Faculty Articles
The Negev Bedouin: The Struggle for Equal Rights
Jesse Benjamin
Published in August 1990, New Outlook magazine.
For the 70,000 Bedouin of the Negev, the dream of equality and social integration remains as distant today as it did 40 years ago. They have been made socially, economically and politically marginal in Israeli society, and as a result this ethnic minority feels insecure, disempowered and generally pessimistic about the future.
Historical Background
The Bedouin's troubles are not recent, they go back at least to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. In the Ottoman and British periods the Bedouin had gradually adopted a semi-nomadic way of life, relying as much upon agriculture as upon herding for their basic subsistence. During the War of Independence, many Bedouin either fled or were expelled, but some 12,000 people belonging to 19 different tribes remained in the Negev under the Israeli military rule which ensued. In 1951, the majority of those who remained, members of 11 tribes, were forcibly removed from their land by the military authorities and relocated to a reserve area near Be'er Sheva. This reserve, one-tenth the size of their former lands, was situated on the land of other tribes. The Bedouin were prohibited from leaving the reserve without special permits and in order to work required permits which had to be renewed twice a month. Under these conditions, the few thousand families affected began to readjust to their new environment; most settled and continued their agricultural and pastoral activities in the reserve. However, since these settlements had no official approval, the authorities considered the Bedouins' villages and farms "spontaneous" and illegal.
While they were told that the move to the reservation would be temporary, it was soon evident that the authorities had no intention of allowing the Bedouin to return to their lands. Soon after the lifting of military rule in 1966, the government initiated a new Bedouin policy as part of its Master Plan for the development of the Negev. The Bedouin of the old reserve area were to be concentrated into five (later increased to seven) planned urban settlements. Ironically, Bedouin who had resigned themselves to relocation within the reserve over the previous fifteen years were now told that they had to move once again-and this time the move meant completely giving up their way of life. Besides the fact that the new "towns" had only limited access to water, minimal or nonexistant electricity, unpaved roads, and absolutely no economic infrastructure, the very concept of urban settlement ran contrary to the Bedouin way of life.
While most Bedouin do not like the idea of becoming urbanized, in the past two decades more than one-third of them have been effectively resettled in the townships. Some saw it as a means for modernization, others were landless and had nothing to lose, and still others, seemingly the majority, moved to the towns by force of circumstance.
The Land Dispute
While Bedouin tribes have inhabited the Negev since the Byzantine period, if not earlier, they have rarely appeared in government land registries. Neither the Turks nor the British had official land records of the Bedouin, who themselves relied on oral contracts. When Israel adopted much of the old British land registry, it too came to the conclusion that the Bedouin had no legal land claims. Even those few Bedouin who were able to produce records from the Ottoman or British periods found themselves dislocated by subsequent laws.
The 1950 Transfer of Property Law allowed the government to acquire the property of absentee owners. In 1953, the Law of Land Acquisition declared that the development authority could claim land which was vacant on April 1, 1952 and which it considered necessary for "positive development needs." Under the pretext of this law, the Israeli administration claimed more than 80% of the Negev for military and other needs. Thus, the thousands of Bedouin who had been forcibly removed from their land before 1952 subsequently lost all remaining legal claims. It is in this context then that, with the end of military rule in 1966, the Bedouin were relocated to urban settlements.
Those who remained on the land were considered "illegal" and
could expect to face court action. During the past 20 years the Bedouin
have brought more than 3000 land claims to court, but not a single case
has yet been registered. Furthermore, in 1976, the Israeli Lands Authority
of the Ministry of Agriculture established the infamous Green
Patrol, a police-like unit intended to "protect the lands and ecology
of the state." The Green Patrol has since been responsible for the
systematic destruction of Bedouin homes, as well as uprooting trees and
spraying fields.
Education as an Indicator
While the Bedouin as an ethnic group have experienced 40 years of forced and rapid change, it remains difficult to understand the complexity and uncertainty of Bedouin life on a daily basis. The inequality experienced by the Bedouin pervades all aspects of their lives and nowhere is this more evident that in the area of education.
Prior to 1948, schools were not an integral part of the Bedouin's nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life. Since 1948, the loss of their lands and much of their traditional economy forced them into a dependency on wage labor in the Israeli sector. By the late sixties Bedouin began to express a strong desire for formal education, which had become increasingly necessary for successful integration into the Israeli economy.
While in the wake of the 1949 Compulsory Education Law, Israel established a few small schools in the Negev, it was not until the late sixties - when the Bedouin demand for education increased - that every tribe finally had access to at least one school. Although the number of schools gradually increased, they still lacked the necessary material and human resources.
Bedouin identification with the intifada has markedly increased over the past three years.
Ismael Abu Saad, a prominent Bedouin educator and administrator, noted at a recent Conference on the Bedouin of the Negev held at Sde Boqer that services, budgets and human resources are not equitably distributed between the Arab and Jewish educational systems in Israel, and that within the Arab sector, Bedouin education is particularly underdeveloped. Only 65% of Negev Bedouin children attend school, as compared to 99% of Israel's Jewish children. Moreover, the facilities at these schools are so inadequate that, according to Abu Saad, to date only 0.6% of the Negev's Bedouin have a university degree, compared to the Israeli national average of 8%.
Young Bedouin realize that the present educational system bodes poorly for their future. As one high school student put it: "I'm afraid that I won't pass the high school matriculation exam, and then I'll be forced to join my father working in Ramat Hovav (an industrial area near Be'er Sheva where most workers are Bedouin - J.B)."
Attitudes Toward the State
At present, slightly less than half of the 70,000 Negev Bedouin live in the seven planned towns; they engage almost exclusively in wage labor in the Jewish sector. The other half of the Bedouin population lives in the "spontaneous," now illegal, settlements, where they continue their agricultural and pastoral-activities in a state of constant insecurity. As time passes and no adequate solution to this situation emerges, the Bedouin are becoming increasingly concerned.
In a Land Day speech in March 1990, Nuri el Okbi, chairman of the Association for the Support and Defense of Bedouin Rights, exclaimed: "We have asked for peace and equality in every legally possible way, and still nothing has changed - what do the authorities want, an intifada here?" While these sentiments represent a growing minority who are being pushed reluctantly into radicalization, the majority of Bedouin remain conciliatory and ready to compromise. Sheikh Abu Srihan, head of a dispossessed Bedouin tribe and a long-time activist, put it this way: "While we feel that we have experienced injustice in the past, we are more concerned about the future. We do not demand the return of our lands occupied by kibbutzim and the military, we simply want to farm and graze our herds on those parts of our lands which remain unused. We are prepared to compromise for the sake of peaceful coexistence."
The ambivalent place of the Bedouin in Israeli society is reflected in recent shifts of identity. While the government has tried, by various means, to maintain a distinction between its internal Palestinian Arab populace and the Bedouin Arabs (for example, Bedouin are allowed to volunteer for the Israel Defense Forces), a great majority of the Bedouin with whom I spoke identify themselves as Palestinian Arabs as well as Israeli citizens. They strongly assert that Bedouin are Palestinians, distinct only in that they live on the land rather than in cities and villages - a distinction which is rapidly fading.
Many of the older Bedouin remember reservation life under military rule and to this day remain fearful of voicing their discontent. But recently there has been a trend, especially but not exclusively among the young, to reverse this state of apprehension and inaction. People are expressing their views with the ballot. The religious Muslim party gained a decisive victory in municipal elections, especially in the townships. In the 1988 Knesset elections, 40% of the Bedouin voted for Rakah (Israel's predominantly Arab Communist party), the greatest block of Bedouin to ever vote for one party.
This has caused considerable concern in some government circles, especially as Bedouin identification with the intifada has markedly increased over the past three years. Furthermore, recent demonstrations have taken on intifada-like characteristics. For example, in response to the uprooting of 3000 olive trees, the spraying of 100 dunams of wheat, and the demolition of two Bedouin houses in Lagiyya by Israel's Land Authority on May 8 of this year, protests turned violent - rocks were thrown and tires burned. A similar incident took place in Rahat, the largest of the planned towns, this past Land Day. In both instances, the police and army intervened with equipment usually reserved for the occupied territories - tear gas, mounted police, helicopters, and a riot-control truck that shoots a powerful jet of colored water into crowds.
Change: For Better or Worse?
A number of Bedouin activists, aided by a handful of Israeli and international agencies, continue to struggle for equality in Israel. While news of the Bedouin plight has occasionally reached the pages of Israel's press, most Israelis remain largely uninformed, misinformed and/or apathetic. The Association for the Support and Defense of Bedouin Rights is working to change this by spending part of its limited resources to increase public awareness.
While there are a number of community-based grassroots organizations among the Bedouin of the Negev, the Association is the only broad-based group working for the Bedouin as a whole. It concentrates much of its effort on providing legal aid for Bedouin summoned to court in land disputes, but also operates two kindergartens, offers English classes and university preparation courses, subsidizes school books, operates a health clinic in the "illegal" settlement of Hura, and employs a social worker to help families cope with their problems. The Association has worked with a recently formed coalition of Bedouin leaders, as well as lawyers, architects, and experts in desert ecology, to discuss and generate a plan for viable alternative development in the Negev which includes an equitable solution to the problem of Bedouin land rights and settlements.
The Association was founded 11 years ago by concerned Bedouin leaders and is maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers. It receives much of its financial support from the New Israel Fund and the Muslim Waqf (religious council), as well as from foundations and agencies in the United States and Europe. Very few Jewish Israelis assist the Association, a notable exception being the Citizens Rights Movement party.
Besides the Association's "masterplan" for alternative development of the Negev, very few ideas have been generated in government circles concerning the reform of the current system - although many academics, as well as some government policy advisors, have come to the conclusion that Israel's future development plans for the Negev should include the Bedouin's basic and just demands. Dr. Joseph Ben-David, a sociologist and special advisor to the Knesset on Bedouin affairs, has recently published his own suggestions. These make no mention of legalizing the existant "spontaneous" settlements, but they do support adding agricultural segments to the seven existing townships and the creation of new townships with some agricultural facilities. While his ideas are a gesture in the right direction, many Bedouin, particularly those living on agricultural lands termed illegal by the state, feel that they do not go far enough.
Generally speaking, the Bedouin have little faith that government-sponsored development plans will eventually include their needs, and express far more support for the Association's emerging proposal which includes: the recognition of existing agricultural settlements, the creation of new farmsteads modeled after moshavim (collective farms), and the provision of water resources and drought compensation on the same terms available to Jewish farmers.
