A Going Concern in the Negev

Six months have passed since the new community of Givot Bar was established - in the dark of night, for fear of opposition from local Bedouin. Fifteen families live there; within two weeks, another 10 are slated to join them.

Although the infrastructure is not yet up to par - the electricity is supplied by a generator, the water flows from a temporary pipe, and a poor, dirt road leads up to the community - the residents are satisfied. "This is an opportunity to create something new, to establish a new community," says one of them, Ido Rubinstein.

Givot Bar is one of dozens of new communities planned for the Negev. Some are already on the ground as temporary communities; for others, the statutory planning procedures have not yet been completed, or have been halted for legal and other reasons. If even half of the planned communities are built, they will fundamentally alter the face of the Negev, changing not only the landscape, but introducing a veritable social and economic revolution. And not everyone is convinced it would be for the best.

Why do we need them?

Until 1998, the government approved hardly any new communities in the Negev, based on the perception that the existing ones should be strengthened. Then the age of Sharon arrived. It began when Ariel Sharon took office as prime minister, and in the ministerial committee on Galilee and Negev affairs. Effi Eitam's entry into the Housing Ministry only strengthened the trend. In the last four years, the Housing Ministry, the Israel Lands Administration, private developers and nonprofit organizations have conceived of more than 30 ideas to establish new communities throughout the Negev. It was recently reported that the Housing Ministry had begun plotting out new territories for the establishment of four communities in the central Negev.

Most of them are rural townships, limited in size, but also in the pipeline are cities, Nahal settlements, a number of agricultural communities and rehabilitation villages for distressed youth or drug rehabilitation. In addition, another 30 isolated farms and eight Bedouin communities are planned for construction or official recognition.

At a time when tens of thousands of Bedouin live in unauthorized settlements, there are dozens of Jewish towns crying out for new residents. This is what has triggered the doubts regarding the need for the establishment of new Jewish communities. The opponents' main fears relate to the serious damage that will be caused to the existing communities in the Negev, especially Be'er Sheva, in the wake of the departure of its wealthier citizens to the new settlements, where plots of land or houses will be sold on easy terms.

Other arguments against the wave of settlement are related to the diversion of investments from the existing communities to the new ones, the destruction of the landscape and environment and the worsening relations between Jews and Bedouin in the Negev.

"The state has developed two tracks for the populating of the Negev," says Dr. Erez Tsfadia of the Department of Public Administration and Policy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "The first is by means of public housing for new immigrants, the elderly and handicapped, and the second is in attractive rural townships. That is how social gaps are perpetuated."

The Housing Ministry and those who support the establishment of new communities are convinced that the disengagement plan, the plans by the Israel Defense Forces to move some of its bases to the Negev and the lengthening of the Trans-Israel Highway will provide enough residents for everyone.

Political geography

Geographically, the new communities are divided into a number of groups. The first is in the area of the Halutza dunes and the Nitzana Salient. Two large communities are planned for that area - Shlomit and Nitzanit - and another three smaller ones are planned, known at this stage as Halutzit 1, 2 and 3.

Other communities are being planned along the Green Line from the southern Mount Hebron area to the Negev - Arkuvit, Egoz, Haruv, Meged, Mersham, Sansana, Karmit, Hiran and Yatir; in the central Negev - Ira, Omrit, Neveh Temarim, Merhav Am and others; in the Arava - Tzukim, Paran 2 and Be'er Orah.

The supporters of new communities often use the terminology of "demographic checkmate": Each small town has a mission - to block or halt the development of a Bedouin town. "There is a ring of towns, a choke hold, around Be'er Sheva," says Omer Mayor Pini Badash, "and we must create parallel rings so that Be'er Sheva is not suffocated. The communities along Highway 31 are vital to prevent Arad from being cut off."

Badash is not the only one. "The new towns are planned to create a buffer between the Bedouin in the Negev and the Palestinians in the Mount Hebron area," says one source. "It is settlement with a political purpose."

"We need to establish communities in order to hold on to the land," adds Meitar Mayor Solomon Cohen. And Dudu Cohen, the director of the southern district in the Interior Ministry, concurs. "There is a clash between the planning policy and national policy. It is important to have the presence of Jews even if, from every other respect, there is no need to establish a particular settlement."

In response, MK Haim Oron (Meretz), a member of Kibbutz Lahav in the Negev, says: "The state is struggling against its own citizens by means of the establishment of communities. That is a mistake. The solution to the Bedouin problem is not by means of a land war."

Another group of communities whose establishment is politically motivated is the one planned in Halutza. The initiative was born in the wake of Ehud Barak's plan to transfer areas in the Halutza dunes to the Palestinians.

"While it is true that the plan is off the table, it could still come up, and consequently, it is important to strengthen the area," says Shmuel Rifman, the chair of the Ramat Negev Regional Council and chair of the Negev Development Authority.

What about the older towns?

One community to be most affected by this momentum is Meitar, a large rural township about 20 kilometers northeast of Be'er Sheva. The communities of Hiran, Karmit and Yatir are planned for construction in its immediate vicinity. The interior minister recently decided to transfer their area of jurisdiction from the Bnei Shimon Regional Council to Meitar - meaning they will become neighborhoods of the older community.

"The quality of life will move there," says Guy Rotem, a resident of Meitar. "There will be isolated communities and we will become a metropolis."

Shahar Nussinovsky, a member of the Meitar council, adds: "It's time we stopped behaving like in the time of the Mandate. Zionism is not necessarily the establishment of more settlements."

Mayor Cohen, on the other hand, sees the opportunity for development that lies in these settlements. "The Negev is waiting for new people, as a result of the disengagement plan and the IDF bases that will be moved to the Negev. There is a huge potential there and Meitar needs to plan for it."

At a time when Cohen sees the potential, in the same area, there are existing communities that are crying out for new members: Kibbutz Keramim and the settlements of Livneh, Har Amsha and Tenneh. "It is a terrible waste," says Bilhah Givon, the director-general of the Viable Negev nonprofit organization, whose opposition to the establishment of Yatir was rejected last week by the National Planning and Construction Council. "They build a settlement, give it a budget, and then forget it and build a new one. And for that they sacrifice such beautiful areas."

There are three small communities in the area of Nitzana, as well - Kadesh Barnea, Kemehin and Izuz - but that is not preventing the planning of another five communities north of them up to the Shalom Salient area.

There are six communities currently in the Shalom Salient, each with 45 families, which also want to attract new residents.

"The minimum needed to sustain a community is 200-250 families. With fewer than that, it is different to maintain cultural and educational services or to survive over time," says Avraham Dvori, formerly the mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council.

However, the Shalom district welcomes the new settlements. "Perhaps it will draw the limelight to us, create jobs and open up employment opportunities," says Zilpa Yuz, the director of the district association.

The Negev mayors, however, have expressed apprehension at the trend. Arad Mayor Moti Brill says: "Arad was harmed by the establishment of Meitar and Lehavim, and will be critically injured if communities are established along Highway 31. The rural townships appeal to the stronger populations in the city."

According to Tsfadia, "Israel has the largest ratio of settlements to residents. The new communities will harm the existing ones. That is what happened in the development towns of the Galilee when the smaller communities were established. The stronger populations are a very important resource. When they leave, they take with them the property taxes they pay, businesses, services and investments."

According to a study Tsfadia conducted on the acceptance committees in the rural townships, it is not difficult to guess who will benefit from the new settlements. "Who passes the muster of the settlement acceptance committees? First of all, physically and emotionally healthy Jews. Nine out of 10 former kibbutz members will be accepted, but only 14 percent of Jews of Middle-Eastern extraction pass the committees. People coming from development towns have only a 10 percent chance of passing."

Tsfadia also notes the enormous costs involved in the establishment of a new community: the extension of infrastructure, transportation to schools, new roads and more. "A family in a new settlement in the Galilee cost the government a million dollars in infrastructure. All this comes at the expense of other things."

The opponents also note that the vast majority of the new residents in the Negev live in urban neighborhoods. "One apartment complex in a Be'er Sheva neighborhood contains more people than a number of isolated community," says one.

Despite this, Rifman expects that 80 percent of the planned settlements will be built. "When a resident of Be'er Sheva decides to leave the city, I would prefer for him to move to Omer or another community settlement rather than to Tel Aviv," he says. "The Negev's greatest problem is that it has a broad national consensus. Look what happened in the places where there is no national consensus. Look how much they built there. That is why the debate will strengthen the settlement of the Negev."

Zionism - or stealing land?

One new community that will apparently not be established is Kfar Hamada, a rural township for members of the security establishment that was planned for Mt. Avnun, on the edge of the Large Makhtesh, a few kilometers from Yeruham.

According to those who conceived of the community, Kfar Hamada would have permanently changed the face of the Negev. However, the developers did not anticipate the opposition from the Yeruham residents, and Kfar Hamada was shelved.

In 1997, a few people got together, mostly former senior officers in the Israeli security establishment - including Major General (res.) Doron Rubin, former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit and the former director of the Dimona Nuclear Research Center, Avraham Saroussi. Together they decided to establish a rural township for scientists and developers, as stated in the pamphlet they produced.

Included in the plans was the establishment of a huge plant for the desalination of aquifer water, a facility for the exploitation of solar energy, a field school and a desert research institute, a geological museum, a university extension, an online university for Jewish youth from all over the world, a visitors' center, desert inn and high-tech park.

The previous mayor of Yeruham, Moti Avisrur, was not impressed. After he lost the mayoral election to Baruch Almakayes, those who had conceived the idea once again tried to promote it. In February, the government approved the establishment of Kfar Hamada, but the reservations expressed by the green organizations, as well as the education and environment ministries, returned the debate to the ministerial committee.

The truly interesting discussion was held in the Yeruham community center on April 20. It was organized by a number of local residents who opposed the establishment of the rural township and a representative of the developers was present. In the debate, which lasted into the wee hours, the Yeruham residents accused the organization members of elitism, of destroying the landscape and of harming Yeruham and its residents.

Moshe Shalom, one of the founders of the group, tried to defend himself and explain. A few days after that meeting, however, the group decided to back off from the plan. "We were really looking for Zionism, but the image they created of us was of real-estate moguls who came to steal land. Today, even if someone were to give me the money, I wouldn't go near there," he said.