38 PALESTINIAN DISPLACEMENT FMR 26 The Bedouin of the Negev: a forgotten minority by Kathrin Koeller

The barrage of news on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Despite these intense pressures only half of the Bedouin population have obscures attention from the Arab population living agreed to move into the towns. The as internally displaced Israeli citizens on Israeli rest remain in ‘illegal’ settlements territory. Particularly forgotten are the approximately in the Enclosed Zone, which are 186,600 Bedouin of the Negev in southern Israel who not recognised by the state even if they already existed prior to 1948 constitute 12% of the country’s Arab population. and/or are inside an area formerly designated for Bedouin use. Residents Before the establishment of the state of their former territory and which of these villages face the permanent of Israel, the Bedouin of the Negev remained under military law until threat of house demolition and – who are culturally distinct from 1966. All movement in and out prosecution for ‘illegal’ use of state the Bedouin of the Galilee – were of the zone depended on written land. Access to public services the vast majority of the population permission from the Israeli military. such as water, electricity, roads, of the region and lived as nomadic Israel appointed 19 sheikhs and infrastructure, education and health pastoralists in the desert. During, or officially recognised their tribes. In care is highly restricted. As they in the immediate aftermath of, the order to acquire Israeli citizenship, reside in areas not under municipal 1948 conflict, most Negev Bedouin each Bedouin had to affiliate with jurisdiction they are unable to apply either had to flee or were expelled a recognised tribe regardless of for construction permits. Even and displaced. The Negev became an their original genealogy. They though in 1998 the development plan integral focus for Jewish settlement. have subsequently been forced to for Beer Sheba (now Israel’s sixth The Bedouin lost access to almost all sedentarise and relocate to seven largest conurbation) defined the city their rangeland and were given little officially-sanctioned state-planned and its hinterland as a ‘binational choice but to settle and give up large townships. The Bedouin are offered metropolis’, there are no plans parts of their traditional way of life. subsidised plots of land, access to for future development for those water, electricity, roads, medical Bedouin villages. Their areas are The remaining tribes were rounded facilities and schools – under the either left blank on maps or ‘over- up and driven into an ‘Enclosed condition that they agree to locate to zoned’ with other settlements planned Zone’, an area in the north-east of the approved townships and abandon on top of the existing villages. the Negev which covered only 10% claims to land elsewhere in the Negev. Kathrin Koeller Kathrin FMR 26 PALESTINIAN DISPLACEMENT 39

Sedentarisation and the surveillance many Bedouin families, however, land belongs to the state by virtue of illegal settlements are further this is the sole source of income. of the mawat (‘dead’) category of promoted by an environmental land title introduced in 1858 by the paramilitary unit established by “We should transform the Bedouin Ottoman authorities. Israel will only Ariel Sharon in 1976. The ‘Green into an urban proletariat in industry, acknowledge land ownership in the Patrol’ has a mandate to pull down services, construction and agriculture Negev if a landowner can present ‘illegal’ Bedouin tents, tightly … the Bedouin would not live on a document issued by the British control herd sizes and grazing areas, his land with his herds, but would mandate administration in 1921 – a seize flocks, destroy crops planted become an urban person who period when hardly any Bedouin without the appropriate permit comes home in the afternoon and registered their landholdings due to a as well as impose fines and evict puts his slippers on… The children combination of traditional reluctance inhabitants of ‘illegal’ settlements. would go to school with their hair to cooperate with external authorities, Green Patrol raids have resulted in properly combed. This would be a fear of taxation and lack of concern substantial damage to property and revolution, but it may be fixed within that anybody would pose a challenge led to fatalities on several occasions. two generations ... this phenomenon to their continued use of the land. When aerial surveillance identifies of the Bedouins will disappear.” unauthorised new construction, A recent survey conducted in the owners may be served with a General Moshe Dayan, 1963 Negev shows that the overall demolition order. If they fail to experience of settlement and comply – and many do – they may Assimilationist and sedentarist urbanisation is described by the be prosecuted. Homeowners are projects have been inflicted on Bedouin as negative and turned into criminal defendants, pastoralists throughout the world. unsatisfactory. Bedouin are fined and forced to reimburse the The sedentarisation programme and dissatisfied with the settlement state for the costs of demolition. the general Israeli attitude towards incentives they have been offered, According to the Association of the Bedouin can be viewed as part the paucity of opportunities for Forty, there are currently 22,000 of this wider trend. Israeli identity education and democratic governance unrecognised houses in the Negev. is to a large extent constructed and the persistent denial of equal All are at potential risk of demolition. in (hierarchical) opposition to access to health, education, housing the Arab population within and and other services of a kind enjoyed The plight of those living in surrounding the country. Being by their fellow Israeli citizens. The recognised towns is almost equally Israeli carries connotation of being protracted struggle for control of the difficult. They are amongst the ‘Western’, democratic, modern, Negev and for democratic freedoms poorest in Israel and face enormous rational and educated – while Arabs, has consequences not only for the social and economic problems and particularly Bedouin, are pre- livelihoods but also the very essence – high unemployment, crime, drug modern, autocratic, emotional and of modern Bedouin identity. The abuse, social disintegration and low undeserving of a place in the modern future of the Bedouin of the Negev education levels. Infrastructure such state of Israel unless they show remains uncertain and problematic. as street lights, pavements or sewage willingness to be ‘reformed’. This systems is incomplete in almost all sedentarisation/modernisation of Kathrin Koeller is completing a PhD the towns. Israeli planning authorities the Bedouin is thus central to Israel’s at the Department of International have given little consideration to self-image as a ‘modern democratic’ Development, University of Oxford. Bedouin cultural needs, particularly state in an ‘under-developed’ region. Email: [email protected]. their preference for grouping the Less overtly articulated is Israel’s extended family together in order to determination to accumulate as much For further information, see: retain traditional kinship structures land as possible for the exclusive use in a settled environment, sharing of Jewish residents of Eretz Yisrael.1 n Centre for Bedouin Studies resources and responsibilities as well and Development, Ben-Gurion as regulating conflict and exercising In order to acquire the maximum University of the Negev: social control. Future expansion of amount of Arab land for Jewish http://w3.bgu.ac.il/bedouin the houses is virtually impossible settlement of the Negev, Israel has as not enough land was set aside to denied almost all pre-existing land n Mossawa Advocacy Center accommodate population growth. rights or ownership. Israel regards for Arab Citizens in Israel Today the average annual Bedouin the Negev as a vacuum domicilium www.mossawacenter.org/ birth rate of 7% per annum is amongst or terra nullius, an empty space en/about/about.html the highest in the world. Tents and yet to be used for settlement. The additional structures built behind Bedouin are seen as rootless nomads n Negev Coexistence Forum the houses for social gatherings, without territorial connection or http://dukium.org housing guests and outdoor kitchens rights. Similar legal tools used to are commonplace. Sections of the justify the internal displacement n Arab Organisation for Human houses are converted into shops of indigenous populations and Rights www.arabhra.org/ and used for keeping livestock. invalidate traditional land ownership factsheets/factsheet3.htm Israeli authorities regard this as are found in other settler states. Israel a violation of zoning regulations justifies its acquisition policies by n Association of Forty prohibiting commercial activity in selective interpretation of historical www.assoc40.org residential neighbourhoods. For land laws. Israel argues that all desert 1. Hebrew for ‘the land of Israel’