Abstract
Israel’s approximately 250,000 Bedouins self-define as indigenous because they are the original inhabitants of the Negev, the country’s southern region, and lived there before the establishment of the state in 1948. Their society has undergone substantial changes since the 1960s, following the government’s decision to urbanize this population. This process has had many social, economic, and political ramifications. The Bedouin population is young, and its percentage of young people is higher than that of Israel’s overall population. One of the ramifications of urbanization is that young Bedouin men have entered the labor market and institutions of higher education. How do these young men experience the changes and life in an urban village? For them, what is the meaning of belonging? Is their sense of belonging to the village, the tribe, the family, or the nation? This qualitative study of 20 educated Bedouin young men found that there is no sense of belonging to the geophysical space of the village; the urban space is alienated. There is, however, a feeling of respect and belonging to the tribe, to the Arab and Muslim people, and to Arab Islamic thought.
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Notes
For a map of Bedouin villages in the Negev see https://www.dukium.org/map?page_id=4
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Alhuzail, N.A. “I just live in the village, but I don’t belong to it” educated young bedouin men and belonging. J Hous and the Built Environ 38, 1511–1527 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-022-10002-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-022-10002-0