ABSTRACT
Provision of public services as social resources for the Bedouin has been shown to have been highly problematic from the perspectives of spatial availability, functional accessibility, and cultural compatibility. Despite the fact that settlement has been an institutionalized alternative, it constituted a major change in Bedouin life, particularly given its geopolitical context. The limited scope of economic and social public resources provided by the state has generated strong internal competition and struggle over their distribution. The issues reflect the attempts by the state to impose a centripetal force on the Bedouin. This force assumed spatial and functional forms. Several direct and indirect factors may explain the gradual devitalization of the centripetal force of the state. The response to Bedouin demands has been part of a more open policy towards the Israeli Arabs that began around the mid-1980s and gained momentum in the 1990s.
