Making the Bedouin Towns Work

This paper considers this urbanization process, the limited success of the policies that were pursued and proposals for a strategic urban development approach that would begin to rectify the situation.

Any plan for the Bedouin must be viewed as an integral part of a larger plan for the Negev as a whole.  A region of this size should be an important contributor to the national economy.  But fragmented into a number of dysfunctional towns and detached rural settlements, it remains a drag on the economy, kept in a state of impoverishment and dependency by a steady inflow of non-productive investments and personal transfers.