Gender and Settler Colonialism: Women's Oral Histories in the Naqab

This feminist oral history project analyses Naqab Bedouin women's changing political activism against Israeli rule from 1948 to the present through women's own narratives. Although Naqab women have played (and continue to play) a crucial role in their community's struggle against Israeli settler-colonial policies, their historical accounts have so far received little attention. Failing to understand that 'the personal is political,' mainstream historiography often misrepresents women as politically inactive, and their accounts as irrelevant, apolitical, or even factually incorrect.

Based on ca. 100 video- and audio-recorded oral testimonies of Naqab women (collected by the PI and a local assistant during 8 months fieldwork) this project proposes a gendered 'history from below' of the Naqab Bedouin as an alternative to official (largely archive-based) Israeli historiography, as well as other male and elite-dominated master-narratives. Doing so, it contributes to emerging 'indigenous' oral history projects on the Naqab (e.g. Nsasra, 2010), and the broader work of Israeli revisionist historians (Pappé, 1988; Shlaim, 1988). Preserving oral testimonies is crucial: survivors of the Nakba, i.e. witnesses of the 1948 expulsion, are becoming few. Given that Naqab Bedouin culture is largely based on orality, the life stories, historical narratives and cultural knowledge of elderly Bedouin women are likely to be lost, if not recorded now.

The collected data will be analysed through the theoretical lens of settler colonialism. Israeli control relies on the continuous elimination/resettlement of the indigenous population, and re-inhabitation of the land with Israeli settlers (e.g. Yiftachel, 2008). Following recent theorising on gender and settler colonialism (Settler Colonial Studies, 2012b), this study proposes that Israeli military, sedentarisation, modernisation, transfer and other settler-colonial policies have transformed local gender norms and practices. Such a theoretical frame warrants comparison with Palestinian women's activism in the West Bank, which - like Naqab Bedouin's - takes place within and against varying forms of settler colonialism. This comparative analysis, which relies on secondary literature and original fieldwork data collected by the PI during her PhD research in the West Bank, will contribute insights to the burgeoning theorising in the field of gender and settler colonialism.

The recordings will be preserved in the physical and virtual Negev Bedouin Heritage Archive, leaving a local legacy, strengthening the community's cultural, political and historical consciousness, and serving as a widely accessible resource for the general public. Additional outcomes include a documentary film, a community-oriented workshop in the Naqab, two academic/policy-oriented workshops in the UK and US (involving Amnesty International, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues), an international academic conference (leading to an edited volume of Nomadic Peoples Journal), a monograph, and a journal article.

Based at Exeter University under the mentorship of Prof. Pappé, the project contributes to the European Centre for Palestine Studies' work on Naqab Bedouins and oral history. In 2010 the PI co-organised the first international conference on the Naqab Bedouins (proceedings to be published by Routledge) and recently Prof. Pappé won an AHRC grant on "A Common Archive for 1948 Palestine." The project also relies on intensive international cooperation in the Naqab (Rahat Center for Young Adults and NGO Step Forward), and in the US (Center for Palestine Studies, Columbia University).

Proposing a methodology new to this context (feminist oral history) to research an understudied empirical field (the Naqab) from a novel theoretical lens (gender and settler colonialism), the project will make important contributions to gender, settler-colonial, Palestine and broader Middle East studies.

This project engages different non-academic stakeholders: 1) the local Naqab Bedouin community, 2) international development practitioners and policy-makers, 3) the broader public (particularly Palestine and feminist activist groups, but also other research-interested publics).

The local community is at the heart of this project. Collecting and analysing Naqab Bedouin women's oral testimonies, the project aims at writing a 'history from below' which counters mainstream colonial and male-dominated historiography. The project relies on collaboration with the local project partner 1 (Rahat Center for Young Adults), local project partner 2 (NGO Step Forward), and two local assistants (for fieldwork and filmmaking). Other community members will be involved through participation in a local workshop on the uses of oral history for community empowerment (Impact Activity 1) and as consultant. By producing an original dataset of ca. 100 Naqab Bedouin women's oral testimonies, which will be integrated into the local Negev Bedouin Heritage Archive (Impact Activity 2, Digital Output 6), the project aims to make their voices heard and recognised by the wider public in Israel/Palestine, the UK and beyond. The Archive, through its physical and virtual space, will create a publicly accessible database, useful not only for other researchers, policy-makers, activists, journalists etc, but also for the Naqab Bedouin community itself. By creating a local legacy and resource base it can strengthen the community's historical, political and cultural consciousness, and thus its struggle against Israeli discriminatory policies for a just future. It is crucial that this Archive includes women's activism and female voices from the community.

Members of the international community, mainly US- and UK-based policy-makers, advocacy activists and development practitioners, will feed into the research process through two policy-oriented workshops in New York and London (Impact Activity 3, 4). With the adoption of the UNGA Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, the Naqab Bedouins have received increased international attention (e.g. in 2012 the UK Taskforce on Issues relating to Arab Citizens in Israel organised a study trip to the Naqab; in 2011 UK Minority Rights Group International held a panel on "Israel's Denial of the Bedouin" in the Houses of Parliament). Yet, policy-making so far has largely neglected the gendered aspects of indigenous struggles. Identifying this gap, a recent UN International Expert Group Meeting on Combating Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls (Jan 2012) called for more research on indigenous women. Responding to this call, this project aims to contribute to developing gender-sensitive policy recommendations for indigenous community's struggles for rights and recognition, focusing on its case study of Naqab women.

The general public will be reached through the Archive (see above), and a documentary film on Naqab Bedouin women's politics (Impact Activity 5, Digital Output 5). The film will engage three target audiences (mainly in the UK) with different aspects of the research: the Palestine activist community will be familiarised with the Naqab case; the feminist community with indigenous/Palestinian women's struggles against discrimination; and other research-interested publics with the broader research approach (oral history) and its key findings. The film will be shown at appropriate festivals, workshops and events. The PI will attend ca. 10 such events to facilitate discussions with the audience. Although gaining ground in legal, advocacy and policy-oriented forums, few from the general public know about the plight of Naqab Bedouins in Israel. The film aims to raise wider awareness, integrating the case of the Naqab into broader Palestine activism and motivating the general public to engage in solidarity activities for improving the situation of Naqab Bedouins, especially wome