Temporal dynamics of contested local government among the Bedouin in Israel

Research on Indigenous local government has been overlooking the temporal perspective, particularly concerning the dynamics of controlling local government. We submit that long-term tension between up- and down-scaling predilections of the state versus an Indigenous group may produce such dynamics of control. This process is explored among the Israeli Indigenous Bedouin from their pre-state semi-nomadism to present day semi-urbanism. The dynamics of local government were studied in Bedouin towns and in the newly recognized and incorporated villages. We identify a recurrent pattern of dynamics around the control of local government between the Bedouin and the state externally and among different Bedouin groups internally. It is suggested that through sociality of scale and translocal government, the Bedouin have been regaining control of the local government imposed upon them, thus asserting their historical tribal territorial hegemony.