"The message is simply to drive safely and be careful, we don't know who is next to us, who is on the right, who is on the left. Anger will not bring back my father, anger will not bring back anyone who was killed in such cases," said Eyal Moshe, son of Nitzan, who was killed in the accident, at the beginning of the week The fatal one together with Anat Tal-Katelev.
The offending driver is a diaspora resident who has never issued a license and was even caught in the past for this offense.
"Drive safely," said the bereaved son, but in the Negev this tip doesn't help, where things don't depend on you.
61% of the fatal accidents in the Negev and 60% of the serious accidents in 2018 occurred with the involvement of drivers from the non-Jewish population.
However, they make up only a tenth of all drivers in the south.
This was stated in the last State Comptroller's report that dealt with governance in the Negev. Lack of governance? Every time this disgusting concept is mentioned in connection with the Negev, it is already understood. But after the particularly sunny weekend - in the Negev there are still eight orphans. Eight people who will forever carry the label This one - that their parent was murdered, not killed; murdered because of a young driver from the diaspora who drove without a license, fast and wildly, and destroyed two families.
"Police are needed."
Fatal car accident on the Arara road, photo: Dodo Greenspan
Terror on the roads
It is likely that every resident of the Negev, or rather, anyone who drives or rides alongside the driver, has often seen in his eyes wild driving by his neighbors in nearby settlements.
The lack of enforcement on Negev roads is simply terrorism - there is no other way to present it.
"Government begins on the roads, every resident of the Negev knows this. There isn't a day that you drive on the road and you don't feel like you're at war - someone is trying to take you down, 'cut' you off; every day there's almost a...", says Eran Doron in a conversation with "Israel Hayom" , the head of the Ramat Negev Regional Council, who has been crying out for years about the situation on the roads in the region, and raises the issue with senior national leadership at every opportunity.
"This is due to the fact that the police are not present - there is no other explanation, they are not present and do not enforce."
Doron explains that there is not even a question of infrastructure here because the accident happened on Route 6, a monitored and safe road: "The best infrastructure (on Route 6), and yet the same driver got behind the wheel and did what he did - literally murdered them. The issue of roads should be the first priority, in front of the cannabis greenhouses. It can't be that on Route 40, when you travel from Be'er Sheva to Mitzpe Ramon, there is no separation fence, no lighting, and no police. In the end, this is about enforcement, they are entrusted with enforcement, so it's very simple. One of these - he has no problem getting on the road, he He could have traveled like this for many years and no one would have had a problem with it. There are no magic solutions - we need police officers.
"Another problem is the Bedouin culture. I expect parents who see their son driving around in a Jeep that costs NIS 800,000 to ask the questions, where did he get such a car, and if the answers do not match, then he should be handed over to the police. But here we are dealing with a situation where society does not condemn the The criminals are closing in. We find ourselves in this situation."
"We are in serious trouble."
Mayor of Dimona Benny Biton, photo: Yossi Zeliger
The mayor of Dimona, Benny Biton, is as pained as the rest of the Negev by the death of Nitzan Moshe and Anat Tel-Katelev on Thursday, but beyond the criticism he understands where the problem stems from: "We have good relations with the Bedouin sector, but regarding road accidents we are in a serious problem - 60 percent of the accidents are theirs, what happened with Nitzan and Anat is really murder - a person who did not have a driver's license and should have been tried this year. I blame the law enforcement agencies.
"The courts work very slowly. The police do an exceptional job, but the time has come for the Israeli government to start giving them resources and standards, and this is no less important than education, it's about human lives.
"It's really Russian roulette. I'm not talking about throwing stones, you can't continue to live with this suffering. They (the Bedouins) want it too, come help us - they tell me. It's time to establish the National Guard," Bitton concludes.
"In moments like these, you mainly think about how to continue from here, what now," says Nitzan Moshe's daughter, Lehi, "Like what life will look like in another year, not this week. Just out of nowhere, there is no preparation. No one prepares you for these things. You are angry About everything. Like why?"
She asks, but she won't get a logical answer - at least not in the Negev.
The residents of the Negev are not ready to accept the intolerable situation - this Friday there will be a protest at Lehavim junction near Rahat.
"You can't continue to live with this suffering."
A car accident south of Be'er Sheva, photo: Dodo Greenspan
paying a bloody price
"The tragic murder of two Negev lovers, who left behind eight orphans, is a direct product of the lawlessness in the Negev, the lawlessness for which all governments have been responsible over the years. The lack of hands, the lack of enforcement and the lack of governance are the links in the chain that allows wild driving and unrestrained behavior in the Negev" says Natalie Sofer, one of the organizers of the protest, along with a group of local activists.
In a conversation with "Israel Hayom", the chairman of the "Residents for the Negev" organization, Yehuda Benano, demands a change in legislation: "These are criminals whose connection with observing the traffic laws is purely coincidental.
It is impossible for the Israeli government to allow the security of thousands of police officers when an important personality arrives, while the residents of Beer Sheva and the Negev are abandoned to their fate in the hope that they will arrive home safely."
The Israel Police stated:
"We work all the time to uncover suspects who drive without a driver's license, without a permit, and/or while disqualified, thereby endangering all road users. Since the beginning of the year, thousands of drivers have been caught in Haaretz vehicles, removed from the road and prosecuted, of which over 1,000 drivers in the area alone Negev".
The article was prepared by: Sahar Abrahami
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