Qasr al-Sir

Qasr al-Sir lies approximately seven kilometers northwest of Dimona, as described in 2006.[5] Its administrative designation in the 2021 locality file places it in the Southern District, Beersheba subdistrict, and Neve Midbar Regional Council, with locality code 1347.[4]

The village appears under several transliterations, including Qasr A-Sir, Qasr a-Seir, and Kasr Alsir.[5][4][6] It is labeled on a map titled “Bedouin Deployment in the Negev,” dated May 20, 2019.[8] A 2026 list of localities covered by educational reopening guidance also places Qasr al-Sir within the Neve Midbar Regional Council.[2]

In 2004, Qasr al-Sir appeared in a list of Bedouin villages characterized at that time as unrecognized.[9] It was subsequently listed among 11 villages incorporated into the Abu Basma Regional Council, which was established in 2005.[6] The other villages listed were Abu Krinat, Bir Hadaj, Mar’it, Dreijat, Umm Batin, Molada, Al-Sayyid, Al-Atrash, Makhul, and Trabin al-Sana.[6] By 2006, Qasr al-Sir was described as recently recognized.[5]

The government allocated NIS 470 million for development projects across the Abu Basma Regional Council.[6] Approximately 25,000 Bedouin were reported to live in the council’s newly recognized settlements collectively; neither that population total nor the development allocation was specific to Qasr al-Sir.[6] The village was listed within Neve Midbar Regional Council in the 2021 locality file and again in educational guidance reporting in 2026.[4][2]

During Operation Protective Edge, a rocket fired from Gaza struck Qasr al-Sir, killing 32-year-old Oudi Lafi al-Waj and wounding three members of his family, including two children.[10] In the broader context of protection for unrecognized Bedouin villages, the High Court ruled that the level of risk did not justify providing portable shelters at the expense of higher-risk areas.[10]

The 2021 locality file recorded 2,731 residents in Qasr al-Sir, including 2,730 Arabs and one person in the statistical category “Jews and others.”[4] A separate preliminary estimate for the end of November 2021 gave a population of 2,703.58.[11]

Earlier population snapshots included approximately 2,500 Bedouin residents in 2006 and a figure of 2,302 in a locality table published in 2020.[5][12] The 2020 table also recorded zero confirmed COVID-19 cases in the village at the time of that publication.[12]

In 2006, residents obtained water from a Mekorot pipeline and paid water bills, but homes lacked grid electricity despite power lines passing overhead.[5] Generators supplied public buildings, while an open sewage drain carried raw waste from Dimona.[5] Children traveled several kilometers to attend school because the village had no local school at that time.[5]

A resident interviewed in 2006 said that 15 young women from the village were studying at Ben-Gurion University.[5] He described difficulties applying for employment or further study without mail delivery, computers, or a fax machine.[5] A red mailbox had been installed about a year earlier, but, in his words, “No one has ever had the keys”; he called it “a monument.”[5]

In May 2024, hundreds of Arab and Jewish youths participated in a unity march from Al-Hushla school to the village’s main boardwalk.[3] Organizers included AJEEC-NISPED, the Scouts, Arab schools, Neve Midbar Regional Council, and the Education Ministry.[3] Activities, performances, and discussions accompanied the march, and students placed handprints on a white cloth as a “sign of hope.”[3]

A solar-and-storage installation west of Qasr al-Sir was among four northern Negev projects described in November 2023 as planned on land belonging to Bedouin families.[13] The proposed installation combined roughly 20 megawatts of solar generation with 88 megawatt-hours of storage.[13] Marom Energy invited electricity suppliers to bid for electricity from the four facilities under 15-year arrangements; the Qasr al-Sir-area project was still presented as planned rather than operational.[13]

Al-Hushla school and Qasr al-Sir’s main boardwalk were the starting and ending points of the May 2024 unity march, where participants joined activities, performances, and discussions.[3] West of the village, a roughly 20-megawatt solar installation with 88 megawatt-hours of storage was described in 2023 as planned rather than operational.[13]

A 2014 account of the Washleh land case described a Supreme Court decision rejecting a tribe’s ownership claim at Qasr al-Sir based on continued use and cultivation.[7] The court’s reasoning included the land’s distance from a recognized village, its long-desolate condition, its classification as mawat, the absence of registration in the tribe’s name, and the absence of a claim in its name during the 1921 British land survey.[7]

In 2022, a government plan proposed demolishing nearby Ras Jrabeh, incorporating its land into Dimona, and moving its residents to Qasr al-Sir.[1] More than 100 Ras Jrabeh households appealed the plan in the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on May 22–23, and the appeal remained pending at year’s end.[1] UN human rights experts called on the government to halt the process on June 3.[1]