Spatial transformation and indigenous resistance - The urbanization of the Palestinian Bedouin in southern Israel

Indigenous peoples share a history of exclusion from the dominant society decision-making processes that directly affect them, including their displacement and relocation, development initiatives, and the process of urbanization. This article begins with a review of indigenous experiences of and responses to urbanization in a number of nation-states throughout the world. It then examines the experience of the indigenous Palestinian Bedouin community in southern Israel, whose traditional lifestyle of land-based seminomadic pastoralism is being replaced by landless, labor force, government-planned urbanization. Issues of key importance to that process are explored, including the historical political context and state-indigenous relations, the conflict over land, and the settler-colonial vision inherent in the conceptualization and implementation of the urban models. Finally, Bedouin responses and resistance to the government's urbanization program are discussed.