IATF Conference Call: Government Resolution 2397: Socio-Economic Development Plan for Negev Bedouin

On February 12th, the Government of Israel approved Resolution 2397, a new Socio-Economic Development Plan for Negev Bedouin. This is the second five-year economic development plan for Negev Bedouin and, at NIS 3 billion, the largest ever developed for the community. If implemented successfully, the plan stands to be a game changer for the society.

Kher Albaz and Ariel Dloomy, Co-Executive Directors of AJEEC-NISPED, the largest Jewish-Arab NGO in the Negev, joined Task Force members on a conference call to discuss how the plan is being received in the Bedouin community. What are the challenges to successful implementation? How does the plan affect or address the ongoing dispute about land regulation, the most sensitive issues between the Bedouin society and the state?

Click here for a Task Force Briefing Paper on the Government Resolution

This was the second conference call on this plan. The first was with Yariv Man from the Ministry of Agriculture presenting the plan’s goals and specific provisions. Click here for the Ministry’s PowerPoint

About the Speakers
Kher Albaz, Co-Executive Director of AJEEC-NISPED, is a highly trained social worker with a proven expertise in managing large social service and civil society organizations, particularly in the Arab Bedouin communities of the Negev. He has rich experience in group facilitation and cross-cultural mediation, focusing on culturally sensitive issues with attention to Arab-Jewish partnerships. Nationally, Kher has worked in both the public and NGO sectors, serving as a board member of many prominent organizations, including the Abraham Fund Initiative, Desert Stars, Igul Le’Tova (Circle of Good), Midot, Shutafut-Sharakah, and Social Workers for Peace. He is also a member of several government policy development committees. As the Co-Executive Director of AJEEC-NISPED, Kher’s work focuses on creating a world where everyone is accepted and can live in dignity.

Ariel Dloomy, Co-Executive Director of AJEEC-NISPED, has extensive experience in the fields of community development and conflict resolution, and for more than a decade has worked with the Arab Bedouin community of the Negev. He has initiated, developed, and implemented large-scale social and economic development programming within the Bedouin community, as well as with cross-border programs in the Middle East and projects with developing countries. Ariel is Founding Chairman of the Israeli branch of the Society for International Development (SID), a forum of Israeli governmental, corporate, and non-governmental actors in the field of international aid and development. Ariel has authored numerous articles on issues of equality between Jews and Arabs in Israel and peace-building in the Middle East. His articles have been published in diverse Israeli, North American, European and even Iraqi publications. In 2010, Ariel won the JDC Ashalim prize for Excellence in Working with At-Risk Children and Youth in the Negev Bedouin community. He is an alumnus of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London as well as of the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Ariel is fluent in Hebrew, English and Arabic.