Employment and Unemployment among the Negev Bedouin

This article deals with employment, and the problem of unemployment, among the Bedouin of the Negev. Today, the Negev Bedouin can be divided into two main groups, according to the manner of their settlement: Those who reside in seven towns, planned by the authorities: Rahat, Tel al-Saba' (Tel-Sheva), Kuseifa, 'Ar'ara, Shqeb al-Salam (Segev Shalom), Hura and Laqiya; and those who reside in dispersed, unauthorised settlements and live outside the seven towns, in concentrations of varying size. There is also a very. small group of semi-nomads. The Bedouin population in the Negev is today (1999) estimated at approximately 110,000. Close to 60 per cent of them live in the seven towns, the remaining 40 per cent of the Bedouin live in tribal settlements, in clusters of huts, wooden, metal, or baked mud huts, in tents made of goat hair, jute bags, or plastic sheets, or in houses built of concrete blocks or stones. The Bedouin living outside the seven towns continue to raise livestock, in flocks ranging in size from a few heads to over 200. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the Bedouin in the Negev have some 200,000 head of sheep and 5,000 of goats. The Bedouin estimate, which is very likely closer to the mark, is that there are 230,000 sheep and 20,000 goats. Employment The Bedouin engage in a wide range of occupations. It is possible to find in a single household an agricultural worker, a construction worker, a clerk and a shepherd. The centre of economic gravity has shifted from raising livestock to salaried employment, in the cities and towns. Opportunities have opened up for the Bedouin, including some that are considerably more worthwhile than even large-scale animal husbandry. Some of the economic problems of the Bedouin derive from the process of urbanisation, as well as the increase in the size of their consumption basket, and their attraction to the higher standards prevalent in the cities than in the periphery, and a dearth of employment opportunities in the tribal areas. In the towns, though, the Bedouin have been exposed to such social phenomena as difficulties in social and economic adjustment, and in maintaining internal cohesion. They have also experienced hitherto unknown symptoms of poverty. Furthermore, the Bedouin have been hard hit by unemployment, and drug trafficking and drug abuse have already penetrated both the towns and dispersed settlements. Some of the towns have become distressed areas, focal points of frustration and bitterness, the causes of which can be ascribed to government policies. The dilemmas the Bedouin confront every day reflect the transition they are undergoing from a traditional to a modern, sedentary society. The picture is further complicated by the fact that the Bedouin population is not uniform, and therefore does not respond to the change it is undergoing in a uniform manner. A partial list of occupations in which young Bedouin engage would include work in road construction and in quarries, as mechanics and mechanics' assistants, construction labourers and building contractors, citrus pickers, watchmen on construction and drilling sites, tractor drivers, drivers of trucks, buses and minibuses, clerks, teachers, policemen and army trackers, insurance agents, and agricultural labourers. In addition, some Bedouin engage in raising sheep, either as a primary or secondary source of livelihood. Among those who live in the towns, the limits on the mobility of women, largely determined by cultural constraints, are enforced by husbands, mothers-in-law, and parents, and not by the women themselves. Such limits vary from group to group within Bedouin society. Some contend that the transition to towns has undermined the status, and the self-image, of Bedouin women in the Middle East; much of their traditional role no longer exists and many women feel useless. The transition to towns, and the concomitant change in the patterns of employment, has resulted in women being more dependent on their husbands. …