Summary
A planned Negev Bedouin town twenty kilometres northwest of Be’er Sheva, on the site of a large spontaneous Huzaiyil concentration, recognized as a legal town in 1973 and, in Dinero’s account, the most successful of the planned towns in attracting residents (Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin, PDF p.40-42, 46).
Details
- Unlike Tel Sheva, the Rahat plan expressed Bedouin sociocultural functions spatially: self-built neighbourhoods designated for related “True”, fellahi or Abid groups, connected by primary roads, preserving tribal hierarchies (Gradus & Stern 1985; Fenster 1991, as cited, PDF p.41).
- Residents began to receive electricity and running water on recognition in 1973 (Boneh 1983, as cited, PDF p.41).
- Population was 10,000-12,000 by 1982, nearly doubled by the early 1990s, and by 2007 had grown into a city of at least 42,000 residents, described as the largest Bedouin community in the world (PDF p.42).
- The town has a library, but no books had been purchased for it over a year after it was built (Swirski & Hasson 2006:57, as cited, PDF p.53).
Related pages
Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin, Tel Sheva, Naqab, Siyaj