Vol. 4 · No. 1 · 2000

A. Allan Degen, Roger W. Benjamin and Jan C. Hoorweg

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There are about ten-thousand Bedouin or about one-thousand families living in spontaneous hamlets in the Negev that depend on raising small ruminants (mainly sheep) as their main source of livelihood. Grazing lands allotted to them are insufficient to meet year-round flock maintenance, yet flock movement to available grazing areas is strictly restricted by government rules and regulations. Today, flock owners are perceived by government authorities and, indeed, by the general public, as living on both the geographic and economic margins of the Negev. They practice pastoralism on uncultivable lands or on fallow and aftermath fields, and only about 10 per cent of Bedouin depend on sheep for their livelihood. It is surprising then, that in the late 1980s when many kibbutzim and moshavim abandoned sheep raising because of rising input costs and falling sheep prices, that Bedouin continued to keep their flocks. There are indications that they may even have increased their holdings. How were the Bedouin able to support their households by raising sheep in a changing physical, economic and socio-political environment not conducive to this enterprise and how are they able to do so today?