Fifty Ye ars, Five Cros sings , More to Come

The Kirad Bedouins of Galilee and the Israeli-Syrian Border, 1948

Dan Ra binowitz

Dan H.abi now il;: :.WOO: Fi lly Ye an;, Five Crossings, More lo Come: The Ki rarl Bedou in;;of Gali lee and the l;;raeli-Syrian Border, 1948. - Elhnologialuropaea :10, 2: 101- 110.

'l'he pot 1948 history ol"lhe Kirad Bedouins of the Hula va lley in Northern israel i a HerieH of f<1rced mnss border-crossings between Israel , Syria, Jord an and Leba non. 'l'hese migrations came concurrently with a staggered process ofdi;;pos­ session, in which lhe Kirad lost ownership of their ancestral lands, and ended up as a diuspora scallered over lour stales. The upheavals experienced by the Kirad arc historici1.cd and am1ly1.cd as a 'small scal e d i asporic silualion'. This, I argue, iH nn exceed ingly widespread situation in a world characterized as 'glocalized', in which powerful globalizing trends combine with ethno-national fe rvor that accen ­ tuates territoriality and slate borders. The Ki rad's own perception oflhcir world, fragmented and disturbed beyon d recognition by impermeable and often hostile state borders since 1948, is contextualized in terms of the analogy between the recent, vivid pasl, and ancient history, only vaguely remembered and invoked. Wolfe's (1 982) notion that world systems arc by no means new phenomena, lhe place of diachronic reckoning and subjective historical perceptions, and the pl ace oflale and repetition in the Kirad's identity inform the theoretical trajectory ofthc an alysis.

Dr Dan Rabinowitz, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Te l Aviv Un iver­ sity, Ramat ·Aviv, Te l-Aviv, Israel. E-mail: [email protected]

Fragmented Kin Groups er. Well in our case you could say that over the Abu-Uthman, born ca. 1935, currently a resi­ years we had between us a whole sack of flour. dent of the Palestinian village Sha'ab in West Anyway, he had come here fr om the Soviet Galilee, spent most of his adult life separated Union at the age of thirteen, before the Second fr om his older sister. She has lived in Syria since World War. Then the war broke out, and he lost the fa mily's fo rced migration fr om the Hula contact with his family in Russia. Time went by, valley during the 1948 hostilities. While acutely and fifty years later he suddenly had contact aware of the traumatic significance of fa mily with them again.A letter from his sister arrived disunion, he is nevertheless convinced that blood one morning, and by evening he was in Italy to ties do and will prevail . The illustration he meet her. They met in a street, amongst many recently chose to stress this point was some­ strangers, but immediately recognized each oth­ what unexpected. In his words: er. He says their identical fo reheads gave them away." "A mountain can never meet a mountain. But people can come together. There was this Jew­ "The same happened between my sister and me. ish guy I knew, a Russian Jew. We worked In 1948 we were chased by the Israelis into together for seventeen years in construction, all Syria. She stayed while I later returned to over Israel . They say that people who live to­ Israel . I never saw or talked to her for more than gether and are close have salt and bread togeth­ forty years. Then a few years back we re-estab­

10 1 lished contact, and made an appoi ntment to ers live like Abu-Uthman in Sha'ab, while a meet. in Mecca , during the Haj. She was with fifth sibling died as an infant in thl:! 1920s. her tlon, w h om I recogni:wd before I even saw Roughly a quarter ofAbu-Uthman's immediate

her. Thut't; the way it itl with darn ." agnatic relations are thus in forced exile as

refugees in Syria. The remaining three- q uar­ Da m , l iterally meaning blood, also denotes phys­ ters of the agnatic group - himself; his two

ical a ppearance . In Abu-Uthman's view, it is siblings and their offspring in Sha'ab - are in a blood - both th e person's external looks and different predicament. While displaced fr om the ir inner essence - which binds him to mem­ their ancestral home like their sister, they live bers of his family despite forced separation within the state of Israel, only a few hours ' acrostl impermeable political fr ontiers. The Syr­ travel fr om the village. They can visit the ruins ian-Jsracl i border, an immen sely powerful bor­ relatively easily. Their status as citi zens of a der structuring the Jives of all Kirad Bedouins, state purporting to be a democracy, where the thu s becomes a yard-stick against which rule of law prevails, gives them a sembl ance of strenf,rths of kinship, group solidarity and en­ political leverage and a faint hope of retu rn - a dura nce can be measured. vision their cousins in Syria cannot dream o£ Abu-Uthman is the third of five siblings. His The picture is even more fragmented in the eldest sister, who lives in Syria with her many generation of Abu-Uthman's father, Ahmad. offspring, is some seven years older than he. She Born around 1900 in the Hula as one of seven was born in or around 1928. Two younger broth­ siblings, Ahmad died in 1964 in Sha'ab, near his

Abu-Uthman's Geneaology I Ibrahim (M)

HamisI (M)

Sliml n(M)

'AzizI (M)

Died in Sha'ab (1962)

'ali (M) Muhamad (M) Abu-Uthman (M) Ibrahim (M) Born 1942 Born 1940 Born 1935 Died infanl Lives in Sha'ab Lives in Sha'ab Lives in Sha'ab (1920s) 12 Offspring

Encircled: branches of the family living in Syria

102 three sons. Fou rofhi:;:;ix :;ibli ng:;,ho wever, had ters to come and vi sit him in Sha'ab. The month

become refugee:;in Sy ria - ::;ome in 1948, other::; or so long visits eventually took place in 1994 later. Sixty per cent of Ahmad'::; agn atcs arc and 199fi.

thus refugees in Syria. A second case is that of U m-Nader1 , who was Historicizing Removal and Return separated from her agnati c kin in 1951 . Her agnates, h avi ng managed to retu rn like other Prior to the war of 1948, the Kirad Bedouin had Kirads from an initial period of exi le in Sy ria, f(mnd th emselves along with 20 other Pal esti n ­ were displ aced fo r the second time (below). Like ian, Bedouin and Arab Villages in the Hu la Abu-Uthman and others, Um-Nader and her valley at the fo refront ofa tough contest against husband moved to Sha'ab too. Her six siblings, Zionism over settlement and territory. Their on the other hand, moved to Syria, where they immed iate dira (assigned tribal territo ry) and and thei r descendants have been living since. its environs at the southern tip ofthe valley, had Her husband's agnatic family did more or less a number of Zionist settlements established in the same, and by th e mid- 1950s th e couple it, including Mishmar Hay arden (founded 1890), fo und themselves with no immediate kin ncar Yisud Hama'ala (founded 1883), Ayelet Hasha­ them in Sh a'ab or, for th at matter, anywh ere har (founded 1918) and Hulata (founded 1936). else in Israel . The Kirad were fo rced out oftheir two villag­ Um-Nader's husband died young, leaving es for the first time on April 22"'1 1948, two days her with a son - Nader - and a daughter, after theflight ofthe inhabitants of adjacent ai ­ Hamida. Hamida soon married 'adnan, a mem­ 'Ulmaniya and al-Husaniya (Morris 1991 :172). ber of a large family most of which now live in Morris, who does not record direct expulsion or Galilee. Hamida's union became a lifeline for even occupation on the part of the Jewish fo rces herself, her mother and her brother. It provided against the Kirad villages, suggests that the them with alternative kin and a new social Kirad's departure resulted fr om the fe ar of fo cus. Hamida and her brother, for example, impending Jewish attack and ofbeing caught in took to calling 'adnan's elder brother Muham­ the crossfireof an approaching Syrian offensive mad 'father', although he is no member of their (ibid.). agnatic kin. Curiously, Muhammad is not even Most Kirad members fledeast wards, taking the senior sibling in his own family: he and temporary refuge in and around Arab villages 'Adnanhave an elder brother, Sa'id, a refugee in in the southern section of the Golan Heights, Syria. particularly al-Sanabir, some 10 km fr om their A third example is Salim, now in his seven­ villages of origin. The circumstances of the ties. Salim named some of his children after flight were probably not extreme, since many pivotal events in his life. His eldest daughter, managed to transport their herds - their major born in 1948, carries a name that means in source oflivelihood -with them. Some returned Arabic 'predicament' or 'hardship', commemo­ later for their livestock and removable belong­ rating the family's forced departure fr om the ings, while other items were stored in and Hula valley in 1948. Another daughter, born in around the villages in the hope of fu ture return. late 195 1, carries a name that means 'migra­ By the time a Syrian ground attack into the tion', after the second fo rced migration of the Hula valley began in early June 1948, the twin same year. Over the years Salim had pictures of Kirad villages, like other Arab villages in the his sisters and oftheir descendants, all ofwhom valley, were empty. At cease-fire, the villages now live in Syria, passed on to him through were part of 19 km2 west of the Jordan river Europe or Jordan. He keeps the pictures in a controlled by Syrian troops. special case, presents them proudly, and knows The General Armistice Agreement signed the names of most of those who fe ature in them, between Israel and Syria on July 20th 1949 (the none of whom he ever met. Having retired fr om last one to be signed by Israel and an Arab state work, in the mid-1990's he spent much time and as part of the Rhodes Armistice Accord), gave energy obtaining permission for two of his sis­ Israel control over most areas where Israeli

103 army (1.1 .I•.) troops were present. This incl uded following months the Kirad, along with re:oi­ pa rts thai hue! not be«:mde::;ignat ecl in the UN dents ofal-Samara, Nuqeib and al ­.1-lamma(vi l­ Partition Plan uf19 47 a::;pari orl::;rael, but were lages located in other DMZ's on either side of nevertheless co nquered by the I. D. F'.du ring the the border) were in fact allowed to return . This hostil i ti es. This was a bi tter blow to all dispos­ move was obviously part of a Syrian attempt to sessed and dislocated Palestinians. Having fled maintain some presence in the Hula after the to neighboring Arab states, the refugees re­ evacuation . The Syrians equipped the Ki rad mai ned in waiti ng, hoping to return io their with official travel documents which allowed

comrnunitie::;and pro perti es and to restore the them to travel between Syria, the Hula valley live::; they once had there. and Lebanon, and hoped to maintain them as The cli::;appuinimeni wa::; naturally harsher loyal representatives of Syrian interests in the

iiH· those whose home::; an d properties had been Hula DMZ. in areas nut de::; ignated by the 194 7 Partition It was at that stage that Abu-Uthman lost Plan a::; pari or the Ziuni:oistate . Had the Gen­ contact with his sister. While he and his two eral A rmistice Agreemen t disregarded the mil­ brothers seized the opportunity to retu rn to ita ry situation on the ground at cease-fire,and their old homeland, his sister and her husband turned the wheel back so that only territories went the other way. They lingered in the G olan, assigned to Israel in the Partition Plan were in eventually finding their way to a Palesti nian fact included with in it, the return of hundreds refugee camp near Damascus, where they and of thousands of refugees would have been fa cil­ their descendants have been living since. itated. The presence in the Hula DMZ of Kirad Most Hula refugees who fled to Syria or the returnees officiallyequipped with Syrian docu­ Lebanon were hoping to return to their old ments became significant againin 195 1, when homes in spite ofthe fa ct that the Hula had been Israel began to execute a long standing plan to design ated by the UN Partition Plan as part of drain the Hula wetlands. Israe l. However, the General Armistice Agree­ The drainage of the Hula was the major ment, which consolidated Israeli sovereignty development and economic project undertaken over the Hula, was soon followed by Israeli by the state of Israel during the first decade actions to effectively seal-off the border, thus since statehood. A major engineering feat by preventing Palestinian refugees fr om return­ any standards, it was managed by a joint min­ ing. Hope of restoration of the pre-1948 situa­ isterial committee, fu elled by Jewish National tion quickly eroded . Fund money, boosted by international know­ The General Armistice Agreement designat­ how and executed by state of the art machinery ed a number of tracts on either side of the chartered in Western Europe and the USA. In Israeli -Syrian border as Demilitarized Zones early 195 1 earth began to move, signaling a (DMZ's). One such area was the 19 km2 west of multi-staged operation that was carried out at the Jordan, where Syrian troops were present various locations over almost seven years. at cease fire,in which the old Kiradvillages are Ground could have been broken almost any­ located. In return fo r the Syrian agreement to where in the valley. However in February 1951 withdraw fr om this tract, Israel agreed to keep Israel decided to start digging only a stone's it demilitarized .2 throw away fr om the twin Kiradvillages, inside The General Armistice Agreement included the Demilitarized Zone. The first bulldozers an important provision, which soon proved fate­ were deployed in early March 195 1 in two ful to many of the Kirad. It empowered the adjoining spots. One was west of the Jordan Chairman of the Joint Israeli-Syrian Armi­ River, on private land that had belonged to Arab stice Committee, a UN official,to authorize the refugees. Israel was fu lly aware that Syria re­ return of civilians to villages and settlements garded the owners as Syrian citizens, and pur­ within the DMZ .3 This pertained to seven vil­ ported to represent them. The other spot was lages (Morris 199 1:323), two of which were east of the Jordan River, near the Bridge of Kirad Bakkara and Kirad Ghannama. In the Banat Yaacub. It was within the 100 m wide

104 strip a�;signed a�; pu r'!. or brae! in the origi nal they summoned the eld ers to the bn.yadir UN Pa rtition Plun ol' l917, only a f'ew hundred (thrashing ring) and told thcm :'therc arc p rob­ yard s awny fm m Syri a n frontier posts overlook­ lems between us and th e Syri ans, so we wan t ing the river. you out'. The elders asked: 'Is it only us you want The choice of both �;pots was anything but out of the zone, or the Jews (from newly estab­ accidental . The d ra inage project itself' was de­ lished Kibbutz Gadot within the DMZ, D.H) signed to attain pol i tical objectives, i ncluding too'? 'They asked that because Kibbutz Gadot an assertion of' soverei gnty inside th e Hula was still in tents, and they were afra id th at it DMZ (Shalev 1993 :51 -fi2).T he significance did would take over Kirad land and property. The not escape the Syrians. In March 1951, soon officersrepl ied that this was none ofthe Ki rad 's after Israeli bulldozers began work, plain­ bu siness, and the elders understood th at only clothed Syrians begun shooti ng at them. Heroic us, the Kirad, are about to go. So they told the attempts by UN offici als to con tain the tension officers : 'We are not going. Either you transfer and prevent an outbreak were to no avail , and everybody out, including the Kibbutzniks,or we the tension spil t over to other DMZ's along the stay'.At that stage one of the officerssu ggested Israeli-Sy rian frontier east and south of the Sea to the others, in Hebrew, to shoot some of the of Gal ilee. The border crisis threatened to cata­ elders and thus scare us all into fleeing. Some of pult th e two states into a war neither of them the younger people, who knew Hebrew fr om wanted . having worked in Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar as Allthi s proved fa teful for the KiradBedouins. kids, heard and understood him. They warned On March 3011', fo llowing the breakdown of UN the elders, and the decision was made to con­ mediation on the drainage prject, a meeting sent and go in peace. Also, one guy - he was took place in Prime Minister Ben-Gurion's of married to my cousin - went out of the barbed fice, yielding a resolution to 'carry out actions zone, and was shot dead on the spot. So we were whose purpose is to maintain our sovereignty in scared." that zone' (Shalev 1993 :70). These measures The trucks came that night, and the officers were to include distribution of Israeli ID cards and policemen gave the Kirad only minutes to to all residents of the zone so as to sever their pack and board. The Kiradhad very few posses­ attachment to Syria, the transfer of as many sions, having migrated thrice in as many years. Arab civilians fr om the zone to other parts of They boarded the trucks, traveled all night and Israel outside the DMZ, and tighter control of got to Sha'ab in the morning. The herds were the border in an attempt to prevent movement brought on fo ot, escorted by armed police, and between the DMZ and Syria (ibid .). took two more days to arrive. Israeli security fo rces moved swiftly. On the Upon arrival in Sha'ab, the Kirad were of­ 30Lh and the 31'L of March, they chased the fered a choice between relocation in the village residents of al-Samara and Nuqeib, two villag­ and exile in Syria. Most elected Sha'ab, where a es east of Lake Tiberias, fr om their homes and substantial number of them still live to date. into Syria (Shalev 1993:71). Then, on the night Others went to Syria. A few fa milies were al­ of March 31"L, 785 residents of Kirad Bakara lowed to return to their homes in the Hula and KiradGhannama were fo rced to embark on valley DMZ. trucks and buses assembled by the government The ultimate migration fr om the valley came and were transferred westwards. Their desti­ five and a half years later. On October 30Lh 1956, nation Sha'ab is a Palestinian village whose the second day ofthe Suez crisis, in which Israel original inhabitants had been dispossessed collaborated with France and Britain against during the 1948 hostilities, and whose empty Egypt, General Yitzhak Rabin, then CO oflsra­ houses were used by Israel to resettle various el's Northern Command, made a move. Using groups of displaced Palestinians. emergency regulations many believed were in Abu-Uthman, who was 18 years old at the force due to the war against Egypt4 , Rabin time, remembers : 'The army came, and encir­ assumed the authority of Military Governor cled the whole village with barbed wire. Then and issued an order fo rcing the last remaining

105 Ki rad to leave the ir home:;; and cross the Sy rian 'Kurdish' group in Galilee strong enough to border into the Golan''.The Bedou in:;;,di splaced have successfully engaged in armed con fl ict fo r the th ird Li me, ::;oughtthe i r re latives ­ those with local Arabs (ibid .). who having been ch a::;cd from their v illage in Shim'oni (1947 :108), who does not cite his 194 8 declined to return i n 1950. They fo und primary source, suggests that Kurds came into them in refugee camp s ncar Damascus, and Palestine in trickles rather than in a specific seW ed in with them . wave. He assumes that some came in the 12'h The two f(lrced evacu ations from the old century with the conquest ofPalesti ne by Salah Ki rad vi llages, that or 1951 and that of 1956, al-Din al Ayubi, himself an issue to a dynasty of scaled the fate of many Kirad l1m ilies, includ­ Kurdish origin. Shim'oni identify three commu­ ing those ofUm -N ader and or Sal i m . The K.irad, nities in northern Palestine, which claim Kurd­ who currently number a pproxi mately 5,400, ish descent: residents of a Kurdish neighbor­ arc now scattered across Israel, Syria, Jordan hood in Safad; the Krad of the Hula valley; and and Lebanon.0 Thei r twin v illages have been the Bashatwa near Beisan. Dabagh (1. 988: 168) empty and ruined since. summarily states that the Kurds of Krad Al­ Khait in Hula arrived in Palestine 'in th e Mid­ dle Ages'. Deep Chronology: Kurdish Origins These bits of evidence regarding the Ki rad The prefix 'Kirad' rings of distant lands. Most must be seen within the wider context ofBedouin writers on the region agree it is the plural fo rm migration into Galilee at large. Fallah ( 1990:402) ofthe singul ar Ku rdi , denoting origins in Kurdi­ puts fo rward the plausible argument that the stan (Dabagh 1988: 168, Zakariya 1923:654). Kurds, like other nomadic and semi-nomadic The earliest evi dence of th e presence of lslamic groups in the periphery of Palestine, arrived in peoples in the Hula is that of the 1 O'h century Galilee as the result of fo rced migration. He chronicler Mukaddassi, who mentions agricul­ suggests, after Lewis (1955:52), that strong ture and artificial irrigation in the valley (Le tribes such as the 'An izeh fr om Arabia, who Strange 1896). Al-Jubir, who wrote in 1185, since the 17'h century periodically invaded Syr­ describes the valley as a prosperous area, where ia, continuously dispossessed weaker groups, Muslims and Franks share pastures and culti­ pushing them off their lands, fo rcing them to vation (cited in Bakhit 1990: 104). Le Strange relocate and seek new Dirah (tribal terri tory) in ( 1890) likewise cites Yakut's 1220 description of more marginal areas. Tyler (1994) likewis e de­ the valley as 'one with many villages'. There are scribes the population of the Hula valley as an references to early presence of Kurdish groups amalgam of tribes and splinter groups originat­ in Hula, but none conclusive. Bakhit (1990) ing in and associated with groups in Lebanon, cites primary sources which indicate that in the Syria and elsewhere in the Middle-East, largely 15'h century some Kurdish Arabs paid waqf dominated by and dependent on local and re­ (religious endowment) property taxes to the gional powers outside the valley. Ottoman region of Safad. Cohen and Lewis The Hula valley - a hot, humid, uncomforta­ (1978: 155) indicate that in the 16'h century ble and inhospitable depression lying at an some Kurdish individuals lived in Safad, a town altitude of 100 m below sea level, is precisely some 12 kmwest ofthe Hula valley 7 , as do other such a region - at least in recent centuries.8 sources. Hutteroth and Abdulfatah (1977:27) Tribal elders of the K.irad in fact cite a battle likewise suggest that 16'h century Eastern Gal­ between their ancestors and the Bedouin tribe ilee had groups, which claimed Turkish, and of 'Arab al-Fadel of the Golan Heights which, Kurdish roots. A book published in 1572 by the they claim, took place '200 years ago or more' . Safadi qabalist Hayim Vital, entitled Gate ofthe Whatever the population influx that may Incarnations cites the existence of a Kurdish have taken place in Hula in the earlier Ottoman quarter in the town (Ariel Encyclopaedia of the period, a number of sources indicate that by the Land of Israel).Vital also cites a 1865 piece in turn ofthe 19th centurythe valley had very little the Jewish periodical Hameuaser, fe aturing a in the way of permanent settlement. Karmon

106 (1956:60) cite::;an umb er of'British and Gorman tho desert'. Rather, it is tho default choice taken sources attesting to th is - mo�;tlytr avel er�;who by impover ished and marginal peasants, a la�;t visited the area between 1806 and 1850. This resort involving hardship and poverty, tu rn ed may well be tho basi�;ii >r Sawa'id's (1 995) claim to at specific moments in their economic histo­ that the Ku rd�;of Ea stern Gali lee first settl ed in ries. In a similar vein, the Kirad, who have been the north of' Pa lestine as late as th e 1850s. settled since the late 19'h century, should not be Sawa' id goes on to assert th at the Kirad came at presumed in any way to be 'accustomed' to the inv itation of the Ottoman s, who imported migrations such as th ose their recent hi story them to curb th e infl uence and power of the brought upon them. local big-man turned peace-keeper Akili Aga . The deep sense shared by the Kirad of being Registration of land, which began in Pale­ a people who have survived fo rced migration stine fol lowing the 1858 OUoman land reforms fr om Kurdistan to Palestine some centuries ago and the establishment therein of a real-estate is quite a different matter here. In fa ct Abu ­ market, encouraged villagers and other tenure Uthman's deep-seated conviction that dam holders across Palestine to issue ti tles to land (blood) is sometimes stronger than the indete r­ and settle. Khawalde (1 995) indicates that mem­ minacy and hardship brought by displacement bers of the Kirad began registering parcels to and separation is a much more relevant senti­ their names as early as the 1870s. Within the ment here than is the propensity towards no­ next five decades the Hula Bedouins - Kirad madic life so fondly imagined by European and others - had fo unded a few dozen villages in observers. the valley, many consisting of permanent stone Those Kirad who remained in Israel after the houses or wooden huts. This had been the situ­ 1948, 195 1 and 1956 events, reestablished them­ ation on the eve of the 1948 war. selves as best they could as culturally and The personal and familial post-1948 history economically marginal communities within of the current members of the Kirad is thus a Palestinian towns and villages in Galilee, pre­ sinister, ironic analogy to the mythologized col­ dominantly Sha'ab and Shafa'Amer. The elders lective chronology of the tribe as a whole. Up­ still dream ofreturn or remuneration, and visit rooted, displaced, fo rced to migrate and then the old ruined villages whenever possible. resettled according to the priorities and inter­ Peace negotiations between Israel and Syria ests of political powers beyond their control, the since 1995 brought all DMZ's - not least the living Kirad recreate with their persons, prop­ Hula DMZ - into fo cus once again, as both Syria erty and heritage a movement similar to that and Israel would like to include them in their which dominates their group identity. territories. The Kirad, fo r their part, realize Two precautionary remarks are in line here. that reconciliation between Syria and Israel One is that the political predicament that has may bring the status of their homeland and its literally sent the Kirad packing three times future prospects to the negotiation table, and within as many years must not be ob(uscated in may start a process that could eventually facil­ anyway by the stereotypical image ofBedouins itate their return. as nomadic pastoralists. Elsewhere (Rabino­ The hopes of possible recuperation of their witz 1985) I show how the essentialist image of rights and property triggered new sensitivities the Bedouins as 'children of the desert' - herd­ amongst the Kirad regarding genealogy and ers leading a nomadic lifestyle that suits their kinship (Rabinowitz and Khawalde, forthcom­ 'nature', 'identity' and 'social structure' - col­ ing) . While prior to 1948 the Kirad community lapses in the face of properly historicized dia­ tended to be hierarchical and dichotomized be­ chronic evidence. In Sinai, herding and other tween the core 'Kurdish' segments on the one livelihoods connected to natural desert resourc­ hand and those believed to be descendants of es transpire as options selected only once other client families, serfs, outcasts and other recent economic opportunities are not available. No­ additions to the Kirad on the other, disposses­ madism, even cyclical transhumance movement, sion and exile bred a more egalitarian Kirad is not the option of choice on the part of'sons of identity 9,including a higher frequencyof mar­

107 riag-e un ions between original Kurdish sub­ in thei r mother nation's national project , which

grou ps ancl other, more inferior Rub- groups takes place in other territories, they arc mar­ (ibid.). ginal twice over: once in their state of residence Social and fa milial reckoning is naturally and citizen:;hip;and a second time with in their lin ked to land ten ure, hence al:;o to the prospect mother nation . of ret urn. Land ownership in the old home land Entrapment is a dramatic development. A was restricted to the 'Ku rdish' Kirad alone, space initially perceived to be safe is subject to largelyexcl ud i ngothcr group:;wi thin the Kirad. sudden external interference leading to confine­

H retu rn - or, ((n· that mutter, rem u neration for ment: a door is closed, a fe nce erected, a wall

lost property - tra nspires as a real istic option, cemented. The space becomes a dangerous enclo­ th e 'Ku rdish' Ki racl will have to make a choice : sure, the subject is suddenly incarcerated . Most eith e r :;tand by the more recent inclusive Ki rad homeland minorities are trapped in two distinct

identity forged in exi le and find a way to share but complimentary dimensions. The first one is whatever yi eld the process brings with all other historical, pertaining to the sequence of undesir­

Kirads. Or revert to re- inventing the old exclu­ able events that brought about their current sive cleavages, safeguard ing prope rty rights for predicament as a minority within an alien state . the 'authentic' Kirad alone, thus ensuring a The other denotes entrapment between contem­ non-egalitarian spread of revenue (ibid.). porary entities, and in particular between their The issue beco me:; even m ore complex once host state and their mother nation. we incorporate the exiled members of the tribe The Kirad are not a national minority to - both 'Kurdish' Ki r·ad and members of more themselves. The history they share with the peripheral sub-groups - who now reside across majority ofPalestinian communities has ironed the border, mainly in Syri a, into the reckoning out most of the differences and distance that picture. The current political and social hori­ may have existed between them and main­ zons of both communities seem wide apart. stream Palestinians before 1948. Many Kirad Moreover, for members ofthe tribe now residing in fa ct identify themselves as Palestinians, fe el­ in Syria the issue of rights in the ancestral ing a shared fate. But when it comes to an territory is vague and hardly relevant. This, analysis of the group by itself, the Kirad, like however, may be altered once a real break­ other Bedouins, can be subsumed under the through in Israeli-Syrian relations actually definition of 'Fourth world' (Manuel and Po­ happens. It is at such junctures that the power sulns 1974). They are a small scale, marginal of blood ties is likely to be invoked again, per­ group whose territory and other vital resources haps to fo rm an automatic, 'natural' parity were overtaken by an alien state. between relatives across the border. And it is in They are spread, since 1948, over fo ur states, such situations that the specific histories of that suggests analogies between their situation various sections of the tribe, including the his­ and that of larger national minorities in a sim­ tories of those who became refugees, become ilar predicament. Like trapped minorities, the significantin ways not easily overseen. Kirad have to negotiate between their state of The Palestinian citizens of Israel can be citizenship and their mother group. But in addi­ defined as a 'trapped minority', an individual tion to the scattered mother Palestinian nation, case of a national minority (Rabinowitz and the Kirad have an additional entity - the bifur­ Khawalde fo rthcoming) . Trapped minorities cated tribe, historicized as an important fo cus of stretch across territorial borders in ways tradi­ identity and essence, to reckon with. tional concepts of states and nations fail to The result is what I wish to call 'small scale acknowledge, let alone theorize. Citizens in diasporic situation': a diaspora created by a states which are hegemonized by groups they hostile fran tier running through the middle of a are excluded fr om, members of trapped minor­ small scale. Like other diasporas, that of the ities are alienated fr om political power and Kirad too has a cradle territory - the Hula cannot influence the definition of public goods valley - and those who have been fo rced away or determine who enjoys them. Having no part and now live elsewhere. Unlike normal diaspor­

108 ic situation::;,however , smal l scale diasporas arc 9. A similar process is known among-st the 2fi or so Bedouin tri bes and splinter g-roups of the Nug-ev, personal, immed i ate and concrete. The central which hrael ytemaiical ly dispossessed and re lo­ idiom is the border, not the world at large, and ca ted in the early 1950s in an attempt to g-ain fu ll the imagi n ation is of a linear trajectory - a line control oftheir ancestral land. Uprooted and lil rce­ between the homeland and the place of exile ­ fu lly tnmferrcd to a triangular wnc located be­ rather th an a sphcricone in wh ich the world at tween Beer-Sheva, Di mona and Arad and pushed by powers beyond their control into becoming large serves as the alternative to home. tenants on l and historically belongi ng to another It is no wonder that in such a predicament Bedou in coal ition, the 'Dulam, the newly arri ved kinship transpires as a central unifying sym­ Bedouin were - and still arc - in a dubious posi ­ bol. More than the nation, citi r.en ship or other tion. The military government under which th ey found themselves in the 1950s dictated tota l de­ types or genera li zed affiliation , ki nship is, fo r pendency on recogn ition by the government for Bedou i ns, an idiom that unites the most impor­ purposes ofwork and travel permits, social sccu l·i­ tant elements that form the sense of home and ty and grazing rights. Such recognition would on ly of belonging. The ever important blood ties be extended through an intricate system of pa­ dictate sol idarity (Abu Lughod 1 986), rights in tronage, carried out by co- opted Bedouin Sheikh. The newcomers thus had to find protection and land (Marx 1977), allegiance (Evans-Pritchard officialrepresentation with their reluctant Bedouin

1940, Peters 1965) and the place and legitimacy hosts, or suffer the dire consequences of nonrecog­ of indivi duals in a significant social web. nition by the state.

Notes References

1. Um-Nader and all other names specified in con­ Ariel, Encyclopaedia of the Land of Israel. Jerusal em : nection with her arc not the actor' real names. Ariel. 2. Sec Shalcv 1993 for a detailed accou nt of the Ashkenazi, Tuvia 1938: Tri bus Semi-nomades de Ia central DMZ in the Armistice Regime, 1949-1955. Pa lestine du Nord. Paris. 3. Security Council (UN) ( 1949) Comm unication dat­ Bakhit, MuhammadA. 1990: Safad et sa region d'aprcs ed 20 July 1949 fi·om the UN Acting Me diator on des documents de Wagfs et des titres de proprictc Pa lestine to the Acting Secretary-General trans­ 1378-1556. In: La Revue du Monde Muslamane et mittinf{the text ofthe Genera.lArmisticeAgreement de La Mediterranee No 55 I 56, 101-123. P. 104. Between Israel and Syria. Documents I 1353 IRev. 1, Cohen, Amnon and Bernard Lewis 1978: Population Official Records, Fo urth Ye ar.(A rticle 5, paragraph and Revenue in the To wns of Pa lestine in the Six­ 5 sub-paragraph e). teenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University 4. In the event, a state of emergency was never Press: 155. officially declared during that conflict. Dabagh, Mustafa Murad 1965: Biladina Fa lastin 5. Rabin, Yitzhak (1979) Service Record. Tel-Aviv: (Our Land Palestine). Beirut: (in Arabic). Maariv (in Hebrew). Falah, Ghazi 1990: The Evolution of Semi-nomadism 6. Khawalde's field survey of the Kirad in Northern in Non-desert Environment. The Case of the Gali­ Israel in 1997 has found 1,859 members : 877 in the lee in the 19'h Century. In: Geojournal Vol. 24 no. village of Sha'ab in western Galilee, the rest in the 4:397-410. town ofShafa 'amar and the villages ofTuba, Kufr­ H utteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah 1977: Yasif, Jdaidah and Abu-Snan in lower Galilee. A Historical Geography of Pa lestine Transjordan and fu rther 3,500 Kirad are estimated to live as refu­ Southern Syria in the late 1611' Century. Erlangen: gees abroad - mostly in Syria, some in Jordan, a Geographische Arbeiten Nr 5. handful in Lebanon. An earlier survey conducted Karmon, Yehuda 1956: The Northern Hula Va lley: A by Khawaldein 1990 indicates that at the time the Chapter in the History ofthe Landscape of the Land total number of the Kirad in Galilee was 1,599. of Israel. Jerusalem: Magnes Publishing House (in Sha'ab had 737, Shafa'amar 579, and the rest Hebrew). resided in smaller numbers in other villages (Kha­ Khawalde, Sliman 1995: Changes among Krad al­ walde 1994: 133). Kheit tribe at the Galilee, from 1858 until 1994. 7. Turkman tribes inhabiting the Valley of Esdralon Notes on the Bedouin No. 27 :24-39 (in Hebrew). are mentioned by a number of writers, some of Le Strange, Guy (Translator) 1896: Mukaddissi's whom cite the name 'Theishat. See Ashkenazi (985) Description ofSyria, including Palestine. Lon­ (1938:240), Shimoni (1947 :100-103). don. 8. Since irrigation is a major limiting factor, ancient Le Strange, Guy 1890: Palestine Under the Moslems . irrigation schemes may have had the valley more London. fe rtile and productive in earlier times. Lewis, N.N 1955: The Frontier of Settlement in Syria,

109 1R00-19!10. In: lnlem al iona l 1\ff'air., Jo umal Vo l. Sawa'id, Yu suf' 199fi: The Sheikh s' Regime in the 21 n o. I :tl8-60. North of Pa lestine: The Example of' i\kil i\g-ha, Manuel, Cuo rgu & M idwel Po:;lun:;I !:!71:'/' he Fo urth l840-1870. ln: Notes on. the Bedouin, Vo l. 27: 40-57 World: an Indian Rea lity. Nuw Yo rk: F'rue PresH. (in Hebrew). Marx, l mlllunue1 197'7 : Thu t. rihu aH u unit ol'::;ubsist­ Shalev, Aryeh 1!:!93: The Israel -Syria Am1.istir·e Re ­ ence: nomadic pa::;t.ontli::; t.Hin the Middle- la::;t. In: gime, 1.94.9­ 1.955. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press A nwrir·a 11 Anih mpo/()/.Jisl 7.9:: 34:.!-:Jfi:.l. (JCSS study no. 21). Ra bi nowitz, Dan 1985: ThemeH in the economy of' Shim'oni Ya 'acov 1947: 11rviyey Eretz Yi srae/ (The Sinai Bedou in in the 1 !:l"' and 2011' cunt.u rie::;. In: Arabs of' the Land of' Israel) Tel-Aviv: Am-Oved: /ntr'/'1/aliona/ Jo umal of' Mi ddlr• East Stttdies 100-103. 17: 211- 228. Tyler, W.P.N1994: The Huleh concession and Jewish Ra binowitz, Dan & Sli mun Kh awu lde (t(,rthcomi ng) seiilement ofthe Huleh valley, 1934-1948. ln: Mid­ Demilit ari7.ed Then Dispossessed : The Kirad dle Eastem Studies, Vol. 30. No. 4, October: 826­ BedouinH of' the llula Va lley in the Context. of 859. Syrian- lsrael i ltela tions. In: lnlcmalional Jo umal Zakariya, Ahmad Wasfi 1923: 'Asha'ir at-Sham (The oj' Middle Ea st Stu dies. Tribes of'Syria). Damascus: Dar al-Fiqr (in Arabic).

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