A preliminary evaluation of the Negev Bedouin experience of urbanization: findings of the urban household survey

This monograph attempts to explore the urbanization process and its consequences in the
case of the Bedouin in the Negev Desert in southern Israel. Until recently, there was a great
paucity of factual information on the situation of the Negev’s Bedouin population. Even
the 1995 national census contained very limited data, and almost nothing on the urban
condition of the Bedouin. At most, data for the largest Bedouin town, Rahat, was presented.
In 1999, the first StatisticalYearbook of the Negev Bedouin was published jointly by The Center
for Bedouin Studies and Development and The Negev Center for Regional Development,
both at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. This volume provided as
much information as was available from statistical agencies, government departments, local
authorities and administrative units on numerous aspects of the situation of this group.