Israel
Winning Bedouins over
NECHEMIA MEYERS
■ ^ POLrCE ^"^j^
strengthening bonds: Yoni Zeitak, front centre, stands with a group of Rahat youngsters who have brought trees to plant at the police station.
Rahat
When I came into the spartan office of Superintendent Yoni Zeitak, police commander in the Bedouin town of Rahat (about 15 kilometres north of Beersheva), he was busy trying to defuse a dan squabble involving a woman who had married without obtaining her father's permission and was therefore in danger of falling victim to an "honor MUing." In the room were a sheik and a social worker who had turned to Yoni not only because there was a threat of violence, but also, and more importantly, because they trust him. Their attitude is shared by most citizens of Rahat who, when dealing with "the authorities," routinely ask Yoni for guidance, which he and his staff, d^t of them Bedouin themselves, try to provide.
Solving social problems isn't the reason for a police presence in Rahat, one of the communities set up by the Israeli government in the 1950s to urbanize and modernize the Negev Bedouin. Before the station was established two years ago, there was an atmosphere of lawlessness in the town. That has been curbed to the benefit of its residents, who now eiyoy a more tranquil environment and host many Jewish shoppers who previously were afraid to enter Rahat
Shoppers, however, won't solve the town's economic problems or those of other Bedouin communities in the area, many of them impoverished slvuns. Indeed, it is hard to see what will.
According to some demographers, the Bedouin have the highest birthrate in the world, which accoimts for the fact that
60 per cent of Rahaf s population is under the age of 18. "The government is helping with housing; a project to provide 10,000 new dwellings in the town was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Jobs, however, are a much bigger problem, and imemployed yoimg men arc apt to take up crime as an alternative occupation. Indeed some are involved in drug traflicking and property offences, as well as participating in inter-dan dashes. All these necessitate periodic police intervention, sometimes with large forces.
The crime problem helps explain why the Rahat police have to spend so much time dealing with the complaints of the nearby middle-class community of Lehavim, which is suffering from a wave of thefts, particularly of cars. Disposing of stolen vehides is no problem, as the Green line is only a 15-minute drive away.
Lehavim doesn't seriously affect the demographic balance in the area, for which the Rahat station is responsible; 90 per cent of the people in it are Bedouin, and that percentage can only grow. When I lived in the Negev 50 years ago, I sddom saw Bedouin, who numbered about 12,000. Now there are almost four times that number in the Rahat district alone and nearly 150,000 in the Negev as a whole.
This is something over which Yoni has no control. All he can do is try to help solve the problems of the people in his area, Jews and Bedouin alike, and thus make it easier for them to live together in relative harmony. □
Nechemia Meyers is a freelance writer living in Rchovot, Israel
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