The state's current plans for attracting people to move to the Negev will have little effect on the southern region, according to Dr. Oren Yiftachel, a geographer from Be'er Sheva's Ben-Gurion University.
Yiftachel and several other urban-planning experts fear that even the plan to transfer some of the Israel Defense Forces' large bases down south will not benefit the Negev's largest city, or its large population of people under the poverty line. The communities that stand to gain most from the IDF move - and from the large contingent of career officers who are expected to relocate to the Negev as a result - are smaller, richer ones like Lehavim, Meitar and Omer, according to Yiftachel.
