Judaean Desert Judaean Desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert ( "Midbar Yehuda", both "Desert of Judah" or "Judaean Desert"; "Sahara Yahudan") is a desert in Israel and the West Bank that lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. It stretches from the northeastern Negev to the east of Beit El, and is marked by natural terraces with escarpments. It ends in a steep escarpment dropping to the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. The Judaean Desert is crossed by numerous wadis from northeast to southeast and has many ravines, most of them deep, from 1,200 feet in the
Negev Bedouin the provisions that they avoid harming women, children and friendly Arabs the orders stated that shepherds grazing on Jewish land should be driven off by gun-fire, that searches of Arab settlements be conducted "politely but firmly" and "you are permitted to execute any man found in possession of a weapon". Of the approximately 110,000 Bedouin who lived in the area before the war about 11,000 remained. Most had relocated from the northwestern to the northeastern Negev. Due to destabilizing tribal wars from 1780 to 1890 many Negev Bedouins tribes were forced to move to southern Jordan, Sinai peninsula. After the