Israel<\/a>. Before the state was created, they roamed widely across the Negev desert.<\/p>\nNow, although their villages take up only 2.5% of the land in the region, many are deemed \u201cunrecognised\u201d, targeted by the state for demolition and left without basic services including electricity and water supplies. The majority of the Negev has been designated as military training grounds and firing ranges.<\/p>\n
More than 100,000 people live in about 30 unrecognised communities in the Negev. Another 200,000 live in official towns, or places with some level of recognition.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s pursuit of open-ended regional conflicts also drove Bedouin turnout. War is particularly terrifying in unrecognised villages because the state does not provide them with bomb shelters or warning sirens ahead of rocket, drone and missile attacks.<\/p>\n
Rockets that hit Bedouin villages without shelters killed six of the 36 child victims of the 7 October attacks. Several adults were also killed that day in the villages and at least four people have been seriously injured by Iranian missiles.<\/p>\n
Organised crime is another concern, rising almost unchecked under the current government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had clear goals. Stop the home demolitions, stop the hatred, stop the war. Ben-Gvir talks all the time about security, but we feel no security and no one cares about us,\u201d said Mayada Abu Khweida.<\/p>\n
\u2018Stop the hatred, stop the war\u2019: Mayada Abu Khweida prepares breakfast for a meeting. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
The activists worked to help women understand their rights and tackle logistical and practical obstacles to voting, as well as cultural ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause [residents of unrecognised villages] can\u2019t vote in the municipal elections, a lot of women don\u2019t know they have a right to vote in national elections,\u201d said Abu Khweida. \u201cWe told them: \u2018There is a legal way to express your anger and raise your voice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
For similar bureaucratic reasons, there are no polling stations in unrecognised villages, so voters have to travel to nearby towns. Men went any way they could, including on camel, horse, donkey and bike, on journeys that took up to an hour in each direction.<\/p>\n
Jewish women offered lifts to Bedouin women, but because in 2019 Israel\u2019s election committee ruled that organising transport volunteers was illegal, voters and drivers connected individually.<\/p>\n
\u201cHundreds of women volunteers went to help Bedouin women to access the polls, and at the same time about 150 men went to do protective presence at the polling stations,\u201d said Raluca Ganea, the founding executive director of the Jewish-Arab community action group Zazim.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to have Jewish men standing there to de-escalate, in case there was a rightwing provocation of some kind. So it would not be the Bedouin men in front of the provocateurs, because if the police come or there is violence, they are much more likely to be arrested or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mohammed Abu Khweida outside his cousin\u2019s demolished house in the unrecognised village of Azzarnug. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s racist get-out-the-vote campaign on social media included photos of Bedouin women with their faces covered.<\/p>\n
Some of these women covered their faces to avoid being seen by strangers from outside their own community. In recognised towns, where women could vote in their communities, most did not cover their faces, Alsanah said.<\/p>\n
Others hid themselves to avoid becoming fodder for Ben-Gvir\u2019s extremist social media feed, which regularly features humiliation of Arab citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women were worried the extremists would take photos at the polling stations and covered their faces to protect themselves from being exploited on social media,\u201d Abu Khweida said, adding that his campaign of humiliation has affected all of Bedouin society.<\/p>\n
The grassroots mobilisation of Bedouin voters aimed in part to give children back their dreams, one reason why women responded so strongly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last election in 2022, turnout among women was around 20%. Now in the unrecognised villages, informal data shows more than 60% turnout among women,\u201d Alsanah said, adding that Israel does not break down voting statistics by gender.<\/p>\n
The project built on more than a decade of work with Alnashmiat, based in Arab and Jewish solidarity, that could set an example for a new government, Alsanah said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned an important lesson from this election campaign. We should work together, men and women, Arab and Jewish citizens, and we should bring this approach to the Israeli parliament to rebuild the state.\u201d<\/p>\n