Henriette Dahan-Kalev

A History of Bedouin of al-Naqab: Tiyāha Qdeirāt al-Ṣāne‘

To begin Amal’s narrative, we chose to start with the above story to introduce the social identity of al-Naqab Bedouin people and their connection to their “fatherland” in the early twentieth century. Oral poems or gaṣīda (pl. gaṣyāid) were used to entertain, remember historical events, and maintain knowledge in Bedouin societies throughout the Middle East. These tales contribute to Bedouin heritage and effectively present the social landscape of al-Naqab as envisaged by its members, a portrayal we appropriate in order to further delve into the “history” of Amal’s family and society. This complex social setting is where Amal begins her own personal history as a member of al-Naqab Bedouin people, a society where “… blood both links people to the past and binds them to the present. As a link to the past, through genealogy, blood is essential to the definition of cultural identity” (Abu Lughod [1986] 2000, 41). For Amal, genealogical knowledge and the nobility, or aṣl, of her ancestors are important affiliations that guide her activisms, but are also significant connections that also inform her relationship with others. More specifically, Amal suggests her engagements are not only sustained by her own al- Ṣāne‘ tribal legacy, but are in many ways inspired by her forefathers over the past century. She explains: Some in our tribe were very strongly involved in political area like my grandfather, who was a judge and my great grandfather spoke with King Abdullah of Jordan. King Hussein is someone he used to meet with. Now they say look at me and say, “Why has she became like this?” I think it wasn’t only because something I did but was something that I got from my tribe. Like everyone in my tribe, we are strong and educated people. (El’Sana-Alh’jooj interview 2007)

Activism in the Middle East: A Focus on al-Naqab Bedouin Women in Israel

The Middle East has recently experienced what has hence been labeled the Arab Spring—a time of significant transformation in the region wherein large numbers of people are protesting, advocating, demonstrating, and publicly expressing their desire for change. As of 2012, observers and participants alike are only just coming to terms with the shear scope of the sociopolitical movements in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria. However, one thing can be said about this new and changing epoch; activists have become central players in regional politics and activisms are increasingly equated with people’s struggles for political, social, and economic rights in the Middle East. While the repercussions and influence of these initiatives have yet to be fully realized, many observers routinely express equal surprise about one specific aspect of the Arab Spring; the presence of large numbers of women protesting along side men carrying signs, chanting slogans, blogging, and speaking as representatives for groups of people demanding equality in their society.

Epilogue: The Politics of Emotions: Difficulties of Collaboration

Since the development of deconstructionist schools in social sciences over the past 30 years, anthropology unlike political science has taken significant steps in acknowledging the emotions and passions motivating political actions as well as academic works. As a political scientist, I often find myself emotionally connected to and constantly identifying with subjects during my studies. In particular, I find myself becoming emotionally involved during research, an experience that must be felt by all social science scholars (Swedenburg 1995). Research often makes us take sides, whether we were aware of it or not, more so during situations of conflict. This is why I have been strongly attracted to political anthropology and often found myself bending my scholarship in that direction. This move was at times frustrating as straddling between the disciplines is never smooth and always came with academic costs. Nevertheless, I now leaned toward the field of political anthropology. I strive to develop critical approaches to the mainstream political science literature such as those of Myers (1988), Papatiaxiarchis (1994), and Crapanzano (1994) in order to explore how social interactions generate human emotions and design their performances within cultural and political contexts (Moi’si 2010). I have a curiosity about questions of emotions in political conflicts such as those epitomized by the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and women’s relative activism in spaces of hostility such as these.

Three Generations of al-Ṣāne‘ Women

In the last chapter we briefly discussed that the ideal of asl is an important value for al-Naqab Bedouin’s society for differentiating themselves from others. We highlighted the importance of blood, tribal affiliation, and kinship ideologies for distinguishing between those who claim Bedouin origins as opposed to those who do not. However, the notion of aṣl also confers other virtues that play an important role in framing individual experiences and orienting social actions and internal relationships in Bedouin societies throughout the Middle East (Abu Lughod [1986] 2000). The importance of genealogically—referenced social relations among pastoral nomadic peoples—is a popular subject among anthropologists of the region (Ayoub 1959, Barth 1962). Over the past century, patrilineality and the enduring importance of kinship in determining the behavior, values, and social standing of individuals in Bedouin societies have been well studied, documented, and debated (Abu Zeid 1966). Like many cultures in the Middle East, kinship ideology shapes individual orientations and the management of everyday social relations in al-Naqab Bedouin society; therefore, it is the idiom through which they interact in their social world and bifurcate their social arena into kin and non-kin, family/outsiders, privacy/public space (Abu Lughod [1986] 2000).

Mediations of a Leading al-Naqab Bedouin Female Activist

In early al-Naqab Bedouin society, mostly males participated in formal politics as women were largely excluded from direct action in official political venues, but as Amal’s grandmother Rukla describes, women did indirectly politically contribute in various ways. For example, women were often sent to collect information by tribal Shaykhs or male family members to neighboring tribes to locate important resources such as marriageable young women so that they could form important alliances with specific lineages (Marx 1967, Nelson 1974, Peters 1990). The women would accomplish these missions under the auspices of visiting family members, relatives, or neighboring women after which they would report to their Shaykh to give details about the situation and possible advice in order to achieve a desired alliance. From these initial investigations, some tribal leaders would make decisions as to whether or not they should pursue or negotiate for partnerships with other tribal fractions in al-Naqab. In addition to these types of indirect political influences, al-Naqab Bedouin women also served as important hostess, advisors, and go-betweens within their own families and their own internal political dealings. For example, sisters, wives, mothers, grandmothers, and daughters are often indirectly advised and mediated agnate-based political matters.

Concluding Analysis: The Activist Biography and Strategic Identification in Third Sector Fields

As a way of examining Amal’s activisms in al-Naqab, this project draws from theoretical frameworks established by Bourdieu’s sociology of practice and political anthropology. Specifically, we suggested that rights-based activisms are social practices reproduced through dialectics of structure and agency, and indelibly involve a certain amount of conflict or struggle (Crossely 2002). While activism directed toward change may raise some problems as to the circularity of Bourdieu reproduction model, the notion of change as a normative characteristic of newly generated social structures is important for our discussion. Especially, if we consider alterations of al-Naqab Bedouin women’s space, created by the upheavals in their way of life in urbanized villages, as catalysts for female activisms in their society. Amal’s activisms not only respond to the creation of new social spaces but also set out to “establish a better life” (El’Sana-Alh’jooj 2007). Her endeavors in their very inception attempt to resolve conditions of unrest: on the one hand, dissatisfaction with her society’s current cir-cumstances, and on die odier hand, hopes of creating a new way of life for women in al-Naqab (Blumer 1969). In all, Amal’s biography as an activist emerges from a climate of change, a landscape wherein we may further consider her career in civil society in al-Naqab Bedouin soci-ety and work in broader fields of Israeli, Palestinian, and international sociopolitics.

From ‘Ashā’ir to NGOs: Changing Sociopolitics in al-Naqab Bedouin Society

Al-Naqab Bedouin way of life has changed significantly from those of their ancestors; relatives living in the West Bank, Gaza, or Sinai; and other groups living in states such as Jordan and Egypt since the mid-twentieth century. Among these, some of the most significant changes have occurred in al-Naqab Bedouin’s established sociopolitics as a result of Ottoman, British, and Israel policies, all of which have set out to administer the population in their own ways. As a result of their accumulated administrative legacies, al-Naqab Bedouin have witnessed profound reconfiguration of their mechanisms of governance, political expressions, political practices, and leadership (El’Sana-Alh’jooj and Marteu 2005). At a local level, the political influences of gabā’il have been almost entirely dissolved and the coherence of al-Naqab Bedouin ‘ashā’ir and rubū‘ are significantly less than they were at the beginning of the twentieth century. On a regional level, al-Naqab Bedouin today are recognized as “Israeli Arabs” within the contemporary Israeli political system. Up until the late twentieth century, Israel’s non-Jewish citizens or Palestinian minorities, such as al-Naqab Bedouin, were for the most part excluded from national politics and were often thought of as “trapped minority” (Rabinowitz 2001).