Alex Masi

Bedouin women are studying Arabic in a charity-run local school in the unrecognised village of Gasar Al Sar, close to BeerSheva, in the Nevev Region of Israel. Women that have dropped school to get married even at the early age of 15, they are now having lessons imparted to them by local volunteers, in a way to educate and empower them. Poor education between the local Bedouin communities is considered one of the causes of their scarce achievements in fighting the Government back in their land expropriation policies. Numbering around 200.000 in Israel, the Bedouins constitute the native ethnic group of these areas, they farm, grow wheat, olives and live in complete self sufficiency. Many of them were in these lands long before the Israeli State was created and their traditional lifestyle is now threatened by subtle Governmental policies. The seven Bedouin towns already built are all between the 10 more impoverished towns in Israel..