedouin had a very low crop yield - 350 to 400 kilograms of
barley per hectare during rainy years - and their farming
techniques were primitive, but production was based solely on
animal and human labor. It must also be underscored that animal
production, although low, was based entirely on pasturing.
Production increased considerably during the rainy years and
diminished significantly during drought years. All Bedouin pasture
animals - goats, camels and sheep - had the ability to gain weight
quickly over the relatively rainy winters and to withstand many
waterless days during the hot summers. These animals were the
result of a centuries-old process of natural selection in harsh
local conditions.

After the creation of the State of Israel, 80 percent of the Negev
Bedouin were expelled to the Sinai or to Southern Jordan. The
10,000 who were allowed to remain were confined to a territory of
40,000 hectares in a region were annual mean precipiation was 150
mm - a quantity low enough to ensure a crop failure two years out
of three. The rare water wells in the south and central Negev,
spring of life in the desert, were cemented to prevent Bedouin
shepherds from roaming.

A few Bedouin shepherds were allowed to stay in the central Negev.
But after 1982, when the Sinai was returned to Egypt, these
Bedouin were also eliminated. At the same time, strong pressure
was applied on the Bedouin to abandon cultivation of their fields
in order that the land could be transferred to the army.

No reliable statistics exist concerning the amount of land held
today by Negev Bedouin. It is a known fact that a large part of
the 40,000 hectares they cultivated in the 1950s has been seized
by the Israeli authorities. Indeed, most of the Bedouin are now
confined to seven "development towns", or *sowetos*, established
for them.