A New Dawn in the Negev and law-makers from the German Bundestag met with New Dawn and other Bedouin NGOs to discuss life in the Negev and the residents' struggle for social rights and political recognition of the nearby unrecognised Bedouin villages. The Negev Bedouin were traditionally pastoral nomadic Arab tribes living in the Negev region in Israel. From 1858 during Ottoman rule, the Negev Bedouin underwent a process of sedentarization which accelerated after the founding of Israel. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most resettled in neighbouring regions. Between 1968 and 1989, Israel built seven townships in the northeast of the Negev for the Bedouin population,
Negev Bedouin to Baghdad during the subsequent Abbasid reign. Most of the Negev Bedouin tribes migrated to the Negev from the Arabian Desert, Transjordan, Egypt, and the Sinai from the 18th century onwards. Traditional Bedouin lifestyle began to change after the French invasion of Egypt in 1798. The rise of the puritanical Wahhabi sect forced them to reduce their raiding of caravans. Instead, the Bedouin acquired a monopoly on guiding pilgrim caravans to Mecca, as well as selling them provisions. The opening of the Suez canal reduced the dependence on desert caravans and attracted the Bedouin to newly formed settlements that sprung