How is the city of Beersheba, Israel portrayed in the novel, Waking Lions?

Waking Lions begins with Eitan’s description of Beersheba as a city laden with unemployment and crime, immediately establishing its inferiority to Tel Aviv, Eitan’s previous home. Gundar-Goshen presents most white characters living in Beersheba as racists with no sympathy for the refugees suffering nearby. By highlighting both the city’s elevated crime rates and propensity for racism, Gundar-Goshen suggests that because Beersheba’s privileged citizens refuse to help the city’s illegal immigrants, refugees must revert to crime for survival. Eitan’s hatred for the dust that covers every surface in Beersheba conveys his dissatisfaction with his new life and lays the foundation for his angry drive through the desert that leads to Asum’s death. Beersheba is both literally and figuratively dirty, making it the perfect setting for the moral struggles with which Waking Lions’ protagonists grapple.