Summary
Rosh Ha’Moatzah of Segev Shalom from September 2004, elected on a platform supported by Israel’s Islamic parties, succeeding Amir Abu-Mu’amar by a narrow margin (Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin, PDF p.79).
Details
- His administration emphasised physical improvements to town infrastructure, roads and the building of schools, and a partnership with JITLI backed by over $80,000 from the Jacobs family, whose best-known project is the playground adjacent to the Municipality complex (PDF p.79).
- His stated philosophy was to make Segev Shalom attractive, “a magnet for young people to come from the periphery” (8 February 2007) (PDF p.79).
- Interviewed on 28 May 2007, he described the Council’s job as bridging the gap between the Tarabeen (Abid) and the Azazmeh, who are poorer and served by student and social-worker programs in Shekhuna Bet (PDF p.80).
- In the same interview he limited in-migration: the town cannot accommodate all the Azazmeh, perhaps up to 13,000-14,000 people, because pezurah residents use its schools and resources without paying its taxes while Abu-Basma receives their budget money; he wrote to the Wadi Na’am leadership wishing them their own town instead (PDF p.80-81).
- The Postscript reports that in November 2008 Amir Abu-Mu’amar was again elected Rosh Ha’Moatzah for a five-year term, replacing El-Harumi (PDF p.233).
Related pages
Settling for Less — The Planned Resettlement of Israel’s Negev Bedouin, Segev Shalom, Amir Abu-Mu’amar, Abu-Basma, Azazmeh