After weeks of political arguments between right-wing parties in the coalition and the Muslim Ra’am party, the Israeli government passed March 14 the five-year plan for the social and economic development of the Bedouin community for 2022-2026 at the inclusive cost of 5.2 billion Israeli shekels ($1.61 billion) for the entire period. This is the budgetary portion of the Bedouin community in the five-year plan for the Arab sector, which continues the five-year-plan passed in 2017 that ended in 2021, for which the government had budgeted 3 billion shekels ($930 million) for the Bedouin community.

Instead of approving development budgets for the Bedouin community inside the framework of one plan for the whole Arab sector, the government opted for taking two separate decisions. The reason was the unique needs of the Bedouin community, because of the enormous gaps between it and the rest of the Arab community.

This can only point to the extent that the Bedouin community has been neglected over the years. The new plan was formulated in cooperation between the relevant government ministries, headed by the Welfare Ministry that oversees the Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev, and Bedouin local authorities. Ra’am Chairman Mansour Abbas has been apprised of the negotiations and decisions reached. As part of the plan, the government will focus on several main goals: strengthening local authorities, infrastructure development, and investment in personal security, education, culture, health care, employment, transportation, and so on. 

With the plan’s authorization, Welfare Minister Meir Cohen, who is responsible for the regulation of Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert, announced, “Returning law and order to the Negev must run through massive economic and social investment in the Arab community. The plan that the government passed is the key to a better and more secure future for all residents of the Negev.”