Chaos in southern Israel poses security risks amid lack of police, rampant crime & polygamy, comptroller warns

The Israeli state is losing control over the Negev desert, which includes around half of the country’s territory, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warned in a worrying report published on Tuesday.

Problems mentioned in the report include general lawlessness that also poses significant security risks to IDF bases in the area, growing cooperation with Palestinian terror groups, as well as cultural issues like widespread polygamy, all of which become worse since a previous report published five years ago.

Most of the problems highlighted by Englman are connected to the growing population of Arab Bedouins in the area, of whom around 70,000 to 90,000 of them living in unrecognized, illegal settlements scattered across the landscape.

“Time is passing, and the window of opportunity to regulate the settlement of this population is closing, while at the same time the conflict between this population and the state is deepening as a result of the phenomenon of ‘Palestinization,'” Englman warned.

He urged the prime minister to “appoint a coordinating government authority to formulate a comprehensive policy to strengthen governance in the Negev, and grant it the authority and tools to ensure that government bodies implement it.”

At the base of the problems lies a general lack of law enforcement and state attention to the area. Englman noted that most police stations are short-staffed, highlighting the example of two stations where, taken together, there were at least 41 fewer officers than necessary.

This enables well-known phenomena like dangerous driving or the demanding of protection money, with Englman writing that “contractors are forced to pay huge sums for ‘security’ that does not actually exist — and suffer extortion through threats and theft of equipment and inventory from construction sites ... [while] they are afraid to file complaints.”

Another infamous problem is the widespread polygamy among Bedouins, with the report highlighting that “the main victims of polygamy are women and children.” This is also often exploited by the husbands who receive the significant sums of money the National Insurance Institute pays to the “single mothers” and their numerous children.

However, the most serious issues concern security matters. The domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, estimates that about 22% of the Bedouin population in the Negev identifies itself as “Palestinian,” raising the danger that the lawlessness, lack of enforcement, and close proximity to sensitive military bases are exploited for terrorism.

Englman explained that what he called “Palestinization” stems, among other things, from marriages between men from the Negev and Palestinian women, the large number of illegal residents and the absence of effective monitoring and registration mechanisms at crossings between Israel and Palestinian-ruled areas in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.

Infiltrations into bases and live-fire zones, as well as thefts of ammunition and weapons, have been widespread for years. This also fostered “various types of criminal activity, such as the establishment of greenhouses for growing cannabis and the seizure and cultivation of land without approval,” according to the report.

In the proximity of Nevatim Air Force base, located 15 kilometers (about nine miles) east-southeast of Beersheba, Bedouins have thrown tires and stones onto the access roads, damaging its perimeter electronic fence, and while stone throwing at military vehicles or infiltrations into the base itself have subsided, Englman noted: “There has been a substantial increase in shooting incidents near the base and even spillover of gunfire into its territory. In one case, the wing of an aircraft was hit by gunfire.”

Illegal villages have also been set up close to the base, “which allows observation of what is happening inside it and could harm information security related to its activity.”

In this context, the report highlighted a recent indictment against a Bedouin who gathered intelligence on the base and photographed fighter jet takeoffs for Iranian intelligence during Operation Rising Lion. Another new and rising danger are drone incursions into the base.

According to him, these incidents lead to the collapse of sewage lines, blockages in collector lines, failures in processes at the wastewater treatment plant and severe damage to existing sewage manholes. In addition, illegal construction and damage to water and sewage infrastructure are taking place in the Negev, as well as the dumping of construction waste, household waste and soil – in quantities several meters high above existing sewage lines – harming public health and the environment.

In conclusion, the report didn’t blame the police alone, but rather demanded a strategic, system-wide response.

The Prime Minister’s Office “must ensure that the coordinating official has the appropriate authorities, see to the preparation of a multiyear national plan with measurable goals for monitoring and addressing the governance problem in the Negev, and ensure greater national attention and focus by all relevant bodies on this serious phenomenon,” the report stated.

Responding to Englman’s report, the IDF emphasized that it has taken measures against the issues mentioned, including a new ground defense system at the Nevatim base and a dedicated unit to combat criminal activity at the Tze’elim base.

The office of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir roundly rejected the report, calling it “tendentious and detached” and accusing it of presenting “distorted and twisted data.”

It instead touted what it called “the revolution led by Ben-Gvir” in the Negev, including “a 195% increase in the number of legal firearms held by civilians; a 13% increase in the number of police officers in the Southern District; from two standby squads in 2022 to 74 standby squads today; a 73% increase in the demolition of illegal structures; and a 317% jump in enforcement and indictments in protection racket offenses.”