Trading spaces

Israel: Kicked from Gaza, where do settlers go? To the Negev, where Israel will add billions and subtract Bedouins to make it livable | Jill Nelson

Sultan Abu Obiad is still waiting for the plot of land he bought 45 years ago in Israel's southern Negev desert. He lives in a temporary home with his wife and their seven children—the same home he's lived in since 1975. The dream he had as an 18-year-old of owning his own home diminishes each year as he witnesses the demolition of Bedouin homes in surrounding villages—a fate he knows could one day be his: "The government can come at any time and demolish our home. You feel that you are living in the air."

Arab Bedouins aren't the only people in Israel to be forced from their homes. In August, Israeli Defense Forces removed approximately 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in an effort by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to jumpstart stagnant peace negotiations that center on future Palestinian statehood. Removing the Jewish presence from the Gaza Strip was one step toward that process.