A shift to the Negev on the election day

We were in two settlements of unrecognized villages around Lahav forest.

The first settlement consists of two large black Bedouin families: The Abu Mansour family and the Al Abed family. We knocked on the doors of the tin huts in hope of persuading the women to go and vote. Except in one case all the women spoke Hebrew and were very happy to meet us and even admired the fact that we had arrived. Some are most impressive women. For example Samira, who has a bachelor's degree in behavioral science and cannot find work. She studied at the Open University, raising five children and everything is spotless. They receive their water from Kibbutz Lahav and electricity is from solar panels. They promised that they would go to vote.

Then we moved to the other side of Route 6 under the bridge near the Route 6 store of building materials and there we met the members of the tribe of al Ranam. A mother (about our age) a widow who raised her children alone and is proud of them. Today are subcontractors of the Israel Pathways Company. We have seen well-maintained homes and they are also unrecognized. To our surprise, at the first door we opened they said that they had already voted and the rest would go later.

Let's hope we wake up tomorrow to the dawn of a new day with better promises .....