Havakook researched the cave dwellers of Southern Mount Hebron, between 1977 and 1982. During his research he lived with the locals in the caves, khirbas and villages, wore their clothes, ate their food, spoke their language and carried an Arabic nickname. The resulting book, Life in the Caves of Mount Hebron, was published by the Israeli Ministry of Defense in 1985, and is used by both the Israeli army and the Palestinian inhabitants of the caves to bolster their arguments in the ongoing dispute over who has a right to them. His study of the living circumstances among the Negev Bedouin were published in 1985/1986.