The Indigenous World 2026: Bedouin in the Negev/Naqab

Written on 22 April 2026. Posted in Bedouin in the Negev/Naqab

The Bedouin of the Negev/Naqab are widely regarded by scholars and UN mechanisms as an Indigenous population of the region. Their presence in the Negev predates the establishment of the State of Israel and extends back centuries, with tribal land tenure systems and semi-nomadic pastoral traditions shaping the region’s social order.^[1]

Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, most Bedouin were displaced. Approximately 11,000 remained under military rule in a restricted zone known as the “Siyag” until 1966.^[2] Today, the Bedouin population in the Negev exceeds 300,000.^[3] Approximately one-third reside in 35 “unrecognized” villages excluded from official planning frameworks and denied basic infrastructure.^[4]

UN Special Rapporteurs and treaty bodies have repeatedly addressed the Bedouin situation in the context of Indigenous land rights, forced displacement, and discrimination.^[5] While Israel does not formally recognize them as Indigenous under domestic law, international standards increasingly frame their claims through Indigenous rights instruments, including UNDRIP.^[6]

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Summary

The year 2025 was characterized by regional escalation, renewed missile attacks, and ongoing internal displacement affecting the Bedouin citizens of Israel living in the Negev/Naqab region. While national discourse focused primarily on external threats, protection remained deeply unequal. Significant gaps in civilian shelter infrastructure, the demolition of homes during wartime, exclusion from emergency systems, and long-standing non-recognition policies exposed structural vulnerabilities. In the context of peace and security, the situation of the Bedouin in 2025 illustrates that insecurity can arise not only from armed conflict but also from structural inequality.

Peace and security: structural exposure in 2025

The events of 2025 demonstrated how the concept of “security” functions unevenly across populations.

Missile attacks following 7 October 2023, and renewed escalation involving Iran in 2025, exposed profound disparities in access to civilian protection infrastructure. According to research conducted by Nagabiya: The Bedouin Society Knowledge and Research Hub, the research center of the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), approximately 65% of Bedouin families in the Negev lack access to a protected room (mamad) in their homes.^[7]

Public shelter distribution is similarly unequal. Data presented to the Knesset State Control Committee in June 2025 showed that:

• Rahat (approx. 79,000 residents) has 5 public shelters.
• Segev Shalom has 5 shelters.
• Hura has 2 shelters.
• Ar’ara BaNegev has none.^[8]

In contrast, nearby Jewish towns of comparable or smaller size have dozens and, in some cases, over 100 public shelters.^[9]

The disparity was highlighted in a Haaretz investigation drawing on Nagabiya’s findings, which described a system of unequal civilian protection infrastructure across the Negev.^[10]

Civilian casualties and human impact

On 7 October 2023, seven Bedouin children were killed by missile strikes in unprotected localities in the Negev.^[11]

During the first direct Iranian missile attack in April 2024, the only civilian seriously injured was a young girl from a Bedouin village lacking adequate protective infrastructure. She continues to undergo recovery and rehabilitation.^[12]

NCF’s War Situation Update (2025) documented testimonies of families sheltering under bridges, in drainage canals, and in improvised trenches due to the absence of formal protection.^[13] In some cases, residents reported fearing administrative fines or demolition orders if they constructed makeshift protective structures without permits.^[14]

Although mobile shelters were deployed in parts of the south in 2024–2025, government data presented in June 2025 indicated that only a minimal proportion had been installed in Bedouin localities.^[15] Emergency placements do not address the systemic absence of permanent infrastructure.

Legal framework and structural barriers

Under Article 3 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, states are obligated to ensure humane treatment and protection of civilians during armed conflict.^[16] Israel’s Civil Defense Law (1951) mandates civil protection infrastructure for the population.^[17]

However, planning policy directly affects access to shelter. Residents of unrecognized villages cannot obtain building permits because there are no approved outline plans. As documented in NCF’s 2023 position paper and subsequent Knesset submissions, this planning exclusion prevents residents from legally constructing reinforced rooms.^[18]

The State Comptroller’s 2024 report also identified systemic deficiencies in nationwide shelter planning and approval processes, including delays and bureaucratic obstacles.^[19] For unrecognized villages, the barriers are categorical rather than procedural.

The result is a structural linkage between land recognition and physical security.

Education and infrastructure under fire

The shelter gap extends to educational facilities. NCF’s supplementary submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to Education (June 2025) documented that hundreds of classrooms in Bedouin localities lack adequate reinforced protection.^[20]

During periods of missile alert, schools in affected areas were unable to operate safely. In unrecognized villages, where schools often lack permanent buildings, the situation is particularly acute.

Emergency remote-learning policies presume internet access and digital infrastructure. However, unrecognized villages continue to experience limited broadband access and infrastructure deficits.^[21] This compounds educational disruption during times of conflict.

Food insecurity also worsened in unrecognized villages following October 2023 and during the renewed escalation, as documented in joint research by NCF and partner organizations.^[22]

Security therefore intersects with infrastructure, education, and access to services.

Demolitions during conflict

In June 2025, shortly after the regional escalation involving Iran, demolition operations resumed in the unrecognized village of as-Sirr.^[23] Families whose homes were demolished remained without permanent housing during a period of heightened security risk.

The continuation of home demolitions during armed conflict raises serious concerns under international humanitarian and human rights standards, particularly when affected populations lack alternative safe housing.^[24]

The Be’er Sheva District Court ruling regarding Ras Jarabah (June 2025) temporarily halted one expansion plan but did not resolve broader displacement dynamics.^[25]

Peace and security as equal protection

2025 demonstrated that security cannot be reduced solely to responding to external threats. For the Bedouin citizens of the Negev, insecurity is shaped by:

• Lack of village recognition
• Exclusion from planning frameworks
• Unequal shelter infrastructure
• Demolition policy
• Gaps in education and services

Repeated escalations in 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025 have shown a persistent structural vulnerability. Without systemic reform, future conflicts will yield the same unequal results.

Peace, in this context, requires equal civilian protection, equitable infrastructure planning, and recognition of Indigenous land rights.

The Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF) was established in 1997 to provide a space for Arab-Jewish shared society in the struggle for civil equality and the advancement of mutual tolerance and coexistence in the Negev/Naqab. NCF is unique in being the only Arab-Jewish organization that remains focused solely on the problems confronting the Negev/Naqab area. NCF considers that the State of Israel is failing to respect, protect and fulfil its human rights obligations, without discrimination, towards the Arab Bedouin Indigenous communities in the Negev/Naqab. As a result, NCF has set one of its goals as the achievement of full civil rights and equality for all people who make the Negev/Naqab their home.

 This article was written by Chloé Portheault, NCF International Advocacy Coordinator for the Bedouin minority’s rights, and Huda Abu Obaid, NCF Executive Director.

 Intisar Abu Kwider, NCF Coordinator of the Documentation Project for Children, Dr. Manal Hreib, Director of Research Development, Nagabiya, and Zaher Hatib, Data Engineer Specialist, Nagabiya, also provided important feedback.

This article is part of the 40^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. Find The Indigenous World 2026 in full here

Notes and references

^[1] See references cited within: Chloé Portheault, Huda Abu Obaid, Nūra al-Ṣaġāyreh, and Intisar Abu Kwider. “Bedouin in the Negev-Naqab.” The Indigenous World 2025 (edited by Dwayne Mamo). Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), 24 April 2025. https://iwgia.org/en/bedouin_negev_naqab/5654-iw-2025-bedouin.html

^[2] Ibid.; historical overview section.

^[3] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), War Situation Update (2025), demographic data section.

^[4] Nagabiya Research Data; Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF) - Knesset Submission, June 2025.

^[5] UN Special Rapporteur communications cited in “Lack of Shelters – UN Special Rapporteurs” submission.

^[6] Ibid.; references to UNDRIP framework.

^[7] Nagabiya, “כשל המיגון בחברה הבדואית בנגב” [Failure of Protection in Bedouin Society in the Negev], 2026 (Hebrew).

^[8] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), Document submitted to the Knesset, June 2025; Knesset Research and Information Center data.

^[9] Ibid.; comparative municipal shelter data.

^[10] עדן סולומון, “מחקר: ביישובים הבדואיים בנגב יש מקלט אחד ל־53 אלף תושבים; ביהודיים – אחד למאות” [“Study: In Bedouin localities in the Negev there is one shelter for 53,000 residents; in Jewish localities – one for hundreds”], הארץ (Haaretz), 26 January 2026, https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/2026-01-26/ty-article/.premium/0000019b-e99d-d174-a3bf-edbd26710000.

^[11] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), War Situation Update (2025); Assessment Following the Last Developments in the South.

^[12] Ibid.

^[13] Op. cit., 3.

^[14] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), Diplomatic Update, June 2025.

^[15] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), Knesset Submission, June 2025; Government Decision No. 3166 (June 2025).

^[16] Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention), 12 August 1949, Article 3, 75 UNTS 287, https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/geneva-convention-relative-protection-civilian-persons-time-war.

^[17] Civil Defense Law (1951), State of Israel. 1951 [Civil Defense Law, 5711–1951] (State of Israel), as amended, https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/legalinfo/hitgonenu01/he/files_legislation_Hitgonenut_Hitgonenut01.pdf.

^[18] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), Lack of protection against missiles and rockets in the unrecognized villages in the Negev (position paper, 15 November 2023), https://www.dukium.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/NCF-Lack-of-protection-against-missiles-and-rockets_position-paper_15.11.23_EN.pdf.

^[19] State Comptroller of Israel, “מיגון ומקלוט ברשויות המקומיות” [“Protection and shelters in local authorities”], Annual Report, July 2024, https://library.mevaker.gov.il/sites/DigitalLibrary/Pages/Reports/9561-4.aspx (section on shelter infrastructure)

^[20] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), Supplementary Contribution to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education – Bedouin children in the Negev post Iran–Israel war – June 2025 (submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to Education, 16 June 2025), https://www.dukium.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Supplementary-Contribution-to-the-Special-Rapporteur-on-the-Right-to-Education.pdf.

^[21] Ibid.; digital access and infrastructure section.

^[22] Adva Center and Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), Food Insecurity in Bedouin Villages Deprived of Recognition in the Negev Region of Israel (qualitative study, March 2025), https://adva.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/foodinsecurity-negev-qualitative-en.pdf; 22a. Adva Center and Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), Food Insecurity in Bedouin Communities in the Negev-Naqab (World Food Safety Day brief, June 2024), https://www.dukium.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/World-Food-Safety-Day-2024-NCF-Negabyia-ADVA.pdf.

^[23] Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF) – War Situation Update (2025), demolition section.

^[24] Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention), 12 August 1949, Article 3, 75 UNTS 287; UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 7: The right to adequate housing (art. 11.1): forced evictions, 20 May 1997, UN doc. E/1998/22, https://www.refworld.org/legal/general/cescr/1997/en/53063.

^[25] Be’er Sheva District Court (Administrative Affairs), judgment annulling approval of the “Dimona East Plan” affecting Ras Jarabah, 25 June 2025, cited in Adalah, “Be’er Sheva District Court Cancels Approval of Plan to Expand Dimona that Threatens to Displace Bedouin Village of Ras Jrabah and Its 500 Residents”, 25 June 2025, https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/11304.

Tags: Global governance