Bedouin

Nomadic Arab peoples whose way of life has historically centered on herding livestock and moving seasonally across the deserts of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Bedouin tribes have lived for centuries in the Negev, the Jordan Valley, and the desert region east and southeast of Jerusalem. Although many Bedouin communities can be described as seminomadic today or have settled in or on the outskirts of towns and villages, they often maintain distinct cultural traditions, including tribal affiliations, hospitality customs, and pastoral practices. Jerusalem’s Bedouin, including members of the Jahalin, Ka‘abneh, and Sawahira tribes, have long been embedded in the city’s surrounding landscape in communities like Khan al-Ahmar, Jabal al-Baba, and Abu Nuwar. Like other Palestinians in Jerusalem, Bedouin suffer under Israeli occupation, experiencing land confiscation, property demolition, apartheid infrastructure, and forcible expulsion. As mobile communities with no land registration documents, they are often targeted by Israeli forces and settlers in areas of the West Bank that are coveted for Jewish settlement, particularly in the Jerusalem area.