Emptied Lands

Emptied Lands investigates the protracted legal, planning and territorial confl ict between the settler Israeli state and indigenous Bedouin citizens over traditional and in southern Israel/Palestine. The authors place this dispute in historical, legal, geographical, and internationalcomparative erspectives, providing the fi rst legal geographic analysis of the “dead Negev doctrine,” used by Israel to dispossess and forcefully displace Bedouin inhabitants in order to Judaize the region. The authors reveal that through manipulative use of Ottoman, British and Israeli laws, the state has constructed its own version of terra nullius.
Yet, the indigenous property and settlement system still functions, creating an ongoing resistance to the Jewish state. Emptied Lands critically examines several key land claims, court rulings, planning policies and development strategies, off ering alternative local, regional and international routes for justice.