page_title: Al-Kasom Regional Council
section_title: Sedentarization
hierarchical_section_title: Al-Kasom Regional Council / History / Sedentarization
caption_attribution_description: English: Umm Batin
context_page_description: al-Kasom Regional Council is one of two Negev Bedouin regional councils formed as a result of the split of the Abu Basma Regional Council on November 5, 2012. Al-Kasom regional council is in the northwestern Negev desert of Israel.
  It is made up of seven recognized Bedouin communities: Tirabin al-Sana, Umm Batin, al-Sayyid, Mulada, Makhul, Kukhleh and Drijat.
  The overall population is over 20,000. There are also Bedouin living in unrecognized villages whose exact number is unknown. The al-Kasom Regional Council, as well as Neve Midbar Regional Council are the main arena for the implementation of the Prawer Plan, which was shelved in 2013.
context_section_description: The 1948 UN Partition Plan, which was accepted by the Jewish leaders, envisaged most of the Negev (including most of the ancestral Negev Bedouin territory) as part of a planned Arab state, with the Jewish State of Israel situated to the north in areas with an existing Jewish majority. However, after the rejection of the UN plan by the united Arab nations, their subsequent declaration of war on Israel, and their eventual defeat in the 1948 Palestine war, the Negev became part of Israel and the Negev Bedouin became Israeli citizens.
  The new Israeli government continued the policy of sedentarization of Negev Bedouins imposed by the Ottoman authorities in the early 20th century, mirroring developments in nearby Arab nations. Early stages of this process included regulation of previously open lands used for grazing and re-location of Bedouin tribes. In the decades after the war of independence, the Israeli government was concerned about the allegiance of the Negev Bedouin to the new State, and thus re-located two-thirds of the southern Bedouin population into a closed area under the authority of the IDF. This situation was maintained until the late 1970s.
  Starting in the 1980s the civilian government took back control of the northern Negev Bedouin from the IDF and began to establish purpose-built townships specifically for Bedouins in order to sedentarize and urbanize them, and to allow for the provision of government services. The government promoted these towns as offering better living conditions, proper infrastructure and access to public services in health, education, and sanitation. The new development towns constructed by the state in the 1980s absorbed a large proportion of the Negev Bedouin population but were unable to handle the entire Bedouin population, and their later reputation for crime and poor economy, together with a cultural preference for rural life, caused many Israeli Bedouin to shun these towns in favour of rural villages unapproved by the State.
  Today, the government estimates that about 60% of Bedouin citizens of Israel live in permanently planned towns, while the rest live in unrecognised villages spread throughout the Negev. These villages are considered illegal under Israeli law, and their legal status, coupled with their periodic demolition and evacuation by police, is the subject of considerable debate.
caption: Private residence and farm in Umm Batin
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