Israeli police forensic investigators arrived a short time ago at the Moshav Nevatim cemetery in the Negev, which was desecrated by Bedouin hoodlums. The youths videoed themselves vandalizing, smashing and desecrating gravestones in the moshav’s cemetery, and uploaded the video to Tik-Tok. This morning, Thursday, complaints were filed with the police by Moshav Nevatim as well as by the Regavim movement, demanding that the vandals be brought to justice. In recent weeks, the fence around the cemetery was spray-painted with Arabic graffiti, and sections of the fence were torn away. Moshav Nevatim in the central Negev, near Be'er Sheva, is surrounded by clusters of illegal Bedouin squatters’ camps, and has suffered for many years from crime, vandalism, burglary and agricultural theft. The moshav itself is protected by a fence and an anti-tank moat, dug to protect it against heavy vehicles - but the cemetery is located outside the moshav, and has been vandalized repeatedly. The most recent incident evidences a serious escalation, with the desecration of tombstones and the brazen publication of video documentation of the crime. "These horrific images are the result of the ongoing lack of governance of the State of Israel in the Negev," says Evyatar David, Regavim’s Field Coordinator for the Southern District. "There is no nice way to say it, and there is no way to whitewash the scope of the problem. We will pursue this case until the criminals are brought to justice."
