| Summary/Abstract |
Using archival data and newspaper collections from Britain and Israel, and extensive fieldwork interviews in the Naqab, this article breaks new ground through a critical examination of the Bedouin and their way of surviving and resisting Israeli military rule, 1948–1967. I argue that creative nonviolent resistance, everyday resistance and sumud (steadfastness and resilience), succeeded in modifying and mitigating the military rule strategies deployed by the state to control the Arab Bedouin, opening up the possibility of further political action and communal protection. By employing sumud as everyday resistance, the Bedouin improved their livelihood, strengthened one another and helped consolidate sumud, to the point where sumud became part of their culture and way of life during the military rule. Everyday sumud strategies were through border economy and contact with their relatives across the border, which utilized the strong relationships between tribes. Smuggling goods was a central form of economic survival and sumud. Everyday resistance and nonviolent actions succeeded in marginalizing military rules, restrictions, and power, allowing the Bedouin to gain immediate benefits including many of their daily needs. The Bedouin maintained their cross-border relations and continued to resist cooperation with the Israeli military rule. Hosting their fellow refugees was a daily act of sumud by the Bedouin despite the imposition of new state borders. The Bedouin also found different avenues to claim their dispossessed properties, and continued to resist Israeli confiscation of their land. They lodged land claims through every level of military rule, responding to different Israeli forms of power and the effect of domination.
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