The battle for governance in the Negev: Legal counsel delays government measures

The legal counsel to the government is blocking a key component in the struggle to restore governance in the Negev: the revocation of status for individuals born in Bedouin families to mothers from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This phenomenon, linked to cultural practices and polygamy, has led to an increasing number of Bedouins marrying Palestinian women. As a result, an entire generation is growing up with a Palestinian identity while holding full Israeli citizenship.

We already witnessed the alarming results during Operation Guardian of the Walls, and the Rifman Institute warns that the situation could deteriorate further: according to the institute's data, by 2050, approximately 40% of the Bedouin in the Negev will have a "Palestinian affinity," effectively meaning the State of Israel is losing the Negev. Last September, the government decided to establish an inter-ministerial team to combat "Palestinization" and polygamy in the Negev. The team recommended drastic measures: the revocation of social rights and residency status for children born in such polygamous marriages to eliminate incentives for Palestinian immigration into Israel.

Conversely, the legal counsel is delaying the implementation of these recommendations, citing human rights concerns and international conventions to which Israel is a signatory. Sources within the inter-ministerial team criticized this stance in a conversation with News 14:

"The Ministry of Justice is clinging to legal excuses that demand granting these children full benefits at the state's expense, demonstrating a complete detachment from the strategic reality on the ground. It is unacceptable for Israel to fund and legitimize legal loopholes that turn the Negev into the Gaza Strip."

Hagai Reznik, head of the Rifman Institute, addressed the matter with an urgent appeal:

"I call on the inter-ministerial team to present the work on severing the affinity between the Palestinian entity and the Negev. The legal counsel must withdraw its objections. Ultimately, if a universal value and a state value collide, the state value must prevail. We must protect the State of Israel; if we do not stand for the Negev, the State of Israel will not stand."

The legal counsel to the government responded:

"The inter-ministerial team operates under the leadership of the Director General of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and receives ongoing legal advice from the Ministry's legal bureau. Representatives of the legal counsel to the government are not members of the team. To our knowledge, the team has not yet formulated final recommendations, and no legal review has been conducted at the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. After an initial draft of the report was submitted for our review, it was agreed that a legal opinion would be formulated by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and coordinated with the legal counsel to the government—a step that has not yet occurred."