The Goldberg Committee

Legal and extra-legal means of solving the Naqab Bedouin case

Abstract

This paper reflects upon Israel's recent attempt to resolve land and settlement issues of the Palestinian Bedouin-Arabs in the Naqab through the formation of the Goldberg Committee, which has been tasked with making recommendations for solving this case. This recent effort follows a series of past attempts that grapple with the notion of extra-legality in handling the Bedouin dispute with the state over land and housing. The analysis presented here is part of an ongoing research effort, begun in September 2007, undertaken by the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard University Law School under my supervision. The research project has thus far consisted of three field missions to Israel and included dozens of interviews and meetings with Bedouins, activists, academics, politicians and government representatives. Most importantly, it produced a submission and presentation before the Goldberg Committee in May 2008, presenting an international human rights legal analysis of issues arising in the Bedouin case and some comparative examples of similar situations in the world and recommendations to be adopted.