Socio-Political Upheaval and Current Conditions of the Naqab Bedouin Arabs

This chapter describes the socio-political changes that the Naqab (Negev)
Bedouin Arabs have experienced over the past half century, the means
through which they have displayed their resistance to governmental efforts
to simultaneously marginalize and assimilate them, and their current living
conditions. It argues that state efforts to “modernize” indigenous peoples
and integrate them within state structures are often carried out through
displacement, land expropriation, and forced urbanization, resulting in
severe disruptions of traditional cultural lifestyles. In the context of the
Naqab, this dynamic of forced urbanization has been further complicated
by the backdrop of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Similar to other
indigenous communities in modern states, however, the Naqab Bedouin
Arabs have developed local forms of resistance to the methods of control
and assimilation employed by the Israeli state.