Definition
Negev Bedouin are formerly nomadic and later also semi-nomadic Arabs who live by rearing livestock in the deserts of southern Israel. The community is traditional and conservative, with a well-defined value system that directs and monitors behaviour and interpersonal relations.
The Negev Bedouin tribes have been divided into three classes, according to their origin: descendants of ancient Arabian nomads (originated from the Arabian peninsula, mainly from Saudi Arabia), descendants of Sinai Bedouin tribes, Palestinian peasants (Fellaheen) who came from cultivated areas. Al-Tarabin tribe is the largest tribe in the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula, Al-Tarabin long with Al-Tayaha, and Al-Azazma are the largest tribes in the Negev.
Counter to the image of the Bedouin as fierce stateless nomads roving the entire region, by the turn of the 20th century, much of the Bedouin population in Palestine was settled, semi-nomadic, and engaged in agriculture according to an intricate system of land ownership, grazing rights, and water access.
Today, many Bedouin call themselves 'Negev Arabs' rather than 'Bedouin', explaining that 'Bedouin' identity is intimately tied in with a pastoral nomadic way of life – a way of life they say is over. Although the Bedouin in Israel continue to be perceived as nomads, today all of them are fully sedentarized, and about half are urbanites.
Nevertheless, Negev Bedouin continue to possess goats and sheep: in 2000 the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that the Negev Bedouin owned 200,000 head of sheep and 5,000 of goats, while Bedouin estimates referred to 230,000 sheep and 20,000 goats.
Read more about this topic: Negev Bedouin
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