Welfare support for Israeli Negev Bedouin elderly men: adaptation during spatioecological transformation.

ABSTRACT

We interviewed 120 Bedouin men to elicit their views about the traditional Bedouin support system for the elderly (a collective family fund) and the more recent welfare support allowances that all Israeli elders are entitled to. Desire to maintain or return to the traditional system varied with the respondent's place on a continuum of seminomadism to rural sedentarization to semiurbanization. Differences were also found between the real Bedouin and the fellahim Bedouin respondents.