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The Naqab/ Negev Arab Bedouin tribes

The Bedouin use the term ‘Naqab’ in Arabic to refer to the “route in the mountain”, the southern part of Palestine (Dabbagh 1965:116). The related term ‘Negeb’ is an old Hebrew appellation meaning ‘the South’. ‘Naqab’ derives from an ancient Semitic word ‘Negeb’, which means ‘the dry land’ and refers to the entire Beersheba district in southern Palestine. The Naqab region extends from Beersheba to Aqaba, and covers 12,577 km, which comprises half of Palestine.

Bedouin have inhabited the Naqab for centuries as semi-nomadic pastoralists. Prior to the creation of Israel, they were estimated to number between 65,000 and 100,000, divided into 95 tribes. In 1948 most of them became refugees in neighbouring Arab countries, with the remainder numbering approximately 11,000. The community known today as the Naqab Bedouin includes the survivors of this remaining 11,000 and their descendants. The Bedouin outside Israel are classed as Palestinian refugees, and live primarily in Gaza, Hebron and Jordan.

The Bedouin dominated the Naqab in nine main tribal confederations: Tiyaha, Zullam, Tarabin, ’Azazma, ’Hanajreh, Jbarat, Sa’idiyeen, Aheiwat, and Jahalin. Since 1948 the Bedouin have been administratively segregated from the rest of the Arab population in Israel, and their numbers today are estimated at 200,000. In 2008, they comprised 25 percent of the Northern Naqab population, and constituted approximately 12 percent of the total Palestinian Arab minority in Israel.

Since 1948 the Naqab Bedouin have also undergone a series of social transformations that are both distinct from, and resonant with, those experienced by their kin and neighbours elsewhere. Following the first exodus in 1948, and up until 1959, more Bedouin were subsequently to Sinai and the Hebron Hills, with the remainder concentrated into a Closed Zone (siyaj) for more than 18 years. From 1948 to 1967, the whole Naqab region was under military administration, and as such the Bedouin were secluded from other Arab populations incorporated within the new state.