ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the encounter between the Negev Bedouin and Jewish settlers as agents of change and offers insights into the context within which the major processes of change took place later. The frontier encounter between the Bedouin and Jewish settlers in the Negev has both political and organizational dimensions. Jewish settlement in the Negev during the 1940s was launched with three agricultural “observation outposts”, continued with the “eleven settlements” and culminated in an additional seven “stronghold settlements” and several others on the eve of the War of Independence. A major turning point in the relationships between the Bedouin and the Jewish settlers in the Negev was reached with Israel’s War of Independence. The nature of the frontier encounter between the Bedouin and Jewish population changed considerably between the 1940s and 1950s. The politicization of space in the Negev by core institutions and state policy seems to have signified the turning point.
