ISR review of emptied lands

The paper examines the nature of indigenous identity among Bedouin Arabs in the Negev/Naqab, Israel, against a background of conceptual, legal and political controversy. It traces theoretically and comparatively the rise of indigeneity as a relational concept, deriving from colonial and postcolonial settings. The concept is shown to be part of the globalization of human rights struggle, with a potential of the indigeneity discourse to empower colonized and exploited minorities, as well as provide a platform for transitional justice. The heart of the paper provides a rebuttal of several arguments made by a group of scholars associated with the Israeli state, named here "the deniers", who have worked to reject Bedouin (and general Palestinian) claims for indigenous status, thereby denying their entitlement to a range of human and communal rights. The paper offers a systematic examination of historical and geographic evidence and reveals that "the deniers" have raised several relevant questions and dilemmas. However, these do not undermine the typical indigenous characteristics of the Naqab Bedouin Arabs. Research shows clearly that Bedouins belong within the group of indigenous societies according to accepted international definitions and norms. This understanding obliges the Israeli state to protect Bedouin Arabs from further removals, dispossession and marginalization; as well as correct, where possible, the profound damage caused by their past dispossession, eviction and marginalization.

California Western international law journal, 2018

2020

Introducing the Negev-Bedouin land issue from the international indigenous land rights perspective, this comparative study suggests options for the recognition of their land. The book demonstrates that the Bedouin land dispossession, like many indigenous peoples', progressed through several phases that included eviction and displacement, legislation, and judicial decisions that support acts of dispossession and deny the Bedouin's traditional land rights. Examining the Mawat legal doctrine on which the State and the Court rely on to deny Bedouin land rights, this volume introduces the relevant international law protecting indigenous land rights and shows how the limitations of this law prevent any meaningful protection of Bedouin land rights. In the second part of the work, the Aborigines' land in Australia is introduced as an example of indigenous peoples' successful struggle for their traditional land rights. The final chapter analyzes the basic elements of judicial recognition of the land and shows that the basic elements needed for Bedouin land recognition exist in the Israeli legal system. Proposing practical recommendations for the recognition of Bedouin land, this volume is a key resource to scholars and students interested in land rights, international law, comparative studies, and the Middle East. Morad Elsana is a research scholar and professional teacher at the American University (DC). Prior to this role, he served as a visiting assistant professor of law at the Californian Western School of Law, fellow of the Israel Institute. Elsana is the recipient of several prestigious fellowships such as The Fulbright Outreach fellowship; The NIF Civil Rights Leadership fellowship; and the McGill University "Middle East Program for Civil Society & Peace Building" fellowship. His research focuses on human rights, indigenous peoples' rights, legal pluralism comparative law, racial justice, and the Arab Minority in Israel. Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics 99 Erdoğan's 'New' Turkey Attempted Coup d'état and the Acceleration of Political Crisis Nikos Christofis 100 The Iraqi Kurds and the Cold War Regional Politics, 1958-1975 To those who have never given up their ancestor's land; to those who have never been deceived by the delusional colonial recognition of their land. To all the Palestinians, especially the Bedouins, to all the indigenous peoples around the globe I dedicate this work. To my parents (my late father Abdallah Salman Elsana and my mother Sarah Elsana), to the people who supported me after my father, my uncle Nawaf Assanea', my brothers and my sisters. Last but not least to my wife Abeer and my kids: Amer, Ghaith, Ahmad, and Zakaria, I dedicate this work. x Acknowledgements Middle Eastern, Islamic and Jewish Studies for her consistent support along my first publishing journey. Last but not least, I am grateful to my family, especially my wife, Abeer Alsane-Abu Dayyeh and my beloved son Amer Elsana, who were constantly reading and editing my drafts, showing support and understanding by helping, listening, and sharing my dilemmas, tolerating many absence days, and my long working nights. To all of them, I am most thankful. The dispossession of indigenous peoples' land rights remains one of the most common human rights issues around the world. However, despite its disastrous consequences on indigenous peoples and recent indigenous rights' advocacy achievements on both national and international levels, the problem remains. This study intends to add another stone to the literature in this field. Namely, it will introduce the dispossession of indigenous land in an additional part of the world, the Negev/Naqab region, the southern part of Israel through different circumstances (i.e., timing, location, sociopolitics) while showing the actions, policies, legislations, and ideologies that "collaborate" to dispossess the land of those "weak peoples" permanently. These similarities show that the actions taken against the Bedouin fall into the same category of activity against indigenous peoples in many places around the world, namely, the category of settler-colonialist occupation. As is well known, the issue of indigenous land dispossession accelerated after Europeans discovered the New World and began conquering, occupying, and colonizing indigenous peoples' land. This was similar to the classical colonization, soon it took the form of settler colonization (settler-colonial occupation). Obviously, the expansion of settler colonization required the dispossession of land for the settlement of the new immigrants in the colonies; thus, Europeans refused to acknowledge most indigenous peoples' rights, denying their sovereignty and freedom to practice their culture. On several occasions, they even denied their basic right to exist. The issue of indigenous peoples' land rights has been approached from several research frameworks such as settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, indigeneity, apartheid, and many others. Among the many, however, settlercolonialism has been the most prevalent framework used to study this issue, since "It is a framework that highlights commonalities in the history and contemporary situation of indigenous peoples in many parts of the world." According to Rowe and Tuck, settler-colonialism is The specific formation of colonialism in which people come to a land inhabited by (Indigenous) people and declare that land to be their new home. Settler colonialism is about the pursuit of land, not just labor or resources. Settler colonialism is a persistent societal structure, not just an historical event or origin story for a nation state. Settler colonialism has meant genocide of Indigenous peoples, the reconfiguring of Indigenous land into settler property. Steinman also notes that settler-colonial framework is the most dominant among indigenous peoples' land issues. This framework imbedded the dominant issues of conflict between indigenous peoples and states. Patrick Wolfe in his comparative article, "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native," writes that access to land is the primary motive of settler colonialism and therefore settler-colonialism is an eliminatory process. Wolfe emphasizes that "the primary motive for elimination is not race (or religion, ethnicity, grade of civilization, etc.) but access to territory." And because "Settler colonialism is inherently eliminatory…." Wolfe further states that the "settler-colonial project [relies] on the elimination of native societies." Citing Raphael Lemkin, he states that "[…] settler colonialism […] strives for the dissolution of native societies. […]; it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base-as [he] puts it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event." Therefore, "Settler colonialism destroys to replace." Settler colonials justify indigenous peoples' land dispossession by colonial ideology that claims they could better use of the land. According to Wolfe, "The ideological justification for the dispossession of Aborigines was that "we" could use the land better than they could." As Glenn states, "The settler goal of seizing and establishing property rights over land and resources required the removal of indigenes, which was accomplished by various forms of direct and indirect violence, including militarized genocide." Glenn continues, noting that "Settlers sought to control space, resources, and people not only by occupying land but also by establishing an exclusionary private property regime and coercive labor systems, including chattel slavery to work the land, extract resources, and build infrastructure." Glenn writes that unlike classical colonialism settler colonialism came to stay. Thus, it aimed to acquire the land essential for permanent settlement. To realize this, colonialism had to first eliminate indigenous peoples. Such elimination was done in a variety of ways: genocide, forced removal, or through assimilation. Later, settler-colonialism acquired the indigenous land through imposing property regimes that transformed land ownership from indigenous peoples to settlers. Settlers adopted an ideology that justified elimination of indigenous peoples' land claiming that indigenous peoples are savage, uncivilized peoples who do not efficiently use the land. Thus, indigenous peoples inevitably had to give way to civilized Europeans. Veracini, in his book Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview, notes that "Settler colonialism is a global and transnational phenomenon" that dominated the past but continues to exist in the present. Veracini shows

Israel Studies, 2006

The conflict between the State of Israel and the Negev Bedouin over land is not new; State vs. nomadic land ownership is an on-going dispute originating as early as the Ottoman Empire. Illegal construction and land use are its widespread expressions, making it difficult for the State to supply basic needs to its citizens. Furthermore, the dispute creates obstacles to the development of the Negev for the benefit of all its inhabitants. This article will try to lay out the Government's approach, as the author perceives it, to the resolution of the land dispute, through reaching financial settlements with various Bedouin individuals and tribes. Monetary and land compensation have both been offered, along with the revival of the Land Title Settlement procedure, as part of a new Government policy.

Catastrophe Remembered, 2005

The Committee [UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights] expresses its grave concern about the situation of the Bedouin Palestinians settled in Israel. The number of Bedouins living below the poverty line, their living and housing conditions, their levels of malnutrition, unemployment and infant mortality are all significantly higher than the national averages … [The unrecognised villages] have no access to water, electricity and sanitation and are subjected on a regular basis to land confiscations, house demolitions, fines for building "illegally", destruction of agricultural fields and trees, and systematic harassment and persecution by the Green Patrol. The Committee notes in particular that the Government's policy of settling Bedouins in seven "townships" has caused high levels of unemployment and loss of livelihood … (Concluding Observations. Israel, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19th Session, 16 November. 4 December 1998, E/C.12/1/Add.27). Throughout the Middle East, the desert-dwelling Bedouin have formed an important component of Arab society. As Arab society in general is undergoing many changes, no community has been so dramatically affected as that of the Bedouin. This is particularly true of the Palestinian Bedouin Arab community in Israel. In addition to the changes brought about by the general processes of modernisation, this community has also been greatly affected by the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and the subsequent transformation of the existing Palestinian Arab population into a minority in the Western-oriented, Jewish state. This article deals specifically with the evolving Israeli policies toward the Palestinian Bedouin community of the Negev Desert in southern Israel,

quarterly housing and esc rights law the battle for the land and housing rights of the negev bedouin

In Nur Masalha (ed.) Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees. London: Zed Books, pp.113-141., 2005