The Negev Bedouin (, Badwu an-Naqab; , HaBedu'im BaNegev) are traditionally pastoral nomadic Arab tribes (Bedouin), who until the later part of the 19th century would wander between Hijaz in the east and the Sinai Peninsula in the west. Today most live in the Negev region of Israel, while a minority who were expelled during the 1948 war live in Palestine. The Bedouin tribes adhere to Islam and most are Israeli citizens forming part of the Israeli Bedouin.Goering, K. (1979). Israel and the Bedouin of the Negev. Journal of Palestine Studies, 9(1), 3-20.Yonah, Y., Abu-Saad, I. and Kaplan, A., 2004. De-Arabization of the Bedouin: A study of an inevitable failure. Interchange, 35, pp.387-406.Parizot, C., 2001. Gaza, Beersheba, Dhahriyya: another approach to the Negev Bedouins in the Israeli-Palestinian space. Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, (9), pp.98-110. Some Bedouins voluntarily serve in the Israel Defense Forces.Geller, R.S., 2017. Minorities in the Israeli military, 1948–58. Lexington Books.Rozenman, E., 1999. Israeli Arabs and the future of the Jewish state. Middle East Quarterly.
From 1858 during Ottoman rule, the Negev Bedouin underwent a process of sedentarization which accelerated after the founding of Israel. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most resettled in neighboring countries. With time, some started returning to Israel and about 11,000 were recognized by Israel as its citizens by 1954. Between 1968 and 1989, Israel built seven townships in the northeast Negev for this population, including Rahat, Hura, Tel as-Sabi, Ar'arat an-Naqab, Lakiya, Kuseife and Shaqib al-Salam.
Others settled outside these townships in what are called the unrecognized villages. In 2003, in an attempt to settle the land disputes in the Negev, the Israeli government offered to retroactively recognize eleven villages (Abu Qrenat, Umm Batin, al-Sayyid, Bir Hadaj, Drijat, Mulada, Makhul, Qasr al-Sir, Kukhleh, Abu Talul and Tirabin al-Sana), but also increased enforcement against "illegal construction". Bedouin land owners refused to accept the offer and the land disputes still stood. The majority of the unrecognized villages were therefore slated for bulldozing under the Prawer Plan, which would have dispossessed 30,000-40,000 Bedouins. After large protests by Bedouins and severe criticism from human rights organizations, the Prawer plan was rescinded in December 2013.
The Bedouin population in the Negev numbers 200,000–210,000. Just over half of them live in the seven government-built Bedouin-only towns; the remaining 90,000 live in 46 villages – 35 of which are still unrecognized and 11 of which were officially recognized in 2003.
Characteristics The Negev Bedouin are Arabs who originally had a nomadic lifestyle rearing livestock in the deserts of the Negev. The community is traditional and conservative, with a well-defined value system that directs and monitors behavior and interpersonal relations.
The Negev Bedouin tribes have been divided into three classes, according to their origin: descendants of ancient Arabian nomads, descendants of some Sinai Bedouin tribes, and Palestinian peasants (Fellaheen) who came from cultivated areas. Al-Tarabin tribe is the largest tribe in the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula, Al-Tarabin along with Al-Tayaha, and Al-Azazma are the largest tribes in the Negev.
Counter to the image of the Bedouin as fierce stateless nomads roving the entire region, by the turn of the 20th century, much of the Bedouin population in Palestine was settled, semi-nomadic, and engaged in agriculture according to an intricate system of land ownership, grazing rights, and water access.
Today, many Bedouin call themselves 'Negev Arabs' rather than 'Bedouin', explaining that 'Bedouin' identity is intimately tied in with a pastoral nomadic way of life – a way of life they say is over. Although the Bedouin in Israel continue to be perceived as nomads, today all of them are fully sedentarized, and about half are urbanites.
Nevertheless, Negev Bedouin continue to possess sheep and goats: In 2000 the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that the Negev Bedouin owned 200,000 head of sheep and 5,000 of goats, while Bedouin estimates referred to 230,000 sheep and 20,000 goats.Aref Abu Rabia. "Employment and Unemployment among the Negev Bedouin"; Nomadic Peoples, Vol. 4, 2000.
History Antiquity
Historically, the Bedouin engaged in nomadic herding, agriculture and sometimes fishing. They also earned income by transporting goods and peopleHidden History, Secret Present: The Origins and Status of African Palestinians, Susan Beckerleg, translated by Salah Al Zaroo On Africans in the Negev Desert across the desert. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. The first recorded nomadic settlement in Sinai dates back 4,000-7,000 years. The Bedouin of the Sinai Peninsula migrated to and from the Negev.
The Bedouin established very few permanent settlements; however, some evidence remains of traditional baika buildings, seasonal dwellings for the rainy season when they would stop to engage in farming. Cemeteries known as "nawamis" dating to the late fourth millennium B.C. have been also found. Similarly, open-air mosques (without a roof) dating from the early Islamic period are common and still in use. The Bedouin conducted extensive farming on plots scattered throughout the Negev.
During the 6th century, Emperor Justinian sent Wallachian soldiers to the Sinai to build Saint Catherine's Monastery. Over time these soldiers converted to Islam, and adopted an Arab Bedouin lifestyle.
Islamic era In the 7th century, the Levant was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate. Later, the Umayyad dynasty began sponsoring building programs throughout the region, which was in close proximity to the dynastic capital in Damascus, and the Bedouin flourished. However, this activity decreased after the capital was moved to Baghdad during the subsequent Abbasid reign.
Ottoman Empire
Most of the Negev Bedouin tribes migrated to the Negev from the Arabian Desert, Transjordan, Egypt, and the Sinai from the 18th century onwards. Traditional Bedouin lifestyle began to change after the French invasion of Egypt in 1798. The rise of the puritanical Wahhabi sect forced them to reduce their raiding of caravans. Instead, the Bedouin acquired a monopoly on guiding pilgrim caravans to Mecca, as well as selling them provisions. The opening of the Suez canal reduced the dependence on desert caravans and attracted the Bedouin to newly formed settlements that sprung up along the canal.
Bedouin sedentarization began under Ottoman rule, as the Ottoman Empire needed to establish law and order in the Negev and viewed the Bedouins as a threat to the state's control. In 1858, the Ottoman Land Code of 1858 was issued as part of the Tanzimat reforms to modernize the Ottoman state. This code instituted an unprecedented land registration process which was also meant to boost the empire's tax base, and also in reality offered the legal grounds for the displacement of the Bedouin. Few Bedouin opted to register their lands with the Ottoman Tapu, due to lack of enforcement by the Ottomans, illiteracy, refusal to pay taxes and lack of relevance of written documentation of ownership to the Bedouin way of life at that time.
At the end of the 19th century Sultan Abdul Hamid II (Abdülhamid II) undertook other measures in order to control the Bedouin. As a part of this policy he settled loyal Muslim populations from the Balkan and Caucasus (Circassians) among the areas predominantly populated by the nomads, and also created several permanent Bedouin settlements, although the majority of them did not remain.Dr. Seth J. Frantzman, Ruth Kark Bedouin Settlement in Late Ottoman and British Mandatory Palestine: Influence on the Cultural and Environmental Landscape, 1870-1948 In 1900 an urban administrative center of Beersheva was established in order to extend governmental control over the area.
Another measure initiated by the Ottoman authorities was the private acquisition of large plots of state land offered by the sultan to the absentee landowners (effendis). Numerous tenants were brought in order to cultivate the newly acquired lands.
And the main trend of settling non-Bedouin population in the Palestine remained until the last days of the empire. By the 20th century much of the Bedouin population was settled, semi-nomadic, and engaged in agriculture according to an intricate system of land ownership, grazing rights, and water access.Ghazi Falah. "The Spatial Pattern of Bedouin Sedentarization in Israel," GeoJournal, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 361–368; 1985 ("Semi-nomadic" in this case refers to movement within a limited 12–13 km radius), cited in: Manski (2006), see at "References"
During World War I, the Negev Bedouin fought with the Turks against the British, but later withdrew from the conflict. Sheikh Hamad Pasha al-Sufi (died 1923), Sheikh of the Nijmat sub-tribe of the Tarabin, led a force of 1,500 men from Al-Tarabin, Al-Tayaha, Al-Azazma tribes which joined the Turkish offensive against the Suez Canal.Palestine Exploration Quarterly (October 1937). Page 244.
British Mandate The British Mandate in Palestine brought order to the Negev; however, this order was accompanied by losses in sources of income and poverty among the Bedouin. The Bedouin nevertheless retained their lifestyle, and a 1927 report describes them as the "untamed denizens of the Arabian deserts." The British also established the first formal schools for the Bedouin.
The Negev Bedouin have been described as remaining largely unaffected by changes in the outside world until recently. Their society was often considered a "world without time." Recent scholars have challenged the notion of the Bedouin as 'fossilized,' or 'stagnant' reflections of an unchanging desert culture. Emanuel Marx has shown that Bedouin were engaged in a constantly dynamic reciprocal relation with urban centers and Michael Meeker, a cultural anthropologist, states that "the city was to be found in their midst."
The British Mandate authorities, laws and bureaucracy favored settled groups above pastoral nomads and they found it hard to fit the Negev Bedouin into their system of governance, thus the Mandate's policy regarding the Bedouin tribes of Palestine was often of an ad hoc nature.
But eventually, as had happened with the Ottoman authorities, the British turned to coercion. Several regulations were issued, such as the Bedouin Control Ordinance (1942), meant to provide the administration with "special powers of control of nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes with the object of persuading them towards a more settled way of life". The ample powers of the Ordinance empowered the District Commissioner to direct the Bedouin "to go to, or not go to, or to remain in any specified area".
Mandatory land policies created legal and demographic pressures for sedentarization, and by the end of the British Mandate the majority of the Bedouin were settled. They built some 60 new villages and dispersed settlements, populated by 27,500 people in 1945, according to the Mandate authorities. The only exception were the Negev Bedouin who remained semi-nomadic.
Prior to the founding of Israel, the Negev's population consisted almost entirely of 110,000 Bedouin.