Tribalism Versus Community Organization: Geography of a Multi-Tribal Bedouin Locality in the Galilee

Arnon Medzini

doi:10.18778/2300-0562.05.11

Authors

Arnon Medzini Oranim Academic College of Education, Geography and Environment Department, Tivon 3600600, Israel

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2300-0562.05.11

Keywords:

Bedouin settlement, Galilee tribes, Israel's Bedouins, planned settlement, spontaneous settlement

Abstract

Currently the Bedouin community in Israel is in very advanced stages of transition from a traditional to a modern society. The intersection between a traditional nomad population and a country with a modern Western lifestyle is a basic and material point of conflict. The Bedouin tribes that settled in the rainy and densely populated Galilee area were affected by their economic, social and geographic proximity to the surrounding agricultural rural region. This geographic proximity also directly affected the relatively rapid transition from nomadism to settlement. Beginning in the 1960s, Israeli government policy began regulating the Bedouins' spontaneous settlement. This step was designed to encourage trends toward social change and modernization in Bedouin society by means of urbanization. The initiative also stemmed from the desire to prevent spontaneous Bedouin settlement that was characterized by broad spatial dispersal and to concentrate the Bedouins in a limited number of towns. The transition to permanent residence forced the Bedouins living there to cope with cultural and social difficulties.
On the one hand, the Bedouin tribal and clan structure strives to preserve itself, while on the other the selection of local leadership requires relinquishing tribalism in favor of the community structure. This research focuses on Zarzir, a Bedouin locality in the Galilee region of northern Israel comprising five tribes. The research revealed that the residents of this multi-tribal community demonstrated they were able to bridge between traditional values and modern values, contributing to the process of their adjustment to living in an urban residential environment. They slowly overcame their tribal pride and mutual suspicion and began to understand that it would be more beneficial to promote an independent municipal organization based on democratic elections according to candidates' management skills rather than based on tribal traditions.

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