A regional research and development center for Beduin researchers
opened recently at Hura in the Negev.
Work will be conducted in the fields of desert agriculture,
technology, health, education, culture and economics.
Science and Technology Minister Ghaleb Majadle attended the
dedication ceremony at the center, which is the third in the Arab
sector after those at Shfaram and Kafr Kara in the North.
The new R&D center was established with ministry funding and will be
run by Ahad - Academics for the Advancement of Arab Society in the
Negev, with academic supervision by Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev in Beersheba.
Medical research will include work on genetic and chronic diseases
common in the Beduin community. Agricultural research will focus on
the raising of sheep and cultivation of medicinal herbs in the
desert; and technological research will include solar energy
production. The ministry will finance the center's operations for a
year, after which its achievements will be assessed.
Earlier, Minister Majadle attended the closing ceremony of the
Sci-Tech summer camp for teenagers at the Technion-Israel Institute
of Technology in Haifa. The camp, now marking its 15th year, was
attended by 66 youths, Jewish and Arab, from Israel and abroad. It
had been canceled last year due to the Second Lebanon War.
Majadle praised the camp for bringing youths from diverse backgrounds
together to speak in the language of science. He also said he had set
up a special team to fight the brain drain of Israeli scientists to
other countries.