Residents of the unrecognized villages in the Negev have spent the past few nights trying to protect themselves from the Iranian ballistic missile strikes under impossible conditions: in a school shelter, in a container buried in the ground, in a car, or under a bridge. In Rahat and other locations, schools were opened to accommodate residents without shelters. In Abu Krinat, those with fortified rooms opened their homes to neighbors.
A significant portion of Israel’s 200,000 or so Bedouins, who traditionally practice a nomadic lifestyle, live in towns and villages not recognized by the state. Around 80,000 live in Rahat, a Bedouin town that’s been recognized since 1994.
Whether living in recognized or unrecognized towns, the Bedouin population of the Negev faces significant discrimination and disadvantage—especially dire at this moment of deadly Iranian strikes.
Laila Frijat, a member of the Council for Unrecognized Villages organization from the unrecognized village of Bir al-Mshash, described an atmosphere of tension in the Negev’s Bedouin community.
“The fear of a direct attack on these areas led entire families to abandon their homes and try to find shelter elsewhere, sometimes even in open areas or nearby communities,” she told Davar.
South of Mitzpe Ramon on Route 40, dozens of Bedouins have taken shelter under bridges, Fares al-Hamidi, another Negev Bedouin, told Davar.
The situation is especially acute in the unrecognized village of al-Sir, where homes were recently demolished as part of the government’s escalating policy of home demolition.
“I’m walking between the houses here, both those that were demolished and those that weren’t. The situation is very difficult. All the children are screaming. All the women are outside. It’s just horrifying, there’s no shelter, nothing,” Ibrahim al-Gharibi of al-Sir told Davar. “People are calling me and I don’t know what to say. Noise, children’s fear. Everything all at once.”
On social media, Muhammad Abu Kwider from the unrecognized village of al-Zarnouq described the double bind Bedouins find themselves in. “Yesterday we had bulldozers demolishing our homes. Today there are missiles above us trying to destroy us, and we’re afraid of tomorrow, when the tractors will come back to demolish our homes again,” he wrote.
Yanabia and Desert Stars, two organizations focused on empowering the Bedouin community, have placed about 200 fortified containers in the villages so that Bedouins have a place to shelter from rockets. Muhammad Al-Nabari, chair of Yanabia, said that the containers provide a solution for 800 to 1,000 families.
In northeastern Negev, residents dug trenches and covered them with wooden boards as a substitute for shelters.
Fayrouz al-Ataika, a safe communities coordinator with the Abraham Initiatives living in the unrecognized village of Birket al-Batal, said that many Bedouins are staying in the local school because of the lack of shelters in their villages.
The school is about a ten-minute drive from her home. She said most families have more than five people, and they crammed into cars and drove.
“At 9 or 10 in the morning, we went back home,” al-Ataika told Davar. “My uncle was in contact with the mayor of Rahat, and he said we could return.”
She added that because of conservative customs, some families didn’t enter shelters out of concern that women would be in the presence of strange men, which is forbidden in traditional Bedouin culture. In some places, only women and children entered shelters.
Another resident dug a pit in the village of Birket al-Batal for residents to take cover in. “But that was actually more dangerous,” al-Ataika explained. “If a missile falls, no one will know there are people down there.”
“We’re stressed, we’re screaming, we’re running, and the children don’t understand what it is,” she continued. “They’re traumatized. If a father screams, then the child cries and screams, and doesn’t understand.”
