The New York Times · New York, New York · 20 June 1978

CP-1978-019

The Storm Over the Negev: Bedouins of Israel Are Victims of Progress

WILLIAM E. FARRELL, Special to The New York Times

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Transcribed from the clipping

ABU TULUL BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT, Israel—After miles of travel over an ill-defined series of ruts and little gullies that the locals call a road, a traveler’s eyes, suffused with the stark unending desert landscape, catches sight of a modest garden and an even more modest orchard with apples, figs and almonds.

Near this pleasing bit of green in a surrounding of alkali white are the crushed remains of a house, a surrealist jumble of cinder blocks, twisted iron window grates and a mash of household items.

The house was the home of a Bedouin tribesman and his family until mid-May, when it was bulldozed by order of Israel’s Green Patrol, created a few years ago to police the Negev. The force totals only a dozen men who work under Minister of Agriculture Ariel Sharon, a hero of the 1973 war known for hawkish views and bluntness.

The demolished Bedouin house is one of 45 dwellings—block houses, goatskin tents and hovels—razed in recent weeks by the Green Patrol with the explanation that they had been erected illegally on land marked for industrial development.

The action by the patrol has provoked a storm of protest in Israel over tactics and has focused attention on a minority group, the Negev Bedouin, whose presence in the desert dates back to 636 A.D.

Land problems regarding the Bedouins are old and complicated, involving deeds or the lack of them and claims by the tribesmen that their historic presence in the desert is in itself a right to the land. For many years, these issues simmered below the surface because the lands of the Negev were not regarded as having much value.

That changed as the Israelis set about transforming parts of the desert into farms, industrial areas and towns.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by optical character recognition and not by a person.

Context added by this archive

Date check: DATE AND PAPER CONFIRMED ON THE PAGE. The section front carries the full nameplate “The New York Times” with “TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1978” and “Copyright © 1978 The New York Times” at the left, and the page slug “L+ B1” at the right. This matches both `pub` and the slide-label date of 1978-06-20, which was a Tuesday.

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