Umm Batin

The story

Umm Batin (Arabic: أمّ بطين; in the mouth of the local residents: Am Batin) is a Bedouin locality in the east of the Beersheba valley. The meaning of “batin” in the Bedouin dialect is mountain, and Umm Batin is a land with a mountain in it. The place is an ancient settlement: in it are the remains of an ancient building and several wells from hundreds of years ago. In the locality dwell the tribes Abu Assa, Abu Kaf, Abu Haduba, Abu Sbeit and Abu Nadi. It was recognized in 2005, under a government decision of 2003 on the establishment of several permanent localities for the Bedouin in the Negev. Until November 2012 it was included within the bounds of the Abu Basma Regional Council, and with its division into two councils it passed to the Al-Qasum Regional Council. Two elementary schools and one high school operate in the locality, a health fund clinic and a branch of Tipat Halav. In 2014 installations for the production of domestic gas from waste were fitted in it. In December 2014 the establishment of a residential neighborhood in the north of the locality with about 2,035 housing units was approved, and in 2016 a further plan for about 780 apartments was approved. In 2022 an art gallery opened in a building that serves as a community center, the first in a Bedouin locality, with exhibitions of Bedouin artists, men and women, and exhibitions of Islamic art.

• Bedouin
• Water and wells
• Archaeology