Ramat Negev Regional Council Ramat Negev Regional Council Ramat Negev Regional Council (, "Mo'atza Azorit Ramat Negev", "lit." Negev Heights Regional Council) is a regional council in the Negev desert in Israel. The largest regional council in the country, its headquarters are located on Highway 40 between Mashabei Sadeh and Tlalim. Ramat Negev communities are all kibbutzim, moshavim and community settlements. Revivim and Sde Boker are notable as former residences of Prime Ministers Golda Meir and David Ben-Gurion respectively. Some 6,000 Jews live within the jurisdiction of the Ramat Negev Regional Council. In 2012, the council approved the establishment of a new community, Ramat
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