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Israeli government policy toward the Negev Bedouins

Abstract

The story of the Negev Bedouins after 1948 is one of expulsion, displacement and land confiscation. Displacement is an ongoing process, as the state pushes for concentration of the Bedouins in urban communities, on a small portion of their lands. At the time of this writing, 60 years after 1948, a settlement of the status of the Bedouin lands is still not in sight. Throughout, Bedouins have been denied full citizenship status, both on the collective level, by withholding municipal incorporation of most of their villages and encampments, and on the individual level, by forcing Bedouin citizens to deal with the state mostly through special and separate state agencies, thus setting them apart from the rest of Israeli citizenry.