Customer Reviews

As Nomadism Ends: The Israeli Bedouin Of The Negev

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Considering Bedouin serve in special units in the Israeli army, I hardly believe they are as biased as the Gush Emunim settlers who treat them like animals in the Negev. This book is fair, and concise, written by someone who is very careful to convey the facts. I find it amusing an outsider labels the author of this book an "outsider" considering the fact that major settlements in the Negev are of outsiders that began with Jewish Zionist settlement in the 1920s and 1930s and was intensified in the 1940s and 1950s. The book, however, is not overly bogged down with the polarization of ethnocentrist antagonism, it does provide the reader with the Bedouin societal evolution under the Ottomans, then the British, and currently under the Israelis since 1948. Avinoam Meir is an academic and professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Development and The Negev Center for Regional Development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva. Hardly an outsider. He has published several papers on Bedouin and certainly knows the subject without romanticizing the Bedouin as other authors tend to do. An excellent read!

The author did not have to go very far to make substantial errors in this book, The title itself is an error, since these Bedouins are Palestinians, and not Israeli's (They would take great offense to being called Israeli's. This author is definately an outsider looking in.

The nomadism of the Bedouin in the Negev was stripped by Israel policy. Now they are finding that their culture and way of life is unacceptable in Israel. This book hinds the true facts. I would not recomend it.