Under heavy security, JNF-KKL resumed planting trees in the Negev on Wednesday morning after an eruption of Bedouin violence on Tuesday stopped the planting activities.

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At least 18 residents of the Bedouin community in the Negev have been arrested in rioting that broke out Tuesday to protest JNF-KKL tree-planting ceremonies ahead of the Tu B'Shevat holiday, which falls next week.

Riots placed rocks on railway tracks near Goral intersection, forcing a train to come to an emergency stop. At Segev Shalom intersection, rioters set tries on fire and threw fireworks at police personnel, as well as throwing rocks at passing cars and a bus. Two police officers suffered minor injuries. Police restored order quickly.

Earlier Tuesday, soldiers from the IDF's Yoav Unit, Border Police and Israel Police forces were providing security at a JNF-KKL ceremony near the Bedouin village Mulada when rioting broke out. At least 18 suspects were arrested and brought in for questioning for allegedly throwing rocks at the security forces.

Video: Israel Police

A group of several dozen young Bedouin attacked Haaretz reporter Nati Yefet after he arrived at Segev Shalom to cover the rioting. Although Yefet presented his press pass, about 20 Bedouin attacked him, stole his car, and set it on fire. Police extracted Yefet, who was uninjured.

After the Bedouin violence on Tuesday were determined to be expressions of ethno-nationalism, the Shin Bet security agency was assigned to investigate who placed the rocks on the railway tracks. If the train had derailed, it could have caused a mass-casualty event.

Hamas, like it did during the Arab Israeli rioting in May 2021 during Operation Guardian of the Walls, tried to fan the flames of the violence on Tuesday. The organization put out a message of congratulations "to our people in the Negev who are rising up against the Zionist oppression and aggression. Do not let our people in the Negev deal with the occupation on their own. All our people 'inside occupied Palestine' [a term the organization uses for Israel] must be with them.

"The occupation should think 1,000 about the idea of harming the land, the people, and the holy sites. The time has come for the occupation to pay a price for its presence and aggression in our land," Hamas said.

Housing and Construction Minister Zeev Elkin said Wednesday in an interview to Kan Radio that "We will continue to plant trees, like we should. Today is the last day of this [tree-planting] round. There has been a very cynical attempt by Netanyahu and his people to exploit this event and upset people. The previous government stopped tree planting because of political pressure."

Elkin said, "We will handle the political problem. I understand the pressure that the Bedouin public is putting on Ra'am. These are state-owned lands. I'm in favor of solving the problems through dialogue, and that is the line [Ra'am leader Mansour] Abbas is taking, which I welcome."

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Head of the Omer Local Council near Beersheba Pini Badash said he expected the violence on Tuesday to "develop into something bigger, a real intifada. The government has started to give in. They gave them a finger, now they want the whole hand.

"It started with three Bedouin communities for development. Something that was supposed to help everyone. But they have started crossing all the lines – the government needs to say, no more," Badash said.

"The government of change is committed to solving the Bedouin problem and regulating the Negev. Politicians from all sides should calm things down rather than fan the flames. I condemn the violence at the site and support the police actions to restore order," Lapid said.

Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel said, "The Negev rioting must not be met with forgiveness. The big lie making rounds here in the past decade, the lack of governability in the Negev and Galilee and the ineffectuality under the Likud government, are not an excuse. We are in power and we have no possibility other than to restore sovereignty to the Negev."

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu called on Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to condemn what he described as "incitement" from the Ra'am party.

"No one will stop trees from being planted in Israel. I give my full support to the security forces and demand that Bennett issue an immediate condemnation of the Ra'am incitement," Netanyahu said.

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In honor of the anniversary of the passing of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council recently decided to build a new promenade in his memory along the path that the late leader would walk on his way from his cabin to the Midreshet Ben-Gurion (Sde Boker) school.

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The Tourism Ministry and the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council have laid the cornerstone for the project under the auspices of the "Southern Product" tourism project, which the Tourism Ministry is promoting through the Dead Sea Preservation Government Company Ltd.

The Ben-Gurion Promenade is planned to extend some three and a half kilometers (2.1 miles) that Ben-Gurion would traverse daily. The path ends at his final resting place. The walkway is slated to include a number of design elements that point to Ben-Gurion's personal, group, and family activities. Each of the stops will include a shaded resting place, a water fountain, and explanatory signs.

Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov said "I am happy about having the privilege to lay the cornerstone of this historic promenade, and thereby take another step toward making David Ben-Gurion's dream of making the desert bloom into a reality."

Ramat Hanegev Regional Council head Eran Doron said, "Apart from the physical steps, we are without a doubt asking to commemorate the path of his values."

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A horrifying rape of a 10-year-old girl at her Negev home in the middle of the night and a recent breach of the perimeter of Nevatim Air Force Base by a suspected thief fleeing the police have prompted renewed discussion about the lawlessness in southern Israel. But these two cases are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to break-ins by members of the Bedouin community in recent weeks. It seems they are becoming more audacious and taking bigger risks than they used to.

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This is a quick run-down of the last few weeks of criminal events in the Negev: On Jan. 2, more than 90,000 bullets were stolen from a bunker at an IDF training base at Tze'elim – over a ton of ammunition that was taken in a sophisticated, well-organized operation. On Jan. 6 a vehicle was stolen from the Tze'elim parking lot, caught by security camera. A tracking device helped police locate the vehicle near the Bedouin village Bir Hadaj. On Jan. 17, a group of Bedouin were arrested for throwing rocks at Tze'elim base, and on Jan. 20 a drill at the base was halted because Bedouin had penetrated the range of live fire. On Feb. 3 communications equipment were stolen from a container at Tze'elim. On Feb. 5, general military equipment was stolen during break-in at the Natan Camp near Beersheba; and on Feb. 7 more ammunition was stolen from the Sde Teiman Base. During the last incident, the thieves throw a stun grenade at the soldiers.

The peak came in the incident at Nevatim, when a suspect who was fleeing police breached the secure Israeli Air Force base and spent hours there. Not only the military is suffering – civilians are increasingly the targets of crime. At the start of this week, the Israel Police reported that it had arrested a ring of suspects responsible a number of break-ins at Israeli homes in the Negev. In one incident, the robbery turned into a sexual assault on a little girl who was asleep in her room

Residents of the Negev are increasingly distressed at the growing crime, and the issue is frequently discussed.

"The feeling is that there is total lawlessness," a number of Negev residents tell Israel Hayom. "If the great IDF can't manage to protest itself, is it any wonder that they [Bedouin criminals] come to private homes and do whatever they want?"

Others lay it out plainly: "There is an atmosphere of degeneration and fear, a feeling that is growing stronger because of the COVID crisis and the sense of uncertainty that is hanging over everyone, anyway."

IDF reservists called up to train in the area express similar feelings.

"I won't drive my car to [reservist] training anymore," says Arik Greenstein, a reservist in the Armored Corps and the leader of a protest movement by reservists who are calling for an end to lawlessness at Tze'elim.

"My friends had cars stolen, and that's just a drop in the bucket. We're helpless against practiced thieves who are just getting more daring. If one guard at night used to be enough, today we need to have four, and even that doesn't help. Their audacity is something else," he says.

Greenstein directs his criticism at the IDF leadership. "Why is the guard on duty always blamed, even though no one gives him the tools to protect himself? Why doesn't the chief of staff grab the commander of Tze'elim and the Southern Command by the ears and scream at them that this situation won't go on? Morale is being hurt. How can we win a war if we can't beat a bunch of thieves?"

A relatively new phenomenon

Discussions with high-ranking officers and older soldiers reveal that crime of this type is a relatively new phenomenon, having popped up in the last two decades. In the past, it was customary to execute an arrest protocol during guard duty at army bases, especially when guarding ammunition stocks. The protocol entails calling upon the suspect to identify themselves, firing shots in the air, and eventually firing at the suspect. The protocol was exercised so frequently that in May 1995 a guard on duty at the ammunition warehouse at a paratroops base at Beit Lid fired at a squad of soldiers heading in his direction during a training drill, killing Lt. Yiftach Ottolenghi. Since then, open-fire protocol has been changed, and guards do not carry out the arrest protocol in cases like these. As incidents began to mount, and public criticism along with them, regulations were changed again in 2017 to allow a guard who spots a real-time theft of weapons to carry out the arrest protocol. However, guards are not allowed to arrest suspects spotted stealing ammunition.

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The Bedouin are worried, too

In an attempt to try and understand what has been happening at Tze'elim Base in the past few years, Israel Hayom spoke with the base's former deputy commander, Col. (res.) Yochai Ben-Yishai, who retired from the army in 2013.

"When I took on the role in 2011, the phenomenon was already at its height," he explains. "Almost every weekend people from the area would go into the area around the bunker [ammunition warehouse], find a spot far away from the guards, and steal whatever they could," he says. The bunker was outside the base, and even though a smart fence had already been built around the base itself, the ammunition was exposed.

The first thing Ben-Yishai did was take action to "stop the bleeding."

"When I understood it, I brought in an excavator to dig a deep channel around the bunker. I said, first of all, I'll solve the problem so it won't happen on my watch, and it really did lower the number of break-ins, but I knew it wasn't a long-term solution. It was clear that it wasn't a real solution," he says.

In attempt to find a more comprehensive solution, Ben-Yishai set up meetings with everyone involved.

"I went to the headquarters of the IDF ground forces and we held a meeting with all the officials: the commander of the Southern District for the Israel Police, representatives of the public prosecutors, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the INPA's open spaces 'green patrol' and anyone who was involved in the slightest. We said, 'Guys, this is a problem. What do we do?'"

But Ben-Yishai discovered he was on his own. "I realized that no one wanted to help. Everyone would only bring up 'no's'. The public prosecutors said not to open fire and explained why not. The police said they had no personnel. The bottom line is, it didn't work. In the end, you find yourself standing on a hilltop alone and everyone tells you, 'Deal with it.' It's total lawlessness, all the authorities shrug it off."

So what should be done? According to Ben-Yishai, "The IDF should reinstate the use of the arrest protocol for every theft of weapons or breach of military areas. You can't have a situation in which people climb into a tank. You can't have a situation in which they go into a company tent and get into a fight with soldiers. Next, people will wind up being killed. Apart from that, the police and the public prosecutors should take a different approach. Governability can be restored quickly."

Like the IDF soldiers serving in the area and residents of Jewish communities in the Negev, Bedouin residents are also worried about the situation.

"What is happening is very sad. We absolutely condemn it," Staff Sgt. (res.) Salama Adisan, a village elder from Bir Hadaj, tells Israel Hayom. "We are against the young people stealing and committing crimes, it goes against our values."

The IDF is working to contain the problem

Adisan says that the problem is that other than enforcement, the government does not have any solutions for the distress of the Bedouin the Negev. "If I don't cause the population to trust me as a leader, I can't be a leader," he says.

"When they come to demolish someone's home and no one listens to [them], I'm not building trust among the residents and I can't promote anything. The government knows how to enforce among us, but not how to take care of us. I call on the state of Israel to listen to us. Have a round table, meet us halfway and find solutions to these problems," he adds.

The IDF, meanwhile, sees the need to contain base breaches as a top priority. In January, surprise visits were conducted at 52 camps to assess their state of readiness and the IDF's ability to defend the camps. Among other things, the inspections looked at how well the camps were defended against theft. In addition, the military is also investing considerable resources in technology initiatives that include a project to protect IDF weapons and ammunition stores and smart arsenals.

In response to the claims voiced in this article, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said, "All the incidents described are being thoroughly investigated and handled by all the relevant authorities, along with the Military Police, which investigates each case separately. The ID takes these incidents seriously, and therefore Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi convenes the General Staff once a month to discuss containing incidents of theft, with an emphasis on theft of weapons and ammunition from IDF bases. As part of the actions the IDF is taking to strengthen base security, in 2017 the open-fire protocol was changed. The change was made allows guards to arrest suspects caught taking weapons."

The Israel Police said in response: "As part of the ongoing fight against property crimes in the area, the police are working every day of the year to carry out increased enforcement, both open and hidden, against gangs and criminals, in cooperation with all the relevant authorities."

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Prior to the vandalism, the site, a small fort which served as a way station for travelers on ancient trade roads, had already suffered from neglect and damage. Hikers tossed away litter and lit campfires in the structure's chambers, and broke the arches that had held up the building's roof.

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The graffiti was the last straw. Archaeologists teamed up with the IAA's educational center in the Negev to organize volunteers to clean up the site. Instructors from BeYachad Academy in Yeroham, as well as other local residents, removed the graffiti, weeded, and collected trash, and in return were treated to a mini-seminar about the site and the finds that have been dug up there.

One of the BeYachad staff said, "It's very moving to help preserve the site. Taking part in cleaning and refurbishing the post was an opportunity to learn about it up close, and feel a connection with it."

The IAA is hoping that the city will adopt the site and hold activities and volunteer maintenance days there on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, the IAA's Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit is trying to track down the vandals.

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