Abstract:If knowledge is considered as incorporated in activities and events, a monolithic reality is no longer waiting to be uncovered, but multiple realities are coming into being through different sets of practices. In the Israeli negev desert, home demolition of unauthorized Arabbedouin villages is a contested issue, enacting multiple and contradictory realities. The tents and shacks of el-Shams, for instance, have been demolished nearly ten times in one year by the Israeli police, but each time they have been reco… Show more
“…Lack of comprehensive solutions (Yahel 2006) has resulted in the occasional demolition of shacks and clusters, creating humanitarian and economic problems (Koensler 2010;Shamir 1996). Today, the residents of the unrecognized settlements, constituting about 40-45 per cent of the Bedouin population in the Negev, are among the most disadvantaged citizens in Israel, deprived of their distinctive way of life, and struggle for basic human rights.…”
This study reviews the factors involved in the transition from the traditional Bedouin 1 black tent to the tin shack. 2 Many economic, social, and macro-political factors are involved in this transition. It is shown that in functional terms the tin shack is very similar to the traditional tent. However, compared with the traditional tent, the climatic performance of the tin shack is much worse, amplifying ambient temperature extremes, and increasing respiratory related complications. In spite of this poor performance, tin shacks have become the mainstream dwelling form of Bedouin settlements in the Negev during the last three decades. Evolution of the 'Modern' Transitory Shelter VOLUME 15 ISSUE 2 NOMADIC PEOPLES (2011) 35Isaac A. Meir is an architect, town planner and archaeologist. For twenty-six years he has been on the faculty of the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He focuses on environment responsive, sustainable architecture and planning, primarily in drylands and deserts, and on the evolution of vernacular architecture and technology.
“…Lack of comprehensive solutions (Yahel 2006) has resulted in the occasional demolition of shacks and clusters, creating humanitarian and economic problems (Koensler 2010;Shamir 1996). Today, the residents of the unrecognized settlements, constituting about 40-45 per cent of the Bedouin population in the Negev, are among the most disadvantaged citizens in Israel, deprived of their distinctive way of life, and struggle for basic human rights.…”
This study reviews the factors involved in the transition from the traditional Bedouin 1 black tent to the tin shack. 2 Many economic, social, and macro-political factors are involved in this transition. It is shown that in functional terms the tin shack is very similar to the traditional tent. However, compared with the traditional tent, the climatic performance of the tin shack is much worse, amplifying ambient temperature extremes, and increasing respiratory related complications. In spite of this poor performance, tin shacks have become the mainstream dwelling form of Bedouin settlements in the Negev during the last three decades. Evolution of the 'Modern' Transitory Shelter VOLUME 15 ISSUE 2 NOMADIC PEOPLES (2011) 35Isaac A. Meir is an architect, town planner and archaeologist. For twenty-six years he has been on the faculty of the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He focuses on environment responsive, sustainable architecture and planning, primarily in drylands and deserts, and on the evolution of vernacular architecture and technology.
“…On the ground, meanwhile, building contributes to the articulation of resistance, as it often functions primarily in opposition to Jewish ethno‐nationalist politics (Koensler, ; ). I refer to this unusual use of building as ‘insurgent building’, a social practice that can be understood in relation to the concept of ‘insurgent planning’ described by Negev‐based political geographer Avinoam Meir (: 206):Insurgent planning is a radical concept.…”
In the conflict between Bedouin representatives and government authorities in the southern Israeli Negev, the term 'insurgent building' refers to the construction of buildings erected in the full expectation that they will be demolished by the Israeli police shortly thereafter. This article analyses how insurgent building is employed as a spatial practice by emerging political actors to claim contested Bedouin landownership. Importantly, insurgent building relies on the ability of media and advocacy organizations to mobilize behind the issue. Most of the relevant scholarship takes the interpretative categories advanced by these actors at face value. Following anthropological debates regarding objectification and categorization, I examine the context of a specific case of insurgent building. Emerging political actors who employ insurgent building often rely on predefined ethnic categories and clear-cut people-state polarities. This case demonstrates the need for a more differentiated understanding of multilayered local dynamics than the one offered by mainstream linear interpretations. At a more abstract level, political actors contribute to the reproduction of the very categories against which they mobilize.The personal names of ordinary people who make an appearance in this article are pseudonyms, as are the names of minor localities, which in Arab-Bedouin culture generally refer to the name of an extended family in a specific locale. I thank Salim Al Turi, Cristina Papa and Yaakov Garb for their suggestions. I alone, however, am responsible
With the violent clashes that took place in May 2010 during the attempt by the Free Gaza movement flotilla to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the remarkable strength of pro‐Palestinian networks became globally apparent. Drawing on an ethnography of political activism in the Israeli‐Palestinian space, we suggest that the striking visibility of these networks does not exclusively derive from the prominence of the Israeli‐Palestinian conflicts, but is also a consequence of the activists’ ability to produce innovative forms of sociality. However, some of the approaches taken can exist in problematic relation to the experiences of people who live with the conflict. In this context, the issue is not so much the precise relationships between indigenous ‘truths’ in Palestine and their foreign representations, but the way in which encounters redefine the conflicts that activist networks seek to represent.
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