Al-Kasom Regional Council

al-Kasom Regional Council (Hebrew: מועצה אזורית אל קסום‎‎, Mo'atza Azorit El Kassum, Arabic: المجلس الإقليمي للالسحرية‎‎, Majlis Iqlimi al Kasom) is one of two Negev Bedouin regional councils formed as a result of the split of the Abu Basma Regional Council on November 5, 2012. Al-Kasom regional council is in the northwestern Negev desert of Israel.

It is made up of seven recognized Bedouin communities: Tirabin al-Sana, Umm Batin, al-Sayyid, Mulada, Makhul, Kukhleh(Abu Rubaiya) and Drijat (Durayjat).

The overall population is over 20,000 (as of June 2013). There are also Bedouin living in unrecognized villages whose exact number is unknown. The al-Kasom Regional Council, as well as Neve Midbar Regional Council are the main arena for the implementation of the Prawer Plan, which was shelved in 2013.

Prior to the establishment of Israel, the Negev Bedouins were a semi-nomadic pastoralist society undergoing a process of sedentariness since the Ottoman rule of the region. During the British Mandate period, the administration did not provide a legal framework to justify and preserve lands’ ownership. In order to settle this issue, Israel’s land policy was adapted to a large extent from the Ottoman land regulations of 1858 as the only preceding legal frame. Thus Israel nationalized most of the Negev lands using the state’s land regulations from 1969 and designated most of it for military and national security purposes.

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