Elite Bedouin Trackers Eliminate Israel's Northern Border Threats

The Northern Bedouin Tracking Unit commanded by Lt. Col. Majdi Mazarib protects Israel from kidnapings, infiltrators and 100,000 rockets.

A special unit in the Israeli army comprised solely of Bedouin trackers is keeping Israel’s northern border safe.

The Northern Bedouin Tracking Unit commanded by Lt. Col. Majdi Mazarib protects Israel from kidnapings, infiltrators and 100,000 rockets, among myriad other threats emanating from Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist organization.

Speaking in Arabic, Lt. Col. Mazarib tells an interviewer in a video piece on his unit, “From Israel’s founding, the Bedouin community has chosen to volunteer and serve in the IDF, and actively participate in founding the country.”

The unique skills of a Bedouin tracker are unmatched anywhere else in the region, and cannot be duplicated by technology – a fact the IDF understands and accepts.

“Without the Bedouin, Israel would not be able to properly protect its borders,” the commander adds.

Bedouin are not obligated to serve in the IDF, though they volunteer in large numbers.

“The skills that they possess are unique” and the Bedouin soldiers are essential to the protection of Israel, notes the report on the unit posted this week on the IDF Blog.

“I am Israeli, and proud to be an Israeli Arab and to serve in the IDF,” Lt. Col. Mazarib says.

Thanks for posting. I just looked up the history of the Bedouin people on Wikipedia. There's a surprising number of Bedouin in Israel. I'd forgotten it was Bedouin shepherds who discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. Wikipedia says the majority of Bedouin are Shia Islam and Sunni Islam while small numbers are Christian. It makes no mention of Jewish Bedouin.

Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, when the Negev became part of Israel, an estimated 65,000–90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev. According to Encyclopedia Judaica, 15,000 Bedouin remained in the Negev after 1948; other sources put the number as low as 11,000.[58]
In 1999, 110,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev, 50,000 in the Galilee and 10,000 in the central region of Israel.[59]
All of the Israeli Bedouin were granted Israeli citizenship in 1954.[60]
The Bedouin who remained in the Negev belonged to the Tiaha confederation[61] as well as some smaller groups such as the 'Azazme and the Jahalin. After 1948, some Negev Bedouins were displaced. The Jahalin tribe, for instance, lived in the Tel Arad region of the Negev prior to the 1950s. In the early 1950s, the Jahalin were among the tribes which, according to Emmanuel Marks, "moved or were removed by the military government."[62] They ended up in the so-called E1 area East of Jerusalem.
About 1,600 Bedouin serve in the Israel Defense Forces, many as trackers in the IDF's elite tracking units.[63]
Famously, Bedouin shepherds were the first to discover the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts from antiquity, in the Judean caves of Qumran in 1946. Of great religious, cultural, historical and linguistic significance, 972 texts were found over the following decade, many of which were discovered by Bedouins.

The Bedouin have historically been very good citizens. I used to play football, all the time, with local Bedouin kids growing up.

Now that their way of life is changing due to metropolitization, they are not as good as they used to be. Wards of the state with all the normal problems of wards of the state.

Thanks SJackson.

Speaking in Arabic, Lt. Col. Mazarib tells an interviewer in a video piece on his unit, “From Israel’s founding, the Bedouin community has chosen to volunteer and serve in the IDF, and actively participate in founding the country.” ...Bedouin are not obligated to serve in the IDF, though they volunteer in large numbers... “I am Israeli, and proud to be an Israeli Arab and to serve in the IDF,” Lt. Col. Mazarib says.

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