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bToday more than 40,000 live there! This tripling of the popu- blation in thirty years, thanks to a growth rate that today reaches ba world record of 7 percent, means an inevitable explosion in the byears to come. As far as Bedouin flocks, whereas in 1948 there bwere some 30,000 Bedouin animals, by 1978 there were nearly bhalf a million. Not only did they steal the land and then make it bde facto “Arab,” but because of their irresponsible overgrazing bthey destroyed it from an agricultural and ecological standpoint. b b•The Arabs have grown bolder thanks to the incredible bapathy and timidity of the government. In September 1979 a bNature Reserve patrolman, Asahel Lev, discovered a large flock bof Bedouin animals illegally grazing on state land. When he left bhis jeep to warn the Bedouins, he was attacked by seven of them, barmed with knives, who shouted “Itbach-al-Yahud” (“Slaughter bthe Jew”). He fled. b•In December 1979 Knesset member and Dimona mayor bJacques Amir tabled an urgent motion for discussion of Bedouin bharassment of the Jewish settlement of Nevatim in the Negev. bAccording to Amir, the settlers—Jews from India—“have suf- bfered heavy property losses from the Bedouins, who do not bhesitate to use force.” The Jewish residents told of Bedouin bflocks eating away at their fields and trees. On the tombstones of bthe settlement’s graveyard could be seen goats’ droppings. The bpolice never arrested one Bedouin. b•Members of the settlement Bitha, near the Negev town of bOfakim, were so frustrated over two years of Bedouin encroach- bment on their lands that in March 1978 they exploded and bburned a Bedouin tent. Four Jews were arrested. b•Between 1976 and 1978 nearly the entire Sinai Bedouin btribe of Al-Haiwat moved into the southern Negev along with b5,000 animals. They gradually became residents of Israel, aside bfrom seizing and destroying land. b•On March 4, 1978, Alon Galilee, head of the Nature bReserve’s Green Patrol unit, claimed that Bedouins had taken bover land within the Israeli army firing range area. More than b10,000 head of livestock were in the area. The same problem was balso noted in army range areas in the Galilee. The army was not bonly forced to limit and postpone important training, but as bGalilee pointed out, the Bedouins had access to classified mili- b
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