Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
פורום דו-קיום בנגב לשוויון אזרחי
منتدى التعايش السلمي في النقب من أجل المساواة المدنية

We are delighted to welcome Hanan Alsanah to our team as our new Co-CEO!

Hanan has a rich and diverse experience in defending the socio-economic rights of the Bedouin communities in the Negev-Naqab, as well as advocating specifically for the rights of women. She will be joining Haia in leading us to a just and equal society.

For years, the CBS has refrained from a comprehensive census of the Bedouin community and instead favors estimates based on various discriminatory assumptions and formulas. As a result of this statistical disparity, there are between 90,000 and 100,000 residents living in unrecognized villages in the Negev who lack a geographical designation on their ID cards, meaning that they are not defined in the population registry as residents of a locality, but rather as members of a tribe.

Implications are that citizens cannot access convenient voting locations and health, education and employment services. The CBS must conduct a comprehensive survey of the residents of the unrecognized villages, and present decision makers with complete information.

On occasion of the World’s indigenous Day, NCF released a position paper on the statistical gap of the Bedouin population from the Naqab. You are welcome to continue reading it here 

NCF’s publication coincides with the recently released State’s Comptroller’s report, that indicates major disparities in the data on the number of Bedouins living in the Naqab, which include the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority, the Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev and other government ministries.

In light of the ongoing demolitions in the Bedouin communities in the Negev-Naqab, and the distress exacerbated as a result of the pandemic, we issued a letter together with Sidreh Association and the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, requesting the Interior Minister Mr. Omer Bar-Lev, to stop police accompaniment to house demolitions, until the government presents housing solutions. In 2020, 2,568 buildings were demolished in Bedouin communities in the Negev, causing economic and psychological damage to families whose 80% of their children live below the poverty line.

The intention is to start a process that will help build trust towards dialogue with each of the villages on fair and participatory planning solutions, and build a political dialogue on housing solutions for Arabs at the national level.

In light of the fact that there is only one employment bureau in all the Arab Bedouin localities in the Negev-Naqab, compared to Jewish localities (such as Yeruham and Mitzpe Ramon), which have many bureaus, we turned to MK Aida Toma-Suleiman following our joint activity in the employment of Arab women in the Negev and the issue of a letter to the Minister of Economy, Orna Barbibai, to assist in the creation of employment offices in the Bedouin villages in the Negev-Naqab.