Bedouins of the Naqab: Resisting erasure in ’48 Palestine

The Café shed light on the reality of life for Palestinian Bedouins of the Naqab, the southern lands colonised in 1948, where the struggle against ethnic displacement continues on a daily basis.   Over half of the 160,000 Naqab Bedouins reside in “unrecognized villages”, whose residents the Israeli government is trying to push into government-planned urban centers that disregard their lifestyle and needs. Although nominally Israeli citizens, they are denied basic services and infrastructure. Whole communities have been issued with demolition orders, and their villages are regularly bulldozed as part of a policy of Judaization. Palestinian Bedouin communities have been subject to systematic dispossession and economic de-development. The struggle to remain on the land has resulted in intensifying State oppression. The Cafe heard from academics and clinicians working in the Naqab, who discussed the legal, social and psychological aspects of this situation.

The Café was chaired by Einas Haj (Behavioral therapist and psychologist).

Einas was joined joined by Prof. Sarab Abu Rbie’a (Prof in social sciences); Huda Abu O’beid (Bachelor of Laws LLB): and Shireen Abu Bader (Psychotherapist and Counseling Psychologist).

The Cafe started with music:

The main discussion: