Population
According to the official data provided by the Israel Land Administration in 2007, some 60 per cent of the Negev Bedouin live in seven permanent state-planned townships, such as Rahat, Tel as-Sabi, Shaqib al-Salam (Segev Shalom), Ar'arat an-Naqab, Kuseife, Lakiya and Hura, and the rest (40 per cent) - "in illegal homes spread over hundreds of thousands of dunams". Nevertheless, a number of unrecognized villages were recognized by the state (such as al-Sayyid), and the new ones were built (such as Tirabin al-Sana) totaling 12 (not including the previous seven townships). A newly created regional council of Abu Basma has united these localities. So as of today (September 2012) there is no updated official statistics on the number of Bedouin living outside the government-planned and officially recognized communities.
Around 2007 the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages (RCUV) said that Bedouin in unrecognized villages constitute half of the total Negev Bedouin population. But on their new site there is no notion of the current population of the unrecognized villages.
According to the Human Rights Watch data (2008), approximately half of Bedouin citizens of Israel (85,000 out of 170,000) live in 39 such villages. But mentioning these numbers they rely upon the information provided in 2006 by the Israeli NGO Adva Center. Other sources count 45 and 46 unrecognized villages.
Read more about this topic: Unrecognized Bedouin Villages In Israel
Famous quotes containing the word population:
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