Page 12 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

Arabian Studies IV
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mechanised, whether it be cultivating, harvesting
or transport. The administration of the project stipulated that the
Bedouin work for a period of two years as a labourer, following
which he would, as I have said, receive an agricultural unit. A large
number of Bedouin joined these projects as labourers, in the hope
of acquiring possession of the agricultural units. They left their
families in the desert, their natural habitat, and completed two
years of training and practice. Then commenced the second phase,
the distribution of the units. The poorer Bedouin were set aside
and the agricultural units handed over to the Shaykhs and their
sons, or to persons of rank and authority close to the responsible
officials or supported by a senior official. The Administration
however, far from immediately dashing the hopes of the Bedouin,
even added to its promises to them, maintaining that they would
receive the agricultural units at the first opportunity, and that they
would only have to wait a few months until the land was reclaimed
and distributed along with houses constructed for them. They
waited months—then years.
They waited on with disaster looming ahead of them. With the
sad heart of a Bedouin who witnessed the tragedy, actually living
with it as an official in hope and expectation, I tell of the tragedy
of the destruction of the life of the Bedouin, their customs, and
their traditions inherited from their fathers and fore-fathers.
Firstly, relying on the promises made by the State, the Bedouin
took to selling their camels and sheep in preparation for the move
to settled life. Thus they lost their greatest asset which had been
their pride, and which at the same time ensured the supply of their
needs in the way of food, drink, transport, even wealth. In this way
they lost all means of existence of the Badiyah.
Secondly, when, as a result of this they abandoned the desert
with tears in their eyes, they stuck close by the projects, settling by
them in the expectation of receiving their agricultural units. Some
continued to live in ‘houses of hair’ (tents), then some built a
simple house of two or three rooms in places allocated to them by
the State, while others built such houses at their own expense, but
these were few in number. The majority borrowed the money from
l".e Agricultural Loans Foundation (Mufassasat al-Aqrad al-
Zira lyyah) which welcomed them with open doors.
During this phase (the phase of transfer of the Bedouin from the
aesert to the settlement projects), the State realised its inability to
continue these projects because of the immense costs involved, as
riri fSttn account of a succession of falls in aid extended by the
Min lP,°°re,r countries and, furthermore, the soaring prices of
building materials in all countries of the world. The State had no