Today (May 16), the Israel Police and General Security Service (Shabak) announced the capture and arrest of a crime and terror cell from the Bedouin town Bir Hadaj in the Negev. All five suspects have been charged with damaging the IDF’s security installations on the Israel-Egypt border in order to facilitate their drug-smuggling operation.
Regavim would like to remind the public: Bir Hadaj has long been the crime and drugs capital in the Negev. We’ve reported on bands of marauders from Bir Hadaj who infiltrate the IDF base at Tze’elim, stealing everything they can get their hands on, from weapons and ammunition to the personal belongings and private cars of soldiers serving on the base. We’ve reported on the hothouses that have sprung up on the training grounds at Tze’elim, where a well-known crime family from Bir Hadaj has been growing marijuana – an operation exposed by Regavim’s hidden camera. The theft and vandalism that has battered nearby Kibbutz Revivim also originates in Bir Hadaj.
Let’s also not forget that most of the houses of Bir Hadaj were built illegally, on Jewish-owned land that was seized by force. “The lawful owners of the land, represented by Regavim’s legal department, petitioned the District Court as well as the Supreme Court, but their land has not been returned to them.”
