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Jiftlik, Jordan Valley by Shimi Cohen

What at first glance looks like a circus tent, at second glance looks like an animal farm, and at third glance, in the light of the laundry hanging outside and the cheers of the girls heard inside, realize that people live here, and that the huge black tent is actually their home.

A Bedouin is a person who lives in the desert "Badia" and hence his name Bedouin. The Bedouin live the simple life in the desert, a life in which routine hardly changes.

Such as: returning the herds, camels, horses, living in a tent and a nomadic life.

Keeping the herds is an integral part of the Bedouin lifestyle because it is actually the backbone economically, and the Bedouin have no intention of doing more than that because the desolate desert land does not allow for agricultural cultivation and therefore the Bedouin are not proficient in agriculture.

The Bedouin made a living from his various flocks such as the meat, milk and hairs of the goats and the roads he made the tent, and his clothes (the abaya), and weaved the areas on which he sat.

The desert life and its conditions forced the Bedouin to wander from place to place, in search of pasture and water sources for his various herds in the desert area.

He therefore adapted to an irregular lifestyle without deviating or invading any other area outside the desert area, and all the Bedouin’s wanderings were solely within the boundaries of the desert.

This adaptation shaped the Bedouin as a person facing difficult situations because he had to take care of himself, and his family, his herds and establish the pasture he sought.

He invented sophisticated methods to deal with desert "animals, cooking, medicine, exploration and navigation."

All these made of the Bedouin a man with a sharp eye and a sharp mind who took advantage of him in dealing with the desert. The camel and the horse are an indispensable part of the Bedouin's life, he uses them to wander from place to place.

A large part of the Bedouin left the desert for many reasons, so some of them had to live a permanent life on the new territories that were allotted to them.

They moved from the desert to fertile land and had to become farmers in order to cope with their new way of life.

In Israel, the Bedouin go through a new settlement process in villages planned and prepared mostly by the authorities.

Since the establishment of the state, the Bedouin have stopped wandering and started a new life that is not similar to the life of the Bedouin in the desert, although the tendency remains to love the tent and the horse which symbolize the Bedouin's pride alongside the Bedouin's courtesy and preservation of its tradition.