From: Center for Policy Research <cpr> Subject: Desertification of the Negev   The desertification of the arid Negev ------------------------------------- by Moise Saltiel, I&P March 1990  I.      The Negev Bedouin Before and After 1948 II.     Jewish Agricultural Settlement in the Negev III.   Development of the Negev's Rural Population IV.    Economic Situation of Jewish Settlements in 1990 V.     Failure in Settling the Arava Valley VI.   Failure in Settling the Central Mountains VII.  Failure in Making the Negev "Bedouinenrein" (Cleansing the Negev of Bedouins) VIII. Transforming Bedouin into Low-Paid Workers IX..    Failure in Settling the "Development Towns" X.      Jordan Water to the Negev: A Strategic Asset XI.     The Negev Becomes a Dumping Ground XII.   The Dimona Nuclear Plant XIII.  The Negev as a Military Base XIV.  The Negev in the Year 2000  Just after the creation of the State of Israel, the phrase "the Jewish pioneers will make the desert bloom" was trumpeted throughout the Western world. After the Six Day War in 1967, David Ben-Gurion declared in a letter to Charles de Gaulle: "It's by our pioneering creation that we have transformed a poor and arid land into a fertile land, created built-up areas, towns and villages in abandoned desert areas".  Contrary to Ben-Gurion's assertion, it must be affirmed that during the 26 years of the British mandate over Palestine and for centuries previous, a productive human presence was to be found in all parts of the Negev desert - in the very arid hills and valleys of the southern Negev as well as in the more fertile north. These were the Bedouin Arabs.  The real desertification of the Negev, mainly in the southern part, occurred after Israel's dispossession of the Bedouin's cultivated lands and pastures. Nowadays, the majority of the 12,800 square-kilometer Negev, which represents 62 percent of the State of Israel (pre-1967 borders), has been desertified beyond recognition. The main new occupiers of the formerly Bedouin Negev are the Israeli army; the Nature Reserves Authority, whose chief role is to prevent Bedouin from roaming their former pasture lands; and vast industrial zones, including nuclear reactors and dumping grounds for chemical, nuclear and other wastes. Israeli Jews in the Negev today cultivate less than half the surface area cultivated by the Bedouin before 1948, and there is no Jewish pastoral activity.  I. Agricultural and pastoral activities of the Negev Bedouin before and after 1948 -------------------------------------------------- In 1942, according to British mandatory statistics, the Beersheba sub-district (which corresponds more or less to Israel's Negev, or Southern, district) had 52,000 inhabitants, almost all Bedouin Arabs, who held 11,500 camels, 6,000 cows and oxen, 42,000 sheep and 22,000 goats.  The majority of the Bedouin lived a more or less sedentary life in the north, where precipitation ranged between 200 and 350 mm per year. In 1944 they cultivated about 200,000 hectares of the Beersheba district - i.e. 16 percent of its total area and *more than double the area cultivated by the Negev's Jewish settlers after 40 years of "making the desert bloom"*  The Bedouin had a very low crop yield - 350 to 400 kilograms of barley per hectare during rainy years - and their farming techniques were primitive, but production was based solely on animal and human labor. It must also be underscored that animal production, although low, was based entirely on pasturing. Production increased considerably during the rainy years and diminished significantly during drought years. All Bedouin pasture animals - goats, camels and sheep - had the ability to gain weight quickly over the relatively rainy winters and to withstand many waterless days during the hot summers. These animals were the result of a centuries-old process of natural selection in harsh local conditions.  After the creation of the State of Israel, 80 percent of the Negev Bedouin were expelled to the Sinai or to Southern Jordan. The 10,000 who were allowed to remain were confined to a territory of 40,000 hectares in a region were annual mean precipiation was 150 mm - a quantity low enough to ensure a crop failure two years out of three. The rare water wells in the south and central Negev, spring of life in the desert, were cemented to prevent Bedouin shepherds from roaming.  A few Bedouin shepherds were allowed to stay in the central Negev. But after 1982, when the Sinai was returned to Egypt, these Bedouin were also eliminated. At the same time, strong pressure was applied on the Bedouin to abandon cultivation of their fields in order that the land could be transferred to the army.  No reliable statistics exist concerning the amount of land held today by Negev Bedouin. It is a known fact that a large part of the 40,000 hectares they cultivated in the 1950s has been seized by the Israeli authorities. Indeed, most of the Bedouin are now confined to seven "development towns", or *sowetos*, established for them.