Negev/Naqab

Israeli soldiers operating in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 31, 2024. (Oren Cohen/Flash90)

Is this Israel’s first apartheid war?

Far from lacking a political strategy, Israel is fighting to reinforce the supremacist project it has built for decades between the river and the sea.

By Oren Yiftachel October 15, 2024

Israeli forces raze the entire unrecognized village of Wadi al-Khalil in the Naqab, May 8, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

Israel razes entire Bedouin village to expand a highway

The demolition of Wadi al-Khalil, an unrecognized village in the Naqab, left over 300 citizens homeless despite their attempts to reach a compromise.

By Oren Ziv May 10, 2024

Ibrahim al-Quran, an educator from the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al-Bat in the Naqab. Two of his children were killed on October 7. (Photo: Oren Ziv)

Reeling from October 7, Bedouin citizens struggle to make their losses known

Despite the toll of Hamas' attack, many in the Naqab feel they can only rely on community support in a context where Bedouin life is not valued.

By Kaid Abu Latif December 6, 2023

Latest

Far-right politician and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir visits Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, June 10, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The sheriff comes for his share of the colony’s spoils

Like Andrew Jackson in 19th century America, Ben Gvir represents a settler underclass demanding the full privileges derived from native dispossession.

By Avi-ram Tzoreff December 1, 2022

Israeli police officers guard during a protest against tree planting by the Jewish National Fund, outside the Bedouin village of Sa'wa al-Atrash in the Naqab/Negev desert, southern Israel, January 12, 2022. (Flash90)

Gov’t contract shows how Israel enlists forests to grab land from Bedouin citizens

An agreement between the Israel Land Authority and Jewish National Fund uses militaristic language justifying tree-planting as weapon against 'invaders.'

By Meron Rapoport September 22, 2022

Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas and party members at the party headquarters in Tamra, on election night, March 23, 2021. (Flash90)

Disillusioned with Ra’am, a new party wants Bedouins to have their own voice

The Islamist Ra'am has long had strong support in the Naqab. But after the party's failures in government, Bedouin citizens are demanding a change.

By Baker Zoubi August 17, 2022

Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab/Negev, protest on Road 31 near the village of Sawe al-Atrash, against an afforestation plan carried out by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), January 13, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

What’s behind the Israeli right’s renewed war on Palestinian citizens?

Having moved on from its failed bid to formally annex the West Bank, the Israeli right has trained its sights back on an old target.

By Meron Rapoport February 10, 2022

Palestinians, many of whom came from the West Bank, sit near the Mediterranean Sea during the last day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday as the sun sets in Jaffa, July 19, 2015. (Oren Ziv)

From the river to the sea, Palestinians are not free

Rather than threatening those who chant pro-Palestine slogans, the British government should promote freedom and equality for all between the river and the sea.

By Ben Reiff January 30, 2022

Bedouin women and girls protest Israel's afforestation and expropriation of their land, Sa’wa al-Atrash, Naqab, January 12, 2022. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

As Naqab protests intensify, Bedouin women are taking the helm

Women and girls are increasingly on the front lines of Bedouin resistance to Israel’s expropriation of their land — and they’re just getting started.

By Samah Salaime January 19, 2022

Israelis holding signs of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) take part in a Tu Bishvat tradition of planting trees, in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Michmash, in the Binyamin District, Jan. 15, 2014. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

The JNF is no innocent charity

The Jewish National Fund presents itself in Germany as a 'green' organization serving all of Israel's residents. That's not what its leaders say in Israel.

By Michael Sappir March 4, 2021

Bedouin families outside their homes in the village of Umm al Hiran, in the Negev desert, southern Israel, August 27, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

‘Total poverty’: Bedouins in Israel struggle to get by under pandemic

The coronavirus crisis has worsened years of government neglect of Bedouins in the Naqab, forcing a once self-sufficient society into deeper destitution.

By Suha Arraf July 21, 2020

Dozens of Israeli and Palestinian activists protested on the Israeli side of the Gaza fence in solidarity with the Great Return March. Palestinian demonstrators responded with cheers of joy at the sight of the Palestinian flags. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Seven decades on, internally displaced Palestinians wait to return home

Muhammad Kayal is one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel who remain internally displaced 72 years after the Nakba, and whom Israel will not allow to return to their former — and often empty — land.

By Orly Noy May 15, 2020

A child rides a bicycle next to a mosque in the Bedouin village of Bir-Hadaj, Negev desert, April 27, 2014. (Activestills.org)

‘Arab students will pay the price’: Pandemic widens Israel’s education gaps

Lacking basic services due to state discrimination, Bedouin students in the Naqab/Negev must be equipped for online schooling, rights groups demand.

By Oren Ziv April 7, 2020