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Israeli Bedouin

Israeli Bedouin[a] are Muslim Arab citizens of Israel who are members of Bedouin tribes. Bedouin tribes living in the historical region of Palestine also include the Palestinian Bedouin.

The main groups are the Galilee Bedouin in the north and the Negev Bedouin in the south.

Populations

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Bedouin encampment in the Negev Desert

Prior to the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, an estimated 65,000–90,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev desert. According to Encyclopedia Judaica, 15,000 Bedouin remained in the Negev after 1948; other sources put the number as low as 11,000.[1] Another source states that in 1999 110,000 Bedouins lived in the Negev, 50,000 in the Galilee and 10,000 in the central region of Israel.[2] All of the Bedouins residing in Israel were granted Israeli citizenship in 1954.[3]

As of 2020, there are 210,000 Bedouins in Israel: 150,000 in the Negev, 50,000 in Galilee and the Jezreel Valley, and 10,000 in the central region of Israel.[4]

Galilee Bedouins have been living in the northern part of Israel for four centuries. Today, they live in 28 settlements in the north. They also live in mixed villages with other non-Bedouin Arabs.[5]

Bedouin wedding procession in the Jerusalem section of the pike at the 1904 World's Fair.

Successive Israeli administrations tried to demolish Bedouins villages in the Negev.

Between 1967 and 1989, Israel built seven legal townships in the north-east of the Negev, with Tel as-Sabi or Tel Sheva the first. The largest, city of Rahat, has a population of over 58,700 (as of December 2013);[6] as such it is the largest Bedouin settlement in the world. Another well-known township out of the seven of them that the Israeli government built, is Hura. According to the Israel Land Administration (2007), some 60 per cent of the Negev Bedouin live in urban areas.[7] The rest live in so-called unrecognized villages, which are not officially recognized by the state due to general planning issues and other political reasons. Despite these communities often predating the state of Israel, many are considered to be located in areas deemed unsuitable by the Israeli government, including military fire zones, natural reserves, landfills, etc.[8]

A Negev Bedouin man.

On 29 September 2003, Israeli government adapted a new "Abu Basma Plan" (Resolution 881), according to which a new regional council was formed, unifying a number of unrecognized Bedouin settlements—Abu Basma Regional Council.[9] This resolution also regarded the need to establish seven new Bedouin settlements in the Negev,[10] literally meaning the official recognition of unrecognized settlements, providing them with a municipal status and consequently with all the basic services and infrastructure. The council was established by the Interior Ministry on 28 January 2004.[11] Israel is currently building or enlarging some 13 towns and cities in the Negev. According to the general planning, all of them will be fully equipped with the relevant infrastructure: schools, medical clinics, postal offices, etc. and they also will have electricity, running water and waste control. Several new industrial zones meant to fight unemployment are planned, some are already being constructed, like Idan HaNegev in the suburbs of Rahat.[12] It will have a hospital and a new campus inside.[13] The Bedouins of Israel receive free education and medical services from the state. They are allotted child cash benefits, which has contributed to the high birth rate among the Bedouin [citation needed] of 5% per year.[14]

About 1,600 Bedouin serve as volunteers in the Israel Defense Forces, many as trackers in the IDF's elite tracking units.[15]

Human rights

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In September 2011, the Israeli government approved a five-year economic development plan called the Prawer plan.[16] One of its implications is a relocation of some 30.000-40.000 Negev Bedouin from areas not recognized by the government to government-approved townships.[17][18] In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament called for the withdrawal of the Prawer plan and respect for the rights of the Bedouin people.[19] In September 2014, Yair Shamir, who heads the Israeli government's ministerial committee on Bedouin resettlement arrangements, stated that the government was examining ways to lower the birthrate of the Bedouin community in order to improve its standard of living. Shamir claimed that without intervention, the Bedouin population could exceed half a million by 2035.[20][21]

In May 2015, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees have combined forces. Both organizations called on Israel to stop its plans to relocate Bedouin communities currently living in the West Bank to land outside of Jerusalem for better access to infrastructure, health, and education. Officials stated that a "forcible transfer" of over 7000 Bedouin people would "destroy their culture and livelihoods."[22]

History

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The Bedouin who remained in the Negev after the foundation of Israel belonged to the Tiaha confederation[23] as well as some smaller groups such as the 'Azazme and the Jahalin. After 1948, some Negev Bedouins were displaced. The Jahalin tribe, for instance, lived in the Tel Arad region of the Negev prior to the 1950s. In the early 1950s, the Jahalin were among the tribes that, according to Emanuel Marx, "moved or were removed by the military government".[24] They ended up in the so-called E1 area East of Jerusalem.

Famously, Bedouin shepherds were the first to discover the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts from antiquity, in the Judean caves of Qumran in 1946. Of great religious, cultural, historical and linguistic significance, 972 texts were found over the following decade, many of which were discovered by Bedouins.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Hebrew: בדואים ישראלים, romanizedbedu'im yisralim. Arabic: البَدو الإسرَّائيليين, romanizedalbadu al'iisrayiyliiyin.

References

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  1. ^ Khalidi, Walid, ed. (1992). All That Remains. The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies. p. 582. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
  2. ^ "The Bedouin in Israel: Demography". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1 July 1999. Archived from the original on 26 October 2007.
  3. ^ "Report of the Commission to Propose a Policy for Arranging Bedouin Settlement in the Negev (a.k.a. the Goldberg Report)" (PDF). Ministry of Construction (in Hebrew). pp. 6–13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
  4. ^ "The Bedouin in Israel". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  5. ^ Zevulun, D. (2008). Home Is Where The Hatred Is? Sense of belonging and exclusion of Galilee Bedouins with regard to the Jewish state, Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Arab citizens (Master Thesis).
  6. ^ "Population and Density per Sq. Km. In Localities Numbering 5,000 Residents and More on 31 XII 2013(1)" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.
  7. ^ "Bedouin of the Negev" (PDF). Israel Land Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 May 2011.
  8. ^ "Bedouin In Israel". Minority Rights Group. 16 October 2023. Archived from the original on 17 September 2024.
  9. ^ "Beduin in Limbo". The Jerusalem Post. 24 December 2007. Archived from the original on 6 July 2013.
  10. ^ "Government resolutions passed in recent years regarding the Arab population of Israel". Abraham Fund Initiative. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012.
  11. ^ "The Bedouin Population in Transition: Site Visit to Abu Basma Regional Council". Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute. 28 June 2005. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
  12. ^ "A Lіѕt of Trаvеl Tips to Make Yоur Vacation Plаnnіng Easier". bns-en.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  13. ^ Eichner, Itamar (1 April 2012). "Harvard University makes aliyah". Ynetnews.
  14. ^ "The Bedouin in Israel". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  15. ^ "Muslim Arab Bedouins serve as Jewish state's gatekeepers". Al Arabiya English. 24 April 2013.
  16. ^ "Cabinet Approves Plan to Provide for the Status of Communities in, and the Economic Development of, the Bedouin Sector in the Negev". Prime Minister's Office. 11 September 2012.
  17. ^ "Bedouin transfer plan shows Israel's racism". Al Jazeera. 13 September 2011.
  18. ^ Sherwood, Harriet (3 November 2011). "Bedouin's plight: "We want to maintain our traditions. But it's a dream here"". The Guardian.
  19. ^ Khoury, Jack (8 July 2013). "European Parliament condemns Israel's policy toward Bedouin population". Haaretz. The European Parliament Calls for the protection of the Bedouin communities of the West Bank and in the Negev, and for Israeli authorities to respect their rights and condemns any violations (e.g., house demolitions, forced displacements, and public service limitations). It calls also, in this context, for the withdrawal of the Prawer Plan by the Israeli Government.
  20. ^ "Minister: Israel Looking at Ways to Lower Bedouin Birthrate". Haaretz. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  21. ^ "To up Bedouin living standards, minister tackles birth rate". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  22. ^ EFE News Service (20 May 2015). "U.N. agencies urge israel to halt palestinian bedouin relocation plans". ProQuest 1681936677.
  23. ^ Lustick, Ian (1980). Arabs in the Jewish State. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 57, 134–6.
  24. ^ Marx, Emanuel (1974). Bedouin Society in the Negev (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Rashafim. p. 17.