The Naqab Bedouin and the Israeli Military Government: 1948-1967

The long history of Bedouin resistance to imposed states (under the Ottoman and British regimes, and from 1948 to 1967), and their agency and resistance to Israeli state policy, specifically to the military government, is examined. Certain aspects are also compared in relation to other Middle Eastern Bedouin communities (mainly in Syria and Jordan). The theoretical framework is drawn from scholarly writings that help to re-conceptualise the nature of the Bedouin-Israeli power relationship, while the Naqab case study references the literature on power, resistance, indigenous peoples, and state-minority relations. It is usually claimed that the Nagab Bedouin after 1948 were passive and silent, posing no threat, agency or resistance to the newly-imposed powerful Israeli regime; a simplistic and poorly-supported argument since the actual relationship was, and is, more complex and nuanced. While Israel during this period worked to fragment and control the Bedouin through various policies and tactics, the Bedouin like other indigenous peoples, utilised various methods to challenge the new state in order to survive and remain on their land. In-depth interviews conducted during 2007-2009 in the Nagab (southern Israel) with various tribes and key individuals from the Bedouin community, and with Israeli and British officials, suggest that under military government, Bedouin resistance to the authorities took various forms and mechanisms (e.g., political; cultural; physical and everyday resistance). This was relatively effective and produced several successes; they ?won? in limited ways, showing that Bedouin agency is much more substantial than was previously understood. This contribution to the underdeveloped sub-field of Palestinian-Bedouin research sheds new empirical light on the entire complex of Israel-minority relations. Today the Nagab remains contested because of Bedouin agency and resistance to the new state?s power. In fact, the Bedouin successfully modified Israeli state policies, thus requiring a new interpretation of the events of 1948-1967.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo