...and at the Beduin

There are some misleading concepts in “Beduin housing crisis in the Negev” (Frontlines, July 14).

The basic premise of the article leads the reader to believe that Arab and Beduin residents in Israel have the same background and history. They do not, and it is disingenuous of the champions for Beduin rights to imply that they do. Arabs are a population of Semites from the Arabian peninsula, while the Beduin are nomadic Arabs from the Arabian, Syrian or North African deserts, according to Merriam-Webster.

When the Beduin went to court claiming ownership of land on which they had periodically pitched tents, they lost their cases because they could present no documentation. The State of Israel, at any time in its brief history, could not allow bands of people to wander in and out of its borders at will.

Settlement of this traditionally nomadic population enables a more dependable source of income, clean water, electricity and, most important, free education. Having lived in the area for close to 50 years, I have seen the number of Beduin students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev grow from zero to several hundred, and have noticed that at least a third of the pharmacists in Beersheba are Beduin. This is a huge achievement for a traditionally nomadic population.

Farther along in the article, it is unsettling to see the upscale bedroom community of “Jewish Lehavim” compared with “Beduin Rahat.” I do not see where this contrast is germane to any point the author is trying to make. I could photograph huge villas in the Beduin town of Lakiya that would rival the most ostentatious anywhere in “Jewish” Israel.

Yes, there are Beduin living without electricity, as there are Jews living on the streets. Both are tragic. The operative difference is that the Beduin are a demographic still in a period of transition. They have come a tremendous way. What other Middle Eastern country has done so much, or indeed anything, for their Beduin? JUDY KNOPF

Beersheba