By Barak Cohen
On the monument dedicated to Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, is impressed a statement that today, nearly sixty years since the founding of the State, resonates as new: “It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested.”
These famous words provide both a challenge and a vision for Israel’s development. As a resident of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert from 1953 until his death in 1973, Ben Gurion recognized the strategic importance of Israel’s arid south, 60% of the total Israeli landmass. On December 17th, at the Air Force base of Nevatim, military, civilian, and political leaders gathered in recognition of the Negev’s significance still today.
Nevatim was host to the 2007 Army and Society Forum, a conference convened yearly by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) to explore specific areas of interplay between the IDF and Israeli society. The December session focused on the role of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in spearheading the movement of Israeli commerce, industry, and population to the Negev through the relocation of army bases to the region. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi joined more than 65 participants from national and local government, the private sector, academia, and the military in a day of presentations and debate.
As the development of the Negev now occupies a significant place in the strategic planning of the country’s leadership, many other sectors have begun to acknowledge its fertile sands. The Forum sparked impassioned debate on a number of key questions. Should the army be leading the Negev development effort? How might the IDF’s plans clash with that of other segments of the population? How can compromise be reached, linking the interests of the existing population centers, of technological and scientific researchers, of tourism, of water and desert agriculture projects, of educational institutions, and environmental activists?
IDI’s Army and Society Forum provided the platform for a collaborative and candid discussion of Negev development. Industry representatives addressed the challenge of enticing businesses into the desert. Bedouin rights advocates raised the ethical dilemmas posed by moving the Negev’s local Bedouin population (estimated at 155,000 people, with the population doubling every 15 years[1]) into modern towns. Local government expressed the need for national assistance and the creation of incentives for families moving to the Negev. The IDF Director of Human Resources outlined the army’s plan to transfer military personnel serving in the center of the country to bases in the south. Academics wondered who has the capacity and can be entrusted with leading such a long, costly, and complex geographical shift.
In short, the Army and Society Forum established an arena within which the variety of issues surrounding the Negev’s development could be openly debated. The large number of parties adding their voices and ideas to the discourse provide a poignant example of the difficulty of reaching consensus in Israel. However, despite the long road ahead, the sampling of Israeli sectors converging and collaborating in Nevatim is a sure sign of Israel’s healthy democratic spirit.
Making the desert bloom will likely take the combined efforts of national and local government, the military, researchers and policy planners, the Bedouin community, environmentalists, and many others. The “pioneer vigor” and “creativity” that Ben Gurion spoke of certainly exists among them all. Now begins the test of whether they can work together to bring about the realization of this age-old dream.
[1] The fastest growth rate of any population in the world according to demographic studies of the Israel Land Administration.