“Israel is surrounded by extremist Islamic radicals, and therefore we need to guard our borders, and this is also true regarding the communities surrounding Gaza,” Netanyahu said in Yeroham at the seventh annual Negev Conference.

“In another couple of months we will mark two years to Operation Protective Edge, and those who attacked us from the Gaza Strip took an unprecedentedly heavy blow. We will – of course – not hesitate again to act strongly against anyone who wants to endanger Israeli citizens.”

Netanyahu, whose speech was interrupted by student protesters from Ben Gurion University, said that security is a precondition to all the development his government is promoting in the Negev.

“There are wide spaces in the Negev, and we have to defend them,” he said. The premier pointed to the 200 kilometer wall that has been erected along the border with Egypt, as well as a similar one now being constructed in the Arava along the border with Jordan, as critical components of this security.

“I ask you to think what would have happened if the fence [on the Egyptian border] was not built,” he said. “We would have been flooded with thousands of Islamic State fighters from Sinai, and with hundreds of thousands of illegal job seekers from Africa. The fence stopped that.”

During the speech Netanyahu ticked off the steps his government has taken to develop the Negev, including developing transportation infrastructure – inclduding trains, new roads and overpases – bringing the Negev “closer” to the center; moving the IDF bases south, something that will serve as a catalyst for growth; and turning Beersheba into a center for cyber security.

He said that his vision is that in 12 years Beersheba, with a population today of some 210,00,  will be a city of 500,000 people.

At one point, while he was talking about what his government was doing for the south, a group of several student protesters,  interrupted his speech. Shachaf Avital, one of the protesters, yelled toward Netanyahu: “Why isn’t there money for Yeruham?”

Another five protesters chanted after him. “Why are people unemployed in Yeruham while in Omer, people are rich?”

Avital charged that the unemployment was due to the government’s building of new communities in the Negev, while failing to provide more places to work in existing communities.

Netanyahu did not respond to Avital in depth, saying sarcastically that he was impressed by the “spontaneous protest,” and adding that his government has invested more money in the Negev than any other government.

Tzlil Rubinshtein, a spokeswoman for the group, told The Jerusalem Post that part of their complaint regarding building in Negev is that the citizen’s needs are not being heard.

“The government isn’t listening to what the citizens really have to say, nor the needs of the community,” she said.

While NIS 5 billion will be invested to build five new communities in the Negev,  Rubinshtein said, only NIS 280 million has been allotted for supporting existing communities.

She said that the push for more Negev building is not being done out of genuine interest to strengthen periphery areas, but rather only for show.