Rahat

Rahat (Arabic for “desert dwellers”) is a well-known Bedouin city, home to people of mostly semi-nomadic Arab descent. The city is north of Be’er Sheva, in the northern Negev, between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It holds about 60,000 people the majority of whom are Muslim, as evident in this image from the minarets (“beacons”) of the mosques that are visible along the skyline. In modern Israel, the Bedouins are a recognized minority with equal rights of Israeli Jewish citizens—they vote in Israeli elections and enroll in the Israeli army. Still, many problems remain as to their integration into Israeli society.