Studying nomads, peripherality and agriculture in Southern Palestine, 1800–1947

This chapter deals with the marginal frontier area occupied by the Negev nomadic Bedouins in Southern Palestine during the last century of Ottoman Empire (1800–1917) and under the British Mandate (1917–1947). During these two sub-periods, this desert region contained almost half of the area of Palestine (12,577 out of 26,990 square kilometers), yet it had few permanent settlements and was primarily inhabited by Arab nomads. During the indicated years, the Negev was and remained a marginal and peripheral area from the point of view of land, settlement, and agriculture. Using historical-geographical methodologies and GIS analysis of historical maps and aerial photos, we will study land policy and ownership, as well as the extent of settlement and agriculture, as parameters for the existing peripherality, and the failure to achieve solutions for those parameters proposed by the ruling Empires.