BEDOUIN ARABS AND THE ISRAELI SETTLER STATE: Land Policies and Indigenous Resistance OREN YIFTACHEL he problems of minorities in general, and indigenous peoples in particu- lar, have received close attention in a variety of colonial, postcolonial, postnational, and ethnocratic studies (Anderson 2000; Penrose 2000; Yiftachel 1999). Such studies have involved new interpretations of state- minority relations, closer attention to identity issues, and a renewed interest in the reciprocal relations between space and ethnic relations (Paasi 1999; Taylor 2000; Watson and Gibson 1995). The present paper aims to analyze a protracted struggle for control over lands between the state of Israel and the indigenous Bedouin Arab population in the state’s southern Beer-Sheva region (fig. 1). For centuries this area was the main grazing and habitation ground for the Bedouin Arabs, but since 1948 it has become subject to con- flicting demands and part of an escalating conflict. On the one hand, the state wishes to “Judaize” the region by constructing suburban and semirural Jewish developments and by diminishing Arab land control. To that end, it devised a plan to urbanize the Bedouin Arabs into seven towns on the fringes of the Beer-Sheva urban area. On the other, the Bedouin Arabs still living on the land wish to maintain their traditional lifestyle and resist migration into the seven planned towns. State authorities and Bedouin Arabs are at present in a deadlock over this issue. Beyond local circumstances, the case at hand is a prism through which we can study the consequences of an explicit policy of territorial expansion and control by an “ethnicizing” state over a peripheral (yet not powerless) minority. Given the longevity of the struggle and the considerable resources and energy devoted by all sides, it has now become a test case for both the T 03yifchatel 6/14/03 10:51 PM Page 21