thumb|right|A view of Hura

Hura, or Houra (, ) is a Bedouin town in the Southern District of Israel. It is located near Beersheba and beside the town Meitar. The town was established in 1989 as a part of solution offered by the state for the consolidation of Negev Bedouin population, and was declared a local council in 1996. In it had a population of .

Hura is one of seven Bedouin townships in the Negev desert with approved plans and developed infrastructure (the other six are: Ar'arat an-Naqab (Ar'ara BaNegev), Lakiya, Shaqib al-Salam (Segev Shalom), Kuseife (Kseife), Tel as-Sabi (Tel-Sheva) and the city of Rahat, the largest among them).

History

Prior to the establishment of Israel, the Negev Bedouins were a semi-nomadic society that had been through a process of sedentarization since the Ottoman rule of the region.

During the British Mandate period, the administration did not provide a legal framework to justify and preserve land 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 framework. This enabled Israel to nationalize most of the Negev lands using the state land regulations of 1969.

Israel has continued the policy of sedentarization of Negev Bedouin imposed by the Ottoman authorities, and at first it included regulation and re-location - during the 1950s Israel re-located two-thirds of the Negev Bedouin into an area that was under a martial law.

The next step was to establish seven townships built especially for Bedouin in order to sedentarize and urbanize them by offering them what were stated to be better life conditions, proper infrastructure and high quality public services in sanitation, health and education, and municipal services. This was seen as particularly important since the birth rate of the Bedouin population in Israel is among the highest in the world - it doubles its size every 15 years. Not all Bedouin have agreed to move from tents and structures built on the state lands into permanent apartments prepared for them. Only about 60% of Bedouin citizens of Israel live in permanent planned villages like Hura, while the rest live in what Israel deems illegal homes and settlements spread all over the northern Negev.

Unlike illegal villages with scarce access to water, electricity, and services, which are repeatedly demolished by Israel, Hura provides the residents with all their basic needs and the State encourages scattered Bedouin tribes to settle in Hura by selling them land plots with ready built homes at a nominal cost.

Health care

thumb|Hura medical clinic

There are branches of several health funds (medical clinics) in Hura: Leumit and Clalit as well as several Tipat Halav perinatal babycare centers.

Economy

thumb|Hura school and community center

There is an operating industrial park in Hura with some 60 industrial plots giving jobs to hundreds of village members. It is supposed to be extended in the coming years. thumb|right|Hura's Bezeq Call Center

This industrial park offers employment and output opportunities to the community members who decide to move to Hura.

thumb|Industrial park in Hura

In March 2012, Bezeq launched a women-only call center which supports its internet service division, in an effort to reduce the unemployment rate of Bedouin women. The initial proposal was made by Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor and JDC-Israel.

thumb|right|Catering Women In Hura

In March 2012, the Bezeq telecommunications group in cooperation with the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry launched a new call center inside a Hura mosque as a part of an effort to combat female unemployment in the Negev Bedouin community. It provides assistance to Internet customers. The call center is managed and operated by 50 Bedouin women, mostly from Hura, but is supposed to employ more women in the future.

Community projects

There are several community projects in Hura. Most of them are grass-roots, but supported by the state. Among them - "Women in Hura" (120 local women prepare meals for the schoolchildren) a business that makes an annual revenue of three million dollars, "Green Hura" (NIS 1.5 million shekels invested in planting of greenery and improving the appearance of the village), "Wadi Attir" (a farm for ecological agriculture and tourism), a textile processing, sewing and clothes production course for Bedouin women, and others.

Local government

Mayors

  • Dr. Muhammad Al-Nabari (2005–present)

<gallery mode="packed" heights="140">

File:Hura private.jpg|House in Hura, 2012

File:Hura school1.jpg|One of Hura's schools, 2012

File:Hura school2.jpg|Another school in Hura, 2012

File:ספריית חורה.jpg|A Library in Hura, 2015

</gallery>

See also

  • Arab localities in Israel
  • Negev Bedouin
  • Negev Bedouin women

References

</references>

  • Official municipality website (Hebrew and Arabic)
  • Lands of the Negev
  • Negev presentation
  • Seth Frantzman, Presentation to Regavim about Negev