About IWGIAIndigenous peoples in Palestine
Following Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, the Jahalin Bedouin, together with four other tribes from the Negev Desert (al-Kaabneh, al-Azazmeh, al-Ramadin and al-Rshaida), took refuge in the West Bank, then under Jordanian rule. These tribes, who number approximately 13,000 people, are semi-nomadic agro-pastoralists living in the rural areas around Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jericho and the Jordan Valley, today part of the so-called “Area C” of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). “Area C”, provisionally granted to Israel in 1995 by the Oslo Accords, represents 60% of the West Bank and is home to all West Bank Israeli settlements, industrial estates, military bases, firing ranges, nature reserves and settler-only by-pass roads, all under Israeli military control.
Download the 2011 yearbook article on indigenous peoples in Palestine to read more about major developments and events during 2010
