Potential impact could be far-reaching

Potential impact could be far-reaching Bustan is well known in the Negev, particularly for its Children’s Power Project, which distributes solar-powered medical equipment to disabled children lacking access to the electricity necessary to power the equipment.

Al-Mickawi and Shepon see themselves as facilitators and hope that the future of Qasr al-Sir will be in the hands of its residents. However, as committed environmentalists, they both want to preserve the Negev’s ecological balance.

Shepon, for one, would be happy if the youth were to return in force to agriculture, using modern methods: “I’d like to see a self-sufficient agricultural unit which uses and reuses resources, married to traditional Bedouin techniques,” he says.

For example, suggests Shepon, instead of washing all their clothes by hand, as they do now, Bedouin housewives could have washing machines and use the resulting “gray water” for agricultural purposes, inmuch the same way as they use wash water today.

Al-Mickawi agrees: “I can see a situation where residents of a solid mud hut are watching a 50 inch TV hanging on their wall.”

“We’ve been in touch with other communities in the Negev, like kibbutzim, who have similar problems,” Al-Mickawi says. “We’re not necessarily interested in politics, but I see our success as having a large potential impact – on the Negev, and beyond.”