Israeli Jews visit infamous town
The Bedouin town of Rahat, in the Negev desert, has a reputation among many Israelis as a wild, lawless and generally no-go zone.
Last month, the town made news when local residents clashed with police officers over a traffic stop. Masked men were recently seen in the area driving down the highway firing automatic weapons out of the windows of their SUVs.
So it was an unusual sight on a recent evening when several busloads of Israeli Jewish tourists arrived to explore what a tour company promised would be a more alluring side of the city. “Come and experience the magic of Ramadan nights,” a newspaper ad beckoned in Hebrew.
Amain goal of the tours, according to Rahat’s mayor, was to spruce up the image of Rahat, a drab conglomeration of lowrise buildings that is also known for its poverty and low rates of education and life expectancy.
“Rahat is not only what you read in the media, the negative things, there are also good things,” Mayor Talal al-Krenawi told the tour group at a spotless industrial park on the edge of the city, built to alleviate unemployment.
For $28 (U.S.), the six-hour Ramadan Nights trip promised a guided bus tour of “the secrets” of Rahat, as well as traditional debka dancing and sweets-making workshops, shopping in the no-frills market and home hospitality for Iftar, the festive meal that ends each day’s sunrise-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
While some alternative tourism companies offer Bedouin desert experiences, Rahat has no listed hotels.
Established in the 1970s, it was one of seven towns built in the Negev to accommodate the traditionally semi-nomadic Bedouin herders as part of a government policy of resettlement and integration into Israeli society.
The largest of the towns, it now has more than 70,000 residents.
The Bedouin birth rate, among the highest in the world, has been increased by the practice of polygamy. More than 200,000 Bedouin live in the Negev region, out of Israel’s total population of nearly 9 million, and they have long complained of discrimination.
With decades-old land disputes still unresolved, many have chosen to remain in unzoned, ramshackle villages and encampments lacking basic services, reluctant to move into the towns that quickly acquired a reputation for drug abuse and delinquency.
The tour group climbed aboard four buses. One included a dozen-strong Orthodox contingent from the predominantly Jewish Negev town of Yeruham and several families from central Israel. Most had never set foot in Rahat before.
“I’m happy for the opportunity,” said Dini Deutsch, 52, a teacher from Yeruham. “I wouldn’t wander around here alone.”