The Bedouins and The Negev

Nomadism and Land Ownership Perspectives, 1800-1967

The Bedouins and the Negev: Nomadism and Land Ownership Perspectives, 1800-1967. When did the Bedouin tribes reach the Negev? Did they have permanent settlements in the Negev during the Ottoman Empire’s last century of rule, the British Mandate, and at the establishment of the State of Israel? How many Bedouins remained in the Negev, and how many left or returned after the 1948 war? Did they undertake agriculture? Were the Bedouins owners of registered lands in the Negev in the period between 1800–1967?




This book, based on an original, in-depth, multi-decade study of thousands of historical sources, provides answers to these important questions, which have implications for the past, the present, and the future of the Bedouin population in the Negev. The book is intended for all readers interested in the history of Palestine/the Land of Israel/State of Israel in general and the Bedouins in the Negev in particular, as well as for historians, geographers, legal scholars, researchers of nomadism, deserts, agriculture, and real estate.




Ruth Kark is a Full Professor at the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has written and edited 30 books and published more than 200 papers. These present the results of her long-term research into the historical-geographical, cultural, settlement, and land history of the Middle East, Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine, and the evolving State of Israel in the 19th and 20th centuries. Kark has studied the comparative historical geography of Bedouins in the Middle East and in the Negev in depth. One of her areas of expertise is indigenous and non-indigenous land issues around the world.