Position paper [shortened version for English readers] on the Effect of the October 2023 War on the Poor Residing in Israel’s Geographic Periphery, presented to the Special Knesset Committee for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee.

“We are Bedouins; we can subsist on olive oil: We don’t say we don’t have food”: This study addresses food insecurity among Bedouin people living in unrecognized villages in the Negev, following exploratory research conducted in 2022-2023 and an update in the research design after the October 2023 war.

Neglect of residents of the unrecognized villages is outrageous. The security threat prevents Bedouin citizens residing in the Negev from purchasing necessities, thus creating a threat of food insecurity and even hunger, which is liable to exacerbate if the present war continues

The figures presented in the report reflect the first chapters of the story of the epidemic, which is also a story of the widening of inequality in Israel and elsewhere

The story of what happened to Bilal, a teenager from an “unrecognized” village, during the Corona crisis reflects the changes that occurred in the daily lives of young Bedouins living in the Negev. The character is based on the experience of a real person

In the absence of a suitable response, we might find ourselves on the “day after” with a smaller number of unemployed persons but with many more poor and deeper poverty

Corona is so inexpensive that one might think it erases all differences, all gaps. No east or west, no north or south, no up or down. Or is it?