
Endeavors to Forget: Bedouin Resilience and Desert Sustainability Vs the Israeli State’s Contemporary Colonialist Sculpture
Large piles of rubble that remain after acts of destruction and forced displacement appear like temporary, monumental manifestations of “Contemporary Colonialist Sculpture.” They stand out in stark contrast to the lightweight and versatile construction used by the Bedouins, which it seeks to supplant, and as a tangible embodiment of the violent act of erasure and enclosure. The Common View collective learns from the Naqab/Negev Bedouins’ adaptability and resilience towards an alternative, equitable futures.
Zionist Israel endeavours to forget, with all its might, the history and current reality of the Bedouin communities within Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the Bedouins in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank have been subjected to a series of human rights violations, including forced displacement. They have been classified as a 'security threat' and branded 'squatters' on state lands. Successive Israeli governments have sought to expropriate their lands and concentrate them in desert townships. The Israeli authorities refuse to recognize the Bedouins as an indigenous people, thereby denyingwithholding from them the full range of rights due toof indigenous peoples under international law. |
In their struggle against dispossession, the Bedouins endeavour to forget the ongoing destruction of their homes and heritage. With the aid of their unique, evolved adaptability and resilience, they display demonstrate a Sisyphean and stubborn insistence on their traditions and identity.
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An estimated 90,000 Bedouins currently live in what the state defines as ‘“unrecognized’” villages, where construction is deemed illegal by the Israeli government, and they remain ineligible for municipal services. Since 1965, any such unlicensed homes built by the bedouins cannot be connected to facilities such as the water mains or the electricity grid. Consequently, the local communities maintain a contemporary desert sustainability, informed by Bedouin heritage. This involves the widespread collection or harvesting of rainwater and solar power, the use of greywater for irrigation, and rainwater dependent, desert- adapted agriculture, the wide reuse of cheap and light construction materials, and more. The pastoralist, ‘“unrecognized’” Bedouin villages present a powerful, flexible, and adaptive form of resilience that combats the attempts to erase its inherent value. |
Contemporary Colonialist Sculpture |
The Bedouins who live in ‘unrecognized’ villages face ever more frequent eviction notices and home demolitions. Bedouin families stand helplessly by as Israeli armed forces, who arrive with heavy bulldozers, at times flatten whole villages in one fell swoop. If they opt not to demolish their homes by with their own hands, they Bedouins also face hefty demolition fees that are levied on them.1 The large piles of rubble that remain after these acts of destruction, seem like temporary, monumental manifestations of “Contemporary Colonialist Sculpture.”2 They stand out in stark contrast to the Bedouins’ lightweight and versatile structures construction of the Bedouins, which they seek to supplant, and as a tangible embodiment of the violent act of erasure and enclosure. Each one of the many rubble mounds, composed of twisted metal, broken concrete, and shattered furniture, home appliances and personal belongings, stands as a marker, commemorating the destruction and the many resulting individual tragedies of displacement. |
Over the past 5 years, the Common Views collective has endeavoredto forget the manufactured boundaries between Bedouin and Jewish populations in their shared desert environment of the eastern Negev (Arabic: Naqab). Their aim is to highlight and learn from the valuable Bedouin desert sustainability heritage and contemporary practices.
How and what must we forget so as to enable the imagining of alternative visions? Forgetting can allow for a fresh look of wonder and an appreciation of the immense value inherent in the unique heritage of the Bedouin communities and in their contemporary sustainable desert adaptation and resilience. With this fresh perspective, one can better recognize the immense potential these hold for shaping a collective vision for a more equitable, just, and sustainable future.
A site with 3D LiDAR scans of demolished "CCS"s: https://commonviews.art/contemporary-colonialist-sculpture/ |
Further reference for the work of Common Views in the Naqab / Negev can be found in this interactive map: |
- 1. See the 2018 Minority Rights Group International report, https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/mrgi/2018/en/64885
- 2. In dialogue with Rosalind Kraus's influential text The Art of Art, In “Sculpture in the Expanded Field”, History: Critical Anthology, New York: Oxford Press, 1998.
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A Bedouin tent settlement,1970s. Such tents were traditionally made of lengths of sheep's wool and camel hair, supported by wooden poles and tensioned cords, which allow for a rapid set-up and take-down, and a low volume for transportation. The Israeli authorities have been gradually restricting the Bedouins' semi-nomadic, pastoralist practice of moving between seasonal pasturing areas, thus preventing their movement across the desert, which is fundamental to their culture, lifestyle, economy, and heritage.
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A contemporary Bedouin village, in Al Baqi'a / Kana'im Valley, composed of light constructions. The structures are made of corrugated metal sheets, metal frames, wood and a range of recycled materials. Such settlements are fixed, with Bedouin residents remaining in one location year round, this in contrast to their semi-nomadic traditions. Because the Israeli authorities do not recognise the legality of these villages, the families here are not provided with basic infrastructure, such as a connection to the water mains, sewage or electricity grid, or any health and education services on site. Additionally, the residents in these villages live under the constant threat of eviction, home demolition and enforced displacement. In response to this ongoing uncertainty, the Bedouins have developed a unique resilience, adjusting their building materials and construction methods accordingly.
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Tombstone on a Bedouin grave in Al Baqi’a Kana'im Valley. The Bedouins traditionally buried their dead in the desert, at a distance from their place of residence, until the custom was prohibited. The existing burial sites and tombstones serve as a means for Bedouins to recount their heritage in the area. Such landmarks along the routes traversing the landscape, both natural and manmade, connect the physical space of the present with the historical narratives and events of the past, forming a kind of storytelling while walking. Such stories, which narrate the landscape, hold great significance for their ability to connect, or to dispossess.
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The map presented here, based on a 1942 British-Mandate Jebel Usdum Palestine-era map, serves as a testament to the cultural layers interwoven within the local landscape. The Arabic place-names, likely derived from the local Bedouin tradition, appear on the original map printed in Latin script. Next to each Arabic place-name, a Hebrew one was later added in handwriting, in blue ink, sometimes corresponding to the Arabic pronunciation and sometimes formulating a completely different Hebrew name. The juxtaposition of Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin on the map reflects the intersection of cultural narratives and worldviews that have mingled and often competed here throughout the region's history.
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In the absence of a connection to the water mains and electric grid, Bedouin village infrastructure makes use of large tanks for storing water that is brought from far away, and solar panels for collecting energy from the sun. Local Bedouin construction relies on recycled items and materials that are lightweight, versatile, relatively affordable, and easily recoverable. This type of settlement is a unique, contemporary example of self-sufficient desert sustainability.
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A herd of camels receiving water at a distribution point. In the arid desert, a valve on the official water pipeline gains an importance akin to that once held by the cistern. Improvised troughs are filled with water and, in an instant, the water valve becomes a gathering place for grazing herds of goats, sheep, and camels after a day spent wandering in the desert.
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Horses grazing in a crop field, next to a Bedouin village. The local Bedouins use the meager rainfall during the colder and wetter part of the year for rainfed agricultural practices, growing various grain grasses for their herds, in open, otherwise barren lands. These wide grazing areas support the herds, forming a central part of the Bedouins’ pastoralist economy.
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Young camels at the site of a recently demolished Bedouin village. The pace of demolitions of Bedouin villages by the authorities has increased substantially over the past couple of years. In many cases the residents are offered no viable alternative solution. In this case, at a village in Wadi al-Khalil, 47 homes, as well as animal pens and other structures were demolished over a single morning, leaving dozens of families with no roof, and many of their livestock wandering dazed among the ruins and orphaned orchards and groves planted by the now displaced residents.
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Regional archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority inform the head of a local Bedouin community in Al Baqi'a / Kana'im Valley that his tribe cannot revive and maintain the reservoir at Bir Umm Al Atin, which has served them for generations, because the site is designated by the state as a protected Archeological site. Such acts of enclosure by the Israeli authorities, of sites and resources historically linked to the indigenous Bedouin population, reflect a consistent policy of negating and effacing their valuable heritage of desert sustainability.
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The old water reservoir at Bir Umm Al Atin (Hebrew: Bor Atin) once had the capacity to serve water for the local Bedouin community, throughout the 12 months of the year, being many meters deep. The reservoir's roof has collapsed over time and it is now filled with silt almost to its brim. The historical practice of collecting and harvesting the water in the desert reflects the desert heritage of sustainability and resilience. Image from a public tour event organized by Common Views on December 2019.
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An image taken during a participatory action organized by Common views in January 2020, in which participants helped to renew the channels supplying rain water to the Bir Umm Al Atin reservoir. The reservoir previously had the capacity to provide water for the local Bedouin communities, throughout the year.
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Bedouin heritage and desert sustainability festival organized by Common Views in 2021, at the small Bedouin town of Kuseife, where the fruits of a series of workshops on creative writing and poetry with local school children, and storytelling with Bedouin elders, around the theme of water-in-the-desert, were presented.
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Artists of the Common Views collective at a Shig belonging to the Khameise family in Al Baqi'a / Kana'im Valley. This Bedouin communal meeting space serves as a gathering and hospitality area for the men of the community. Traditionally a tent made of woven sheep and camel hair and cotton fibres, today it is usually a makeshift structure built from corrugated metal sheets. The fire at its centre is used for making coffee and tea, and serves as a focal point for sharing stories, discussions, and the continuation of Bedouin culture. The Shig provides the Bedouins with an impromptu space for gathering and welcoming guests, with the fire symbolising the hearth of the home, even though it has no door and is open to the desert winds.