yahel, kark and frantzman on indigeneity and the real settlers in palestine
In the last two decades, there has been widespread application of the term “indigenous” in relation to various groups worldwide. However, the meaning of this term and its uses tend to be inconsistent and variable. The expression derives from the interaction of different cultures—the meeting between the original inhabitants of a specific region (known variously as “first nations,” “natives,” “indigenes,” or “aborigines”) and new, foreign “settlers” or “colonizers,” who imposed their alien value systems and way of life on the indigenous populations.
In Israel, the indigenousness claim has been raised over the past few years by the country’s Bedouin citizens, a formerly nomadic, Arabic-speaking group centered in the southern arid part of the country, the Negev. They argue that Israel denies their basic indigenous rights such as maintaining their traditions and owning their own lands.
and, from the conclusion:
Although there is no official definition of indigeneity in international law, Negev Bedouin cannot be regarded as an indigenous people in the commonly accepted sense. If anything, the Bedouin have more in common with the European settlers who migrated to other lands, coming into contact with existing populations with often unfortunate results for the latter.
Filed under: Human Rights, Israel/Palestine, law, Political developments, Scholarship and insights | 1 Comment
from wikipedia:
The Middle East Forum (MEF) is an American conservative[1] think tank founded in 1990 by Daniel Pipes, who also serves as its director.[2] MEF became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 1994. It publishes a journal entitled Middle East Quarterly.
The MEF describes its aims as “[to] promote American interests in the Middle East and protect the Constitutional order from Middle Eastern threats.”
The MEF sees the Middle East — with its “profusion of dictatorships, radical ideologies, existential conflicts, exportation of extremism, border disagreements, political violence, and weapons of mass destruction” — as a source of problems for the United States.[3]