ToC: Israel Affairs 21.1 (2015)

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Aryeh

Israel Affairs, Volume 21, Issue 1, January 2015

This new issue contains the following articles:

Articles
Ethnic Income Disparities in Israel
Pnina O. Plaut & Steven E. Plaut
Pages: 1-26
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.984418

‘Mayhew’s outcasts’: anti-Zionism and the Arab lobby in Harold Wilson’s Labour Party
James R. Vaughan
Pages: 27-47
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.984420

Israel Negev Bedouin during the 1948 War: Departure and Return
Havatzelet Yahel & Ruth Kark
Pages: 48-97
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.984421

Good news: the Carmel Newsreels and their place in the emerging Israeli language media
Oren Soffer & Tamar Liebes
Pages: 98-111
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.984422

From ‘Rambo’ to ‘sitting ducks’ and back again: the Israeli soldier in the media
Elisheva Rosman & Zipi Israeli
Pages: 112-130
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.984423

Israel and the Arab Gulf states: from tacit cooperation to reconciliation?
Yoel Guzansky
Pages: 131-147
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.984424

Building partnerships between Israeli and Palestinian youth: an integrative approach
Debbie Nathan, David Trimble & Shai Fuxman
Pages: 148-164
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.984436

Book Reviews
Flexigidity: the secret of Jewish adaptability
David Rodman
Pages: 165-166
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937913

Russia and Israel in the changing Middle East
David Rodman
Pages: 166-167
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937914

Social mobilization in the Arab–Israeli war of 1948: on the Israeli home front
David Rodman
Pages: 167-169
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937915

These are my brothers: a dramatic story of heroism during the Yom Kippur War
David Rodman
Pages: 169-171
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937916

Jews and the military: a history
David Rodman
Pages: 171-173
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937917

The Jewish revolt: ad 66–74
David Rodman
Pages: 173-173
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937918

The city besieged: siege and its manifestations in the ancient Near East
David Rodman
Pages: 173-175
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937919

The forgotten kingdom: the archaeology and history of northern Israel
David Rodman
Pages: 175-176
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2014.937920

New Book: Nasasra et al, The Naqab Bedouin and Colonialism

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Aryeh

Nasasra, Mansour, Sophie Richter-Devroe, Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder, and Richard Ratcliffe, eds. The Naqab Bedouin and Colonialism. New Perspectives. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2014.

URL: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415638456/

Abstract

The Naqab Bedouin and Colonialism brings together new scholarship to challenge perceived paradigms, often dominated by orientalist, modernist or developmentalist assumptions on the Naqab Bedouin.

The past decade has witnessed a change in both the wider knowledge production on, and political profile of, the Naqab Bedouin. This book addresses this change by firstly, endeavouring to overcome the historic isolation of Naqab Bedouin studies from the rest of Palestine studies by situating, studying and analyzing their predicaments firmly within the contemporary context of Israeli settler-colonial policies. Secondly, it strives to de-colonise research and advocacy on the Naqab Bedouin, by, for example, reclaiming ‘indigenous’ knowledge and terminology.

Offering not only a nuanced description and analysis of Naqab Bedouin agency and activism, but also trying to draw broader conclusion as to the functioning of settler-colonial power structures as well as to the politics of research in such a context, this book is essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in Postcolonial Studies, Development Studies, Israel/Palestine Studies and the contemporary Middle East more broadly.

Table of Contents

Part I: Changing Paradigms

1 Introduction: Rethinking the Paradigms – Richard Ratcliffe, Mansour Nasra, Sarab Abu Rabia Qweider, Sophie Richter-Devroe

2 Bedouin Tribes in the Middle East and the Naqab: Changing Dynamics and the New State – Mansour Nsasra

3 The Forgotten Victims of the Palestine Ethnic Cleansing – Ilan Pappe

4 Past and Present in the Discourse of Negev Bedouin Geography and Space: A Critical Review – Yuval Karplus & Avinoam Meir

5 Land, Identity, and History: New Discourse on the Nakba of Bedouin Arabs in the Naqab – Safa Abu Rabia

Part II: Naqab Bedouin Activism and Agency

6 The Politics of Non-cooperation and Lobbying: the Naqab Bedouin and Israeli Military Rule (1948-1967) – Mansour Nsara

7 Bedouin Women’s Organizations in the Naqab: Social Activism for Women’s Empowerment?– Elisabeth Marteu

8 Colonialism, Cause Advocacy, and the Naqab Case– Ahmad Amara

Part III: Politics of Research on/for/with Naqab Bedouin

9 Shifting Discourses: Unlocking Representations of Educated Bedouin Women’s Identities– Sarab Abu Rabia-Queder

New Article: Interview with Erez Pery about Sderot, Last Exit, and the School of Sound and Screen Arts at Sappir College

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Aryeh

Barlet, Olivier. “‘We need to think again from the beginning!’: Interview with Erez Pery about Sderot, Last Exit, and the School of Sound and Screen Arts at Sappir College, Israel.” Black Camera 6.1 (2014): 215-219.

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/black_camera/v006/6.1.barlet.htm

See also film review by Olivier Barlet and Melissa Thackway, pp. 219-220.

Excerpt

Olivier Barlet (OB):

What is your feeling about Osvalde Lewat’s film?

Erez Pery (EP):

Well, you ask the million-dollar question! I was surprised to see me and the school and my position within the structure from Osvalde’s point of view. It is what’s beautiful about cinema!

OB:

Does it serve or disserve the school?

EP:

It helps in the sense that more people get to know what we do here in the south of Israel. The festival is already quite known in circles in Europe. It’s funny because people in Paris know better what’s going on in the school than people here in Tel Aviv!

OB:

Would you have taken the same point of view?

EP:

The school is a part of my family. I wouldn’t do a film about it; it is too close, too intimate.

OB:

A lot of documentary films do that.

EP:

Yes, but I don’t really like that. I can only handle it when the private sphere and the public sphere connect together, when your private life some-how captures the zeitgeist of the society. I was surprised when Osvalde came to me with the idea of making a film about the school. It happened because of the festival: I saw Black Business in France and called to invite her. She was totally surprised. She has never been to Israel before. When she was at the festival, she was in a total shock. I think it was a kind of life-changing experience for her.

OB:

Does the fact that she is an African woman make a difference for you?

EP:

The festival is focused on the three continents: Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Finding good films from Africa is not easy these days. Sderot is inhabited by Jews from Africa: Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia. …

OB:

Do the students of the school tackle the issue of these identities?

EP:

Yes, because Israel is a nation of immigrants who had to curb their own identity to be Israelis, and what we are doing now is going back to our original identity, our own roots, the language that we have never talked, to know who we really are. This is the kind of film that is made here. Films of hybrid people, half Israeli, half something else. This is what Freud called “the return of the repressed.”

OB:

When you present the school outside, what are your main points?

EP:

First and foremost, we are a kind of alternative to the hegemonic center, not only in the subject matter, but also aesthetically. As we are on the periphery, very close to the border with Gaza, we have this little laboratory of our own: we can explore things. We are not afraid of difficult subjects and to open old wounds. This is basically what we do here, in contrast with what is going on in the rest of the country. People from the center think that it is a kind of weakness, giving up the prestige of the conventional aesthetic and big festivals. …

Dissertation: Razon, Citizenship, Science, and Medicine in the Negev/Naqab

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Aryeh

Razon, Na’amah. Producing Equality: Citizenship, Science, and Medicine in the Negev/Naqab. University of California, San Francisco, 2013.

URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1461769531

Abstract

In 1994 Israel passed the National Health Insurance Law (NHIL), guaranteeing universal and equal healthcare services to all citizens. Universal healthcare, while unprecedented in Israel, did not have a significant impact on the country’s Jewish majority. Yet for minority citizens such as the Bedouin community in the southern Israel, the NHIL transformed access to medical services, increasing insurance coverage from 60% to 100%, and changing the patient demographic in the regional hospital. Nonetheless, since 1995 when the law was implemented, disparities in health outcomes between Jewish and Arab citizens in the country have widened. Healthcare reform took place within a geo-political landscape that continues to marginalize its Arab citizens. Thus the paradigm of equality of healthcare intersects with national policies that create a differential citizenship in Israel. This dissertation, Producing Equality: Citizenship, Science, and Medicine in the Negev/Naqab , examines the impact of Israel’s National Health Insurance Law as a site to understand how Israel’s policies of inclusion and exclusion of Bedouin Arab citizens become entangled. My work highlights the tensions that exist between expansive and technical medical care that the state allocates to its Bedouin citizens, and the limited financial and political support the Bedouin community receives from the government in other spheres. Healthcare in southern Israel provides an important site to study the active production of the boundaries of citizenship, medicine, and reconfiguring of discrimination. I argue that the emphasis on scientific discourse in the medical arena ignores the social and political problems that place much of the Bedouin community in poor health. Therefore social, political, and historical questions that are central to understanding health disparities in the region remain beyond the scope of what providers view as relevant to their work. This bounding of medical care allows for the continuation of discriminatory policies towards the Bedouin citizens, while permitting the state and healthcare providers to assert they provide equal care to all patients.

Subject: Medical Ethics; Middle Eastern Studies; Public health

Classification: 0497: Medical Ethics; 0555: Middle Eastern Studies; 0573: Public health

Identifier / keyword: Social sciences, Health and environmental sciences, Bedouins, Citizenship, Equality, Israel, National Health Insurance Law, Access to services

Number of pages: 279

Publication year: 2013

Degree date: 2013

School code: 0034

Source: DAI-B 75/02(E), Aug 2014

Place of publication: Ann Arbor

Country of publication: United States

ISBN: 9781303486456

Advisor: Kaufman, Sharon

Committee member: Whitmarsh, Ian, Briggs, Charles

University/institution: University of California, San Francisco

Department: Medical Anthropology

University location: United States — California

Degree: Ph.D.

Source type: Dissertations & Theses

Language: English

Document type: Dissertation/Thesis

Dissertation/thesis number: 3599403

ProQuest document ID: 1461769531

New Article: Singh, Gender, Displacement, and the Challenges of “Homecoming” for Indian Jews in Dimona, 1950s-60s

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Aryeh

Singh, Maina Chawla. “‘Where Have You Brought us, Sir?’: Gender, Displacement, and the Challenges of ‘Homecoming’ for Indian Jews in Dimona, 1950s-60s.” Shofar 32.1 (2013): 1-26.

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v032/32.1.singh.html

Abstract

Hundreds of Jews who migrated from India to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s were settled in Israeli development towns. Ironically, many Indian Jews had left bustling urban centers like Bombay, only to be dropped off in dry, dusty, underdeveloped towns in the Negev desert. This article explores the postmigration experience of first-generation Indian Jewish women migrants settled in the town of Dimona, Israel. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic research and personal narratives, this paper analyzes the ramifications of this migration on the social, economic, linguistic, and cultural identities of these women. Highlighting the challenges faced by them as wives, mothers, and members of a labor force, the article underscores the gendered nature of this experience and its impact on the postaliya lives of these Indian Jewish migrants. The article argues that while Indian Jewish communities have successfully created supportive and associational networks across many development towns, Israeli towns like Dimona, which remain largely frozen in time, have also adversely affected the prospects of the second generation born to these Indian Jewish women who made aliya in the 1960s.

ToC: Israel Studies 19.1 (2014)

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Aryeh

Special Section—Arabs as Israeli Citizens
1. Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon and the Arab Draft That Never Was (pp. 1-23)
  
  Randall S. Geller
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.1
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.1
2. The Contemporary Historiographical Debate in Israel on Government Policies on Arabs in Israel During the Military Administration Period (1948–1966) (pp. 24-47)
  
  Arik Rudnitzky
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.24
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.24
3. The Politization of History and the Negev Bedouin Land Claims: A Review Essay on Indigenous (In)justice (pp. 48-74)
  
  Seth J. Frantzman
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.48
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.48
4. Increased Constructive Engagement Among Israeli Arabs: The Impact of Government Economic Initiatives (pp. 75-97)
  
  Robert Cherry
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.75
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.75
5. Democracy, Clan Politics and Weak Governance: The Case of the Arab Municipalities in Israel (pp. 98-125)
  
  Yakub Halabi
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.98
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.98
6. The Quest for Identity in Sayed Kashua’s Let It Be Morning (pp. 126-144)
  
  Michael Keren
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.126
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.126
Articles
1. From Peace in the South to War in the North: Menachem Begin as Prime Minister, 1977–1983 (pp. 145-165)
  
  Yechiam Weitz
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.145
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.145
2. Societal Values: Impact on Israel Security—The Kibbutz Movement as a Mobilized Elite (pp. 166-188)
  
  Zeev Drory
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.166
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.166
3. Postsecular Jewish Theology: Reading Gordon And Buber (pp. 189-213)
  
  Hagar Lahav
  
  DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.189
  
  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.189
Notes on Contributors (pp. 214-215)

DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.214

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.214
Guidelines for Contributors (pp. 216-218)

DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.216

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.19.1.216

ToC: Journal of Palestine Studies 42,4 (2013)

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Aryeh

Journal of Palestine Studies
Vol. 42, No. 4, Summer 2013

Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies

	Cover
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.cover
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: C1-C2.

	Front Matter
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.fm
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: i.

	Table of Contents
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.toc
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: ii-iii.

	From the Editor
	Rashid I. Khalidi
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.5
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 5-6.

Articles

	Dividing Jerusalem: British Urban Planning in the Holy City
	Nicholas E. Roberts
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.7
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 7-26.

	The Negev Land Question: Between Denial and Recognition
	Ahmad Amara
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.27
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 27-47.

Essays

	Normalcy and Violence: The Yearning for the Ordinary in Discourse of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
	Salim Tamari
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.48
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 48-60.

	The United States and the Palestinians, 1977–2012: Three Key Moments
	Rashid Khalidi
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.61
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 61-72.

	Rethinking the Palestinian Future
	Richard Falk
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.73
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 73-86.

Recent Books
The Paradoxes Of Liberal Zionism

	False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine
	False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine by Tikva Honig-Parnass
	Review by: Josh Ruebner
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.87
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 87-88.

Recent Books
Gay Identities In Israeli Cinema

	Soldiers, Rebels, and Drifters: Gay Representation in Israeli Cinema
	Soldiers, Rebels, and Drifters: Gay Representation in Israeli Cinema by Nir Cohen
	Review by: Colleen Jankovic
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.88
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 88-90.

Recent Books
Imaginations In Exile

	Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home
	Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home by Penny Johnson; Raja Shehadeh
	Review by: Matthew Abraham
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.90
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 90-91.

Recent Books
Two Faces Of The Palestinian Memoir

	Born in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian: A Memoir, and Occupation Diaries
	Born in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian: A Memoir by Jacob J. Nammar; Occupation Diaries by Raja Shehadeh
	Review by: Steven Salaita
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.91
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 91-93.

Recent Books
Re-Packaging Palestine: Tourist Literature

	Walking Palestine: 25 Journeys into the West Bank, and Palestine (Bradt Travel Guides)
	Walking Palestine: 25 Journeys into the West Bank by Stefan Szepesi; Raja Shehadeh; Palestine (Bradt Travel Guides) by Sarah Irving
	Review by: Glenn Bowman
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.93
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 93-95.

Recent Books
Narrating 1967

	The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins & Consequences, and The Six-Day War & Israeli Self-Defense: Questioning the Legal Basis for Preventive War
	The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins & Consequences by Wm. Roger Louis; Avi Shlaim; The Six-Day War & Israeli Self-Defense: Questioning the Legal Basis for Preventive War by John Quigley
	Review by: Thomas Reifer
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.95
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 95-97.

Recent Books
Europe’s Waning Influence

	Inglorious Disarray: Europe, Israel and the Palestinians since 1967
	Inglorious Disarray: Europe, Israel and the Palestinians since 1967 by Rory Miller
	Review by: Philip Leech
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.97
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 97-98.

Recent Books
An American Legacy In Jerusalem

	Anna’s House: The American Colony in Jerusalem
	Anna’s House: The American Colony in Jerusalem by Odd Karsten Tveit; Peter Scott-Hansen
	Review by: Penny Johnson
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.98
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 98-100.

	Arab Views
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.101
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 101.

	Selections from the Press
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.102
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 102-116.

	Photos from the Quarter
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.117
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 117-125.

	Quarterly Update on Conflict and Diplomacy
	Ben White
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.126
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 126-149.

	Settlement Monitor
	Geoffrey Aronson
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.150
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 150-160.

	Congressional Monitor
	Paul Karolyi and Paul James Costic
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.161
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 161-184.

	Documents and Source Material
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.185
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 185-206.

	Bibliography of Periodical Literature
	Norbert Scholz
	DOI: 10.1525/jps.2013.42.4.207
	Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2013, Vol. 42, No. 4: 207-220.

Cite: Kark & Frantzman, Empire, State and the Bedouin of the Middle East

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Aryeh

Kark, Ruth and Seth J. Frantzman. “Empire, State and the Bedouin of the Middle East, Past and Present: A Comparative Study of Land and Settlement Policies.” Middle Eastern Studies 48.4 (2012): 487-510.

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/mes/2012/00000048/00000004/art00001

Abstract

The Bedouin of the Middle East have been one of the region’s most marginalized groups in modern times. This study assesses the interplay between state policies and the Bedouin in the last 150 years, from a comparative standpoint. We examine the development of land laws in the Middle East as they have affected the Bedouin, from the enactment of the Ottoman land laws of 1858 up to the present. Moreover we explore whether the land laws and the fate of the Bedouin are associated with the characteristics of the regime in each country. We find that the imposition of land laws and policies directed at nomadic and sedentarizing Bedouins has depended on disparate factors such as the origins of the leadership of countries (i.e. Bedouin or non-Bedouin) and the social and economic models embraced. Regimes with origins in the tribal-Bedouin fabric of the Middle East have pursued land policies that were favorable to the Bedouin, whereas regimes drawing their strength from urban elites and with socialist outlooks encouraged very different policies. We also consider whether the case of the Bedouin in Israel is unique or reflects a larger regional context.

Cite: Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Palestinian Women in Israel

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Aryeh

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. “The Grammar of Rights in Colonial Contexts: The Case of Palestinian Women in Israel .” Middle East Law and Governance 4.1 (2012): 106-151.

–

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/melg/2012/00000004/00000001/art00003

–

Abstract

This article examines the limitations of human rights activism in a colonial context by invoking the voices, experiences, and insights of Bedouin women living in Israel. Through extensive interviews, Bedouin women living in unrecognized villages in the Naqab/Negev reveal their struggles as unrecognized and “invisible“ members of society. The article explores the ways in which the prevailing “grammar of rights“—the formal and informal mechanisms constructed and maintained by the colonial power to accord or withhold rights—delimits and confines the lives of the women, and also human rights activism. The women’s personal stories are juxtaposed against the legal justifications used to regulate and discriminate against them, as members of the indigenous Palestinian community, within the context of a “fear industry“. The article explores, from the perspective of the interviewed women, the internalization of that culture of fear, where they are constructed as the ones to be feared, and its personal, familial, and communal implications.

The interviewed women offer a critique of the existing human right framework, and question whether a human rights activism operating in a colonial context can be an emancipating force, so long as it is constrained by the regime’s rules. Furthermore, their voices assert that acknowledging historical injustice and its effect on women’s rights is central to re-thinking feminist human rights activism. The article ends by returning to the voices of women living in the unrecognized villages of the Naqab/Negev to investigate whether, and how, feminist politics and human rights activism could operationally function together within the context of Israeli state law. The article concludes that, in order to create a “grammar of rights“ that is based on equality, respect, and dignity, and which challenges the balance of power in colonial contexts, it is essential to fully include the lived experiences and insights of “invisible“ and unrecognized women.

Cite: Kark & Frantzman, The Negev: Ottoman and British Policy

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Aryeh

Kark, Ruth and Seth J. Frantzman. “The Negev: Land, Settlement, the Bedouin and Ottoman and British Policy 1871-1948.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 39.1 (2012): 53-77.

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cbjm/2012/00000039/00000001/art00003

Abstract

Focusing on the sub-district of Beersheba in British Mandatory Palestine, we examine issues of colonial administration, land use, relations between the government and indigenous nomads and extension of government control over marginal regions. Based on archival primary written sources and maps, we assess British Mandatory policy in the Negev, in the contexts of land ownership, settlement and the Bedouin population. The British Mandatory administration inherited a Southern Palestine Negev region that had been affected by a robust Ottoman policy of increasing administrative intervention, policing, land settlement and overall projection of government power. During 30 years of Mandatory rule, the policy was markedly different. The Beersheba sub-district, which incorporated almost half the area of Mandatory Palestine, was a unique administrative unit, populated almost entirely by nomadic Bedouins. Although the Mandatory authorities foresaw land settlement and sedenterisation as a goal in Palestine, they did not apply their administrative apparatus to fulfill this policy in the Negev, neglecting much of it.