ABSTRACT

By following the social life of the claims, it became clear that, on the one side, activism of the institutional lobby in Abu Saf was able to raise the visibility of the case, while, on the other, these forms of mobilisation unintentionally perpetuated forms of subjugation. The episodes of this chapter centre on some of these ‘dark sides’ of activism. I follow the lived experiences of those people who are considered the inhabitants of the ‘ghost’ village. In one occasion, people organised everything to stage the demolition, but no police and bulldozers appeared. Another episode centres on the attempt to gain public attention through touching images of Bedouin children, perpetuating an image of Arab-Bedouin citizens as passive victims. While often Arab-Bedouin citizens had internalised their marginal role on many occasions it became evident how people did not immediately respond as expected to the role of their ‘marginality’, but also did not necessarily creatively subvert dominant relationships. Finally, after three years of activism, the hotspot of activism faded away and the interest declined.