Israel's Bedouins
Roughly 200,000 Bedouins live in the Negev desert, with about half living in the seven Israeli government built townships in the northeast of the Negev and half in unrecognized villages, which lack basic services such as clean water, electricity or sanitation.
The Israeli Parliament is set to bring a final vote on a bill that, if implemented, would forcibly displace tens of thousands of Arab Bedouin citizens living in the unrecognized villages and see them settled in the seven Bedouin townships.
The Negev Bedouin tribes have vowed to fight the proposed law, which they argue will dispossess them of their homes and force a final settlement to their claims of historical rights to the land.
