Exclusive: Shin Bet chief warns of militarization of Bedouin in the Negev

i24NEWS' Hebrew channel Knesset correspondent, Amiel Yarchi, revealed Tuesday evening, that Shin Bet chief David Zini’s warning about the increased militarization of Bedouins in the Negev.

"There are places in the Bedouin diaspora with military infrastructures where we are constantly thwarting attempts to establish military battalions, a very worrying phenomenon," Zini told the cabinet during a meeting on threats from Gaza and the West Bank.

The warning comes alongside discussions on the strengthening of Hamas in Gaza and a general discussion about terror activities in the West Bank.

"The Shin Bet chief's warning regarding attempts to establish military cells in the Bedouin diaspora should serve as a glaring red flag for the Israeli government and the security establishment," Ofer Winter, chairman of Amcha Israel, said.

"Where is the Prime Minister? Where is the National Secuirty Minister? Armed militias capable of slaughtering Israeli citizens are being established right under your noses. What are you doing about it? The bitter failure to collect weapons in the Arab sector will blow up in our faces," Winter said.

Pro-settler NGO, Regavim, also commented saying, "For years we have been warning about 'Bedouistan', as a developing security threat in the Negev, in areas that have become ex-territorial, and recently even more so, with the increase in smuggling via drones."

"Starting with the practice of polygamy, which imports thousands of women from the West Bank into the Negev, who are traded in the Negev and raise a generation hostile to the State of Israel; through the nationalist radicalization of Islamic elements infiltrating educational and welfare institutions; and up to the enormous quantities of weapons existing in the Negev, alongside additional game-changing weapons that are smuggled nightly across the borders into the country," they added.