Environmental Tour



Having been to Israel with regularity since 1970, and having led several tours to Israel and Jordan in recent years, I was beginning to think that I had seen and done most of what responsible tourists should see and do, until the environmental oriented tour I recently took in Israel changed my mind…

By Rabbi Allen B. Bennett

For the first time, we didn't go to any holy sites or archaeological digs. Instead, in a variety of settings, locations, and situations, we met with people, all of whom are actively and passionately involved in the nascent environmental movement in Israel. From meetings in Jerusalem with leaders from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, to urban gardeners, to yeshiva students, to politicians, we met with, discussed, and learned about many of the pressing environmental issues facing Israel as well as about the responses both from the government and the people.


Part of our time was spent in the Negev, a vast area that was treated for many years and maybe still is seen as the “back yard of Israel”. The Negev covers about 60% of the land in Israel with only 10% of the population living there. For many years this part of the country was used as a waste land and for army bases with very little attention given to the population.

One of the biggest social and environmental issues in the Negev is the Bedouins Who have been living in the southern parts of Israel for hundreds of years as a nomadic tribal Arab society. For the Bedouin, the interaction with the western culture and its rules is very challenging. Driving through the Negev, we witnessed a huge mosaic of tents, shacks, camels, minarets of mosques and trash covering vast parts of the land in a very messy and unorganized setting.

It was very interesting to hear totally different perspectives from Bedouin villagers and from Israelis who live in the area. There are over 170,000 Bedouins in the Negev today who are considered Israeli citizens. In the past, the Israeli government built 6 cities for the Bedouin despite the urban nature not fitting needs of the Bedouins, says Ali the Sheikh, or town elder, of “Wadi Num,” one of about 50 unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev.

An unrecognized Bedouin village is a settlement comprised of anywhere from a few to thousands of people. Those villages are not officially recognized or approved by the Israeli government and therefore lack the infrastructure, regional council and any services that cities or villages normally receive.

Ali claims that his forefathers have existed in these unrecognized villages from far before the state of Israel was established. He wants to enjoy all the rights of a Jewish village, but also wants to have some autonomy to be given to the Bedouin to run their villages on their own terms. That, itself, is a challenge as the Bedouins’ terms do not always correspond to the rules of a democracy.

Hearing the perspective of some Jewish residents of the Negev gave us a slightly different picture…The Jews we spoke to agreed that the Bedouin issue is a huge governmental challenge to be dealt with in the Negev, Some of the local Jews claim that the Bedouins have massively increased in population and have expanded their villages since 1948. Due to that population increase, they have illegally settled land that was not theirs. We also heard about theft and some violence by the local Bedouin.

Another more recent issue raised is that the Bedouin are buying Palestinian women from the West Bank and the Gaza strip to marry. Allowing polygamy in their society creates a situation where one family can have over 20 children. With the increasing Palestinian link in Bedouin villages can add a much bigger concern to the social one- a security threat!

On a happier note, I was amazed by the changes and the innovations in the environmental fields I witnessed in the Negev.

The Ramat Hovav industrial area was infamous for emitting toxic pollutats which had an impact on the population in the area and causing environmental damage. Meeting the head of the Sustainable Negev committee with the environmental head of the Bromide factory gave me an interesting view of solving environmental problems in general.

Mrs. Bila Givon has been a pro-environment fighter for years; a recent change in her point of view brought noticeably successful changes in the Ramat Hovav industrial area. “I understood that working together with the polluting bodies would be much more fruitful than trying to shut them down” said Givon.

Creating a special environmental council in this industrial area brought a major decrease in the pollution and converted a lot of factories in the area to become much “greener”, including taking responsibility for all of their sewage and waste treatment.

Last but not least: knowledge was always one of Israel’s more successful “industries”. Visiting an experimental station for producing solar energy was a great proof of that. Using the sun and the vast land of the Negev will make it possible to produce some energy in Israel and even more so in other countries to which the knowledge will be exported.

The days were long and exhausting but there was never a moment when we weren't learning, and that was what I was looking for on this trip.

It was easily one of the most interesting trips I have ever taken in Israel, or perhaps anywhere.

Rabbi Allen B. Bennett
Temple Israel
Alameda, California