New Book: Shmueli and Khamaisi, Israel’s Invisible Negev Bedouin

Shmueli, Deborah F., and Rassem Khamaisi. Israel’s Invisible Negev Bedouin. Issues of Land and Spatial Planning New York: Springer, 2015.

 

This Brief provides a contextual framework for exploring the settlement rights of Israel’s Bedouin population of the Negev desert, a traditionally pastoral nomadic Arab population. In 1948, the Israeli government relocated this population from the Negev region to settlements in Siyag. The explicit aim was to control the Negev area for security purposes, sedentarize a nomadic people, and to improve their living conditions and bring them into the modern economy. Since then, many of the Bedouin population have continued to urbanize, moving into smaller towns and cities, while some remain in the settlement. The Israeli government’s has recently proposed a new settlement policy towards the Bedouin population, that would expel many from their current homes, which came into recent controversy with the UN Human Rights commission, causing it to be withdrawn. Israel as a whole has very complex social, cultural, and political fabric with territorial uncertainties. This Brief aims to provide an overview of the current situation, provide a theoretical, historical and legal context, explore barriers to implementation of previously proposed policies, and provide potential solutions to improve individual and collective stability and balance the cultural and territorial needs of the Bedouin population with the larger goals of the Israeli government. This work will be of interest to researchers studying Israel specifically, as well as researchers in urban planning, public policy, and issues related to indigenous populations and human rights.

 

Table of Contents

Front Matter
Pages i-xi

Introduction
Pages 1-4

Bedouin: Evolving Meanings
Pages 5-12

Arab Communities of Israel and Their Urbanization
Pages 13-20

Theoretical Context: Justice, Urbanism, and Indigenous Peoples
Pages 21-29

Negev (in Hebrew) or Naqab (in Arabic) Bedouin
Pages 31-35

Evolution of Local Authorities: A Historical Overview
Pages 37-45

Resettlement Planning 1948–Present
Pages 47-68

Lessons Learned
Pages 69-75

Proposals for Flexible Bedouin Resettlement and Collaborative Planning
Pages 77-90

Back Matter
Pages 91-102

New Article: Zemach, International Law and the Future of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories

Zemach, Ariel. “Frog in the Milk Vat: International Law and the Future of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” American University International Law Review 30.1 (2015): 53-100.

 
URL: http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/amuilr30&div=7

 
Excerpt

State Responsibility Rules provide illegally implanted settlers with protection that is weaker but broader than that they enjoy under international human rights law. International human rights law may prohibit the repatriation of certain settlers. Such protection is not available under State Responsibility Rules. Yet, the interests of individual settlers may support an occupant being exempt from its obligation to dismantle illegally established settlements even if international human rights law allows this measure. Such exemption neither depends on the contours of human rights contained in international human rights treaties of which the occupant is a signatory, nor does it have to be justified under a strict balancing-ofinterest analysis. Rather, State Responsibility Rules exempt an occupant from eliminating the consequences of its illegal conduct whenever such measure would entail the forceful eviction of a large number of individuals from their homes. Israel is therefore allowed, but is not required, to repatriate the settlers it has transferred into the Arab territories it occupies. The absence of a duty to repatriate the settlers allows for a strong argument in favor of including nonrepatriation within the sphere of interests that Israel may legitimately promote in negotiating the end of occupation.

 

 

ToC: Israel Affairs 20,4 (2014) – Political Economy in Israel

Israel Affairs, Volume 20, Issue 4, October 2014 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

Special Issue: Political Economy in Israel

Introduction

Introduction: the many faces of Israel’s political economy Gideon Doron & Ofer Arian Pages: 445-451 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955651

Part I The Superstructure

The development of social policy research in Israel John Gal & Roni Holler Pages: 452-469 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955652

Between the quality of the environment and the quality of the performances in Israeli local government Gideon Doron & Fany Yuval Pages: 470-483 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955653

The political economy of human rights: the struggle over the establishment of a human rights commission in Israel Nurit Hashimshony-Yaffe & Assaf Meydani Pages: 484-502 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955654

Part II Structure as details perspective

Political economy and work values: the case of Jews and Arabs in Israel Moshe Sharabi Pages: 503-516 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955655

The impact of electoral reforms on voting preferences: the Israeli 1996 and 1999 cases Hani Zubida & David Nachmias Pages: 517-529 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955656

Is an ‘economic peace’ possible? Israel and globalization since the 1970s Tal Sadeh Pages: 530-565 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955657

The evolution of public colleges in Israel Aliza Shenhar Pages: 566-576 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955658

The Visible Hand: economic censorship in Israeli media Miri Gal-Ezer Pages: 577-612 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955659

What do facts have to do with the summer 2011 protests? – Structuring reality Ofer Arian Pages: 613-631 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.955661

Editorial Board

Editorial Board Pages: ebi-ebi DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.961696

 

 

New Book: Meydani, The Anatomy of Human Rights in Israel

Meydani, Assaf. The Anatomy of Human Rights in Israel. Constitutional Rhetoric and State Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

 

 

Why is there such a large gap between the declarations that countries make about human rights and their imperfect implementation of them? Why do states that have enacted laws and signed treaties about human rights choose to not enforce these laws in daily life? Why have activists failed to achieve the goals of ensuring human rights domestically and internationally? This book examines the issue of human rights in the Israeli domestic arena by analyzing the politics and strategies of defending human rights. To do so, it integrates the tools of social choice theory with a unique institutionalist perspective that looks at both formal and informal, and local and international factors. The book offers an analysis explaining the processes through which Israel is struggling to promote human rights within a specific institutional environment, thus determining the future of Israeli democracy and its attitude toward human rights.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Institutional theory and social choice studies: understanding the anatomy of human rights
3. Human rights between constitutional rhetoric and state practice
4. Structural and cultural variables favoring a short-term orientation
5. The right to be free from the threat of torture in light of structural and cultural complexity
6. The right to equality: gender segregation on ultra-orthodox buses following the Israeli High Court of Justice ruling on the ‘segregation lines’ in 2011
7. The right to enjoy a decent lifestyle: the case of the Laron law – national insurance law (amendment no. 109, 2008) encouraging the disabled to work
8. The human rights commission in Israel that never was
9. Property rights – the issue of designing policy about the separation fence – the High Court of Justice case: Beit Sureiq Village v. the State of Israel, 2004
10. The right to human dignity and liberty: the organ transplant law, 5768 (2008)
11. Policy evaluation: analyzing the reality for human rights.

URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/human-rights/anatomy-human-rights-israel-constitutional-rhetoric-and-state-practice