Country: Israel

Group: Bedouin

Date Finalized: 10/4/2021

Team: Li-Chen Hou (lead), Hannah Goldman, Deneb Bobadilla

            A majority of Bedouins reside in the Negev desert in unrecognized villages, where they refer to themselves as Nagab or Palestinian Arabs (Minority Rights Group 2018). Currently about 200,000 Bedouin live in Israel; they are an indigenous semi-nomadic people (Minority Rights Group 2018). After the creation of the Israeli state, the Israeli government has enforced policies that force the Bedouins to move for the sake of urban development and land acquisition (Minority Rights Group 2018). For example, the Planning and Building Law of 1965 did not consider prior Bedouin land ownership and jurisdiction on the use and new possession of property by the state (Minority Rights Group, 2018). Administrative and judicial orders gave the state the right to demolish any buildings and homes built on this state-owned land, which forced the Bedouins to find refuge in townships (Mihlar, 2011; Minority Rights Group, 2018). The Blueprint Negev in 2003 is another example of a policy that gave the Israeli state more control to justify the displacement of the Bedouins to these unrecognized villages and rejecting building permits (Mihlar, 2011;Khouri, 2007).

Israel has also deprived Bedouin of basic rights, including prohibiting Bedouin use of public utilities (Haaretz Editorial, 2015), the right to use water, shelter, education (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2018), electricity, and roads (Sherwood, 2017). By depriving them of these resources, the Israeli government intended for them to eventually leave these villages and migrate to designated areas (Hakkala, 2012).

By taking away their land and disrupting their movement, the state has disrupted the Bedouin livelihood and nomadic lifestyle.  (UNHCR, 2018; Khouri, 2007).

            Data quality is rated a 2 of 3.

Sources

  1. Minority Rights Group. 2018. Bedouin. (2018, September 6). https://minorityrights.org/minorities/bedouin/
  2. Haaretz Editorial. (2015, September 10). Summary of editorials from the Hebrew press. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/Editorials/Pages/Editorials-10-September-2015.aspx
  3. Hakkala, P. (2012). QUICK POLICY INSIGHT Forced displacement looms for Bedouins in the Negev . European Parliament Directorate-General for External Policies Policy Department, 1–4.
  4. Khouri, N. (2007). Israeli Illusionary Democracy: Beyond Apartheid. Al Majdal, 33, 42–47. http://badil.org/phocadownload/Badil_docs/publications/al-majdal-33.pdf
  5. Mihlar, F. (2011). Israel’s denial of the Bedouin. Minority Rights Group International, 1–16.
  6. Sherwood, H. (2017, December 1). Bedouin’s plight: “We want to maintain our traditions. But it’s a dream here.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/03/bedouin-plight-traditions-threat-israel
  7. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2018, August). Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Israel : Bedouin. Refworld. https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ba34aff7.html