What Public, Whose Interest: The Negev Bedouin and the Roots of Planning from Below
Abstract
The Bedouin submission of an independent plan in 1999 was a major milestone in their long struggle for land rights and recognition and development of forty-five unrecognized villages. Bedouin interest is counter to the interest of the State, which attempted to convince them that settling in the seven towns planned until the 1980s was the best possible avenue for modernization and development. The Bedouin are, in fact, involved in a struggle for recognition of a major “public” ignored by the State. The entire process is an evolution of “planning-from-below” that began with attempts by the Bedouin to escape the planning oligarchy of the State in the early years, by resorting to various forms of planning advocacy. It continued by practicing various forms of centrifugality as an immanent component of their culture, versus the centripetal tendencies of the State. It culminated in the generation of planning empowerment actions of various types, intended to produce spatial realities that the State cannot ignore in its planning processes of Bedouin space in the Negev.References
Abu-Saad, I. and Lithwick, H. (2000) A Breakthrough: A Plan for the Development of Bedouin Settlements in the Negev. Beer Sheva: Negev Center for Regional Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (Hebrew)
Abu-Sumur, S. and Yiftachel, O. (2007) Oppositional planning: The Regional Council for Unrecognized Bedouin Villages. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Israeli Geographical Association, Beer-Sheva. (Hebrew)
Amiran, D. Shinar, A. and Ben David, Y. (1979) Bedouin settlements in the Beer-Sheva Basin. In: Shmueli, A. and Gradus, Y. (eds.) The Land of the Negev. Tel-Aviv: Ministry of Defense, pp.652-665. (Hebrew)
The Association of Civil Rights in Israel et al. (1995) A Framework Proposal for Solving the Problem of Land and Settlement of the Negev Bedouin. Submitted to a Symposium in the
Knesset, 20.12.1995, Jerusalem. (Hebrew)
Atzmon, E. (2000) Bedouin settlement in the permanent settlements: From the Pezoura to a planned settlement and back. Notes on the Bedouin, 32: 63-68. (Hebrew)
Bar-Zvi, S. and Ben-David, Y. (1978) Negev Bedouin in the 1930s and 1940s as a semi-nomadic society. Studies in the Geography of Israel, 10: 107-136. (Hebrew)
Ben-David, Y. (1982) Stages in the Development of the Spontaneous Bedouin Settlement in the Negev. Ph. D. Dissertation, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University.
Ben-David, Y. (1993) Bedouin Settlement in the Negev: Policy and Implementation. Jersusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. (Hebrew)
Ben-David, Y. (1996) A Conflict in the Negev: Bedouin, Jews, Land. Ra’anana: Center for Studying the Arab Society in Israel. ( Hebrew).
Ben-David, Y. (2004) The Bedouin in Israel-Land Conflict and Social Issues. Jerusalem: The Institute for Land Policy Research and Jerusalem Institute for Israel Research. (Hebrew)
Ben-David, Y. and Gonen, A. (2001) Bedouin and Fellaheen-Bedouin in the Urbanization Process in the Negev. Jerusalem: Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies. (Hebrew)
Ben-Israel, A. (2009) The Formation of Place Space and Landscape Construction by Urbanized Pastoral Nomads: The Case of the Bedouin of Hura-Yatir. Doctoral Dissertation, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva. (Hebrew)
Blunt, P. (1996) Indigenous Organizations and Development. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.
Hasson, Sh. (2009) Israeli Space: Between Geopolitical Threats and Challenges of Globalization. Jerusalem: The Israeli Institute for Land Research. Forthcoming. (Hebrew)
Davies, S. (1977) People of the Mediterranean: An Essay in Comparative Social Anthropology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Fenster, T. (2009) Planning from below in Israel: Reflections on the public interest. Geography Research Forum, 29: XXXX.
Forester J. (1994) Bridging interests and community: Advocacy planning and the challenges of deliberative democracy. Journal of the American Planning Association, 60, 2: 153 – 158.
Friedmann, J. (1987) Planning in the Public Domain: From Idea to Action. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Friedmann, J. (1992) Empowerment: The Politics of Alternative Development. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.
Greenspan, I. (2005) Mediating Bedouin Futures: The Roles of Advocacy NGOs in Land and Planning Conflicts between the State of Israel and the Negev Bedouin. A Master Thesis, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto.
Gulliver, P.H. (1969) Dispute settlement without courts: The Ndendeuli of Southern Tanzania. In Nader, L. (ed.) Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine, pp.24-68.
Hartshorne, R. (1950), The functional approach in political geography. Annals, Association of American Geographers, 40: 95-130.
Heskin, A. D. (1980) Crisis and response: A historical perspective on advocacy planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 46, 1: 50 – 63.
Hillier, J. (1993) To boldly go where no planners have ever gone. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 11: 89-113.
Karplus, Y. and Meir, A. (2009) Differential Survival Strategies and their Effects on the Production of Bedouin Space in the Negev. The 49th annual Conference of the Israeli Geographical Association, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan. (Hebrew)
Kressel, G.M. (1993) Nomadic pastoralists, agriculturalists and the state: Self sufficiency and dependence in the Middle East. Journal of Rural Cooperation, 21: 33-49.
Kressel, G.M. (2001) Personal communication.
Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (1991) An Expert Report to the Supreme Court Concerning the Local Elections and Dismantling the Local Council of Tel Sheva. Beer-Sheva: Unpublished report. (Hebrew)
Lithwick, H. (2000) An Urban Development Strategy for the Negev Bedouin Community. Negev Center for Regional Development, Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University.
Marx, E. (1974) Bedouin Society in Israel. Tel Aviv: Reshafim. (Hebrew)
Marx, E. (1980) Evacuation of the Bedouin from Tel-Malkhata. Notes on the Bedouin, 12: 36-45. (Hebrew)
Marx, E. (1981), The anthropologist as mediator. In Galaty, G.J. Aronson, D. and Salzman, P. C. (eds.), The Future of Pastoral Peoples. Ottawa: International Development Research Center, pp.119-126.
Marx, E. (1990), Advocacy in a Bedouin resettlement project in the Negev, Israel. In Salem-Murdock, M. and Horowitz, M.M. (eds.), Anthropology and Development in North Africa and the Middle East. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, pp.228-244.
Marx, E. (2000) Land and work: Negev Bedouin struggle with Israeli bureaucracies. Nomadic Peoples, 4: 106-121.
Maybury-Lewis, D. (1992) Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups and the State. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (1994) An Expert Report to the Supreme Court Concerning Local elections and Dismantling the Regional Council of Masos. Beer-Sheva: Unpublished report. (Hebrew)
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (1996) Territoriality among the Negev Bedouin in transition from nomadism to sedentarism. In: Salzman, P.C. and Fabietti, U. (eds.) Tribal and Peasant Pastoralism: The Dialectics of Cohesion and Fragmentation. Pavia, Italy: Ibis, pp.187-207.
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (1997), As Nomadism Ends: The Israeli Bedouin of the Negev. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press.
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (1999a), Local government among marginalized ex-nomads: The Israeli Bedouin and the state. In: Jussila, H., Majoral, R. and Mutambirwa, C. (eds.) Marginality in Space: Past Present and Future. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp.101-119.
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (1999b) The Tension Between the Bedouin and the State: Policy and Reality. Jerusalem: Floersheimer Center for Policy Studies. (Hebrew)
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (2003) From Planning Advocacy to Independent Planning: The Negev Bedouin on the Path to Democratization in Planning. Negev Center for Regional Development , Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (Hebrew)
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (2005) Bedouin, the Israeli state and insurgent planning: Globalization, localization or glocalization? Cities, 22, 3: 201-215.
Meir, A., Kressel, G. and Ben David, Y. (2009) Contemporary state discourse and historical pastoral spatiality: Contradictions in the land conflict between the Israeli Bedouin and the state. Ethnic and racial Studies, 32, 5: 823-843.
Meir, A. and Zivan, Z. (1998) Socio-cultural encounter on the frontier: Jewish settlers and Bedouin nomads in the Negev. In: Yiftachel, O. and Meir, A. (eds.) Ethnic Frontiers and Peripheries: Landscapes of Development and Inequality in Israel. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, pp.241-268.
Paine, R. (ed.) (1985) Advocacy and Anthropology: First Encounters. St. Johns, Newfoundland, Institute of Social and Economic Research: Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Perry, R. J. (1996) From Time Immemorial: Indigenous Peoples and State Systems. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Porat, Ch. (2000) Action of the State of Israel and the leftist alternatives for settling the Bedouin question in the Negev, 1953-1960. Iyunim Be-Tekumat Israel, 10: 420-476. (Hebrew)
Porat, Ch. (2007) The Negev Bedouin: Confrontation and conflict around the land and sedentary settlements. Kathedra, 126:129-156. (Hebrew)
Rabinovich, D. and Abu Bakhr, Ch. (2002) The Upstanding Generation. Tel Aviv: Keter. (Hebrew)
Reches, E. (2002) Arabs in Israel in the aftermath of the Oslo process: Localization of the national struggle. The New East, 23: 275-303. (Hebrew)
Regional Council for Unrecognized Bedouin Villages (RCBUV) and Associates (1999) A Plan for Development of a Municipal Authority for the Unrecognized Bedouin-Arab Villages in the Negev. Rahat. (Hebrew)
Rydin, Y. (2007), Reexamining the role of knowledge in planning theory. Planning Theory, 6: 52-68.
Sagi, I. (2002) Personal communication.
Salzman, P.C. (1981) When Nomads Settle: Processes of Sedentarization as Adaptation and Response. New York: Praeger.
Sandercock, L. (1998) Towards Cosmopolis. Chichester: Wiley.
Swift, J. (1977) In defense of nomads. Mazingira, 2: 26-30.
Tauxe, C.S. (1995) Marginalizing public participation in local planning: An ethnographic account. Journal of the American Planning Association, 61: 471-481.
Wellard, K. and Copestake, J.G. (1993) Non-Governmental Organizations and the State in Africa: Rethinking Roles in Sustainable Agricultural Development. London: Routledge.
Yiftachel, O. (1998) Planning and social control: Exploring the dark side. Journal of Planning Literature, 12: 395-406.
Yiftachel, O. (2001) Personal communication.
Yiftachel, O. (2002) Bedouin-Arabs and the Israeli settler state: Land policies and indigenous resistance. Portrait, 22: 233-255.
Yiftachel, O. (2006) Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Yishai, Y. (2003) From Mobilization to Reconciliation: Civil Society in Israel. Jerusalem: Carmel. (Hebrew)
Zivan, Z. (1990) Jewish-Bedouin Relationships in the Negev: The Frontier and its Impact on Settlement in the 1940s-1950s. A Master Thesis, Beer Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev, Department of Geography and Environmental Development. (Hebrew)
- The contributor(s) (authors) warrant that the entire work is original and unpublished; it is submitted only to this Journal and all text, data, figures/tables or other illustrations included in this work are completely original and unpublished, and these have not been previously published or submitted elsewhere in any form or media whatsoever.
- The contributor(s) warrant that the work contains no unlawful or libelous statements and opinions and liable materials of any kind whatsoever, does not infringe on any copyrights, intellectual property rights, personal rights or rights of any kind of others, nor contains any plagiarized, fraudulent, improperly attributed materials, instructions, procedures, information or ideas that might cause any harm, damage, injury, losses or costs of any kind to person or property.
- The contributor(s) retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- Geography Research Forum may disseminate the content of the publications and publications’ Meta data in text, image, or other print and electronic formats to providers of research databases (e.g. EBSCO, GeoBase, JSTOR) to facilitate publications' exposure.
