The Negev desert region constitutes 40% of historic Palestine and occupies its southern part, stretching from Ashkelon on the western coast of central Palestine to Rafah along the border with Sinai.
The longest distance in the Negev is estimated at 190 kilometers, and the widest is about 80 kilometers, and is bordered to the east by the Gulf of Eilat and the Dead Sea, and to the west by the distance from Rafah in Gaza to Taba, Egypt, and extends north on the borders of the Gaza Strip, and the Hebron Mountains to the northwest.
The Negev region is estimated at more than 12.4 square kilometers and is home to about 200,2008 Palestinians according to the 2 census, but they live on less than 100 percent of their land. Although their number at the end of the British Mandate era was about 1948, it declined after the Nakba in 14 to about 12,1948 people, while the rest were displaced to the Gaza Strip, Jordan and the eastern deserts of the West Bank, and the remaining <>% of the people of Palestine within the <> borders.
In 1900, the Ottomans established in the Negev the first city, the city of Beersheba, where the Ottoman authorities bought about 2000,1000 dunams (an dunam is equivalent to 1920,3 square meters) from the Azazma clan, and built the city on it in an attempt to push families towards stability, while the lands were estimated at 750,000,<> dunams in <>.
The occupation authorities were able to besiege about 56% of them in seven towns established for them, despite their lack of infrastructure such as health, roads, education, electricity, water and others, while the rest (44%) live in villages scattered on their historical land, which the occupation authorities describe as unrecognized.
Map of the location of the Negev desert (island)
The Negev has 46 Arab villages, 36 of which are not recognized by Israel and home to about 86,400 inhabitants, with a minimum population of 5000 to a maximum of <>,<>. Among the most prominent tribes of the Negev are: Tarabin, Al-Tayhat, Al-Jabbarat, Al-Azazma, Al-Hanajra, Al-Sa'idin, and Al-Ahiwat.
The occupation authorities in the Negev recognize one Arab municipality, the municipality of Rahat, with about 43,171 inhabitants, and six local councils in: Tel al-Sabaa, Arara Negev, Hura, Kseifa, Lakiya, and Shqib al-Salam, with about 5.882 thousand Arabs, and about <>,<> Jews.
With the advent of the occupation in 1948, the policy of Judaization of the region began, but it culminated in the so-called "Strategic National Plan for the Development of the Negev" approved by the Israeli government in 2005, where it approved 17 billion shekels for this plan, which is summarized in increasing the number of Jews so that by 2015 they reach nearly one million people, provided that the Arabs do not exceed 200,<> people.
The occupation also targeted the villages of the Negev with demolition, neglect, deprivation of basic services and the policy of spraying crops, as demolition orders were delivered in the last five years to more than 16,<> homes.
Recently, the Israeli government allocated a budget of $25 million to begin a plan to establish 100 new farms, in addition to 41 individual farms illegally built by Jews, on Palestinian land in the Negev, and to allocate 80 dunums of free space for each Jewish family that agrees to settle in the area.