Bedouin may be aiding terrorists

Security forces band together to root out potential terror activity among Bedouin towns in Negev desert and stop smuggling of weapons from Egypt and Jordan into Israel and the Palestinian territories
By Ronny Sofer

TEL AVIV - The Shin Bet security service has intensified activity in the Bedouin community to prevent terror cells from developing in that sector, and aims to push for a joint effort by the police and the military to stop weapons-smuggling to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

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“We have no doubt this is a serious danger that we must fight with all available tools,” a security official from the Israel’s southern region told Ynet. “ If we don’t fight it now, it could mean the deaths of innocent people.”

Gunrunners have upped their activities in recent months, smuggling arms across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders into southern Israel.

Many nomadic Bedouin Arabs followed Israeli forces from the Sinai peninsula when it was returned to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David peace accord, and have since integrated into Israeli society while building and maintaining their individual communities.

Israeli forces caught several Bedouin groups in the Negev desert in recent years on suspicions of planning terror attacks and supporting Palestinian terrorist groups.

The escalation of Shin Bet activity in the Bedouin community is part of a plan by new intelligence head Yuval Diskin to prevent the sector from adopting extreme anti-Israel attitudes.

“The Bedouin sector is in dire straights, and very bitter over a series of land disputes,” Diskin told the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee on May 17. “There are strong feelings of alienation, and certain areas of the Negev Desert have become, in effect, extra-territorial regions of the State of Israel.

Contacts with terrorists

Some groups have maintained direct contact with Islamic Jihad and Hamas cells in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Four Bedouin residents of the Negev were arrested and charged last month with aiding an enemy during wartime, intention to commit treason, intention to commit a crime and possession of war materials.

Egyptian security forces have also arrested several Bedouin they suspect had smuggled in weapons and explosives that were used in a double bombing of two Red Sea reports in October that killed 32 people, including many Israelis, and have accused others of sheltering terrorists.

“This is fertile ground for a deteriorating situation. There is no law enforcement, gun smuggling continues. It is a critical issue and the Shin Bet will do everything it can to deal with it,” Diskin said.

Since taking office, Diskin has expanded cross-agency security cooperation in the southern region, and says that only a joint effort by police, border police and the IDF can help curb the problem.

“Our strength lies in preventing radical elements in the Bedouin community from inflaming the situation, whether crime-related or terror-related. The war on terror is a joint project. If we join forces, we can prevent a dangerous escalation in the Bedoin community in the Negev,” said a senior officer in the southern district.

The Shin Bet commander said forces aimed to stop weapons-smuggling into Israel and into the Palestinian Authority and to prevent the development of home-grown Bedouin terror cells.