2 introduction 20.5 percent­of Israel’s total population, the vast majority of Palestinian citizens are Muslim, though there is also a significant Christian as well as a Druze community.4 Around 200,000 of this population are Arab Bed­ ouin citizens,5 members of the indigenous Palestinian community who remained on their lands in the Naqab (Negev) region, and around 360,000 Arab citizens are classified as internally displaced persons6 referring to those who either fled or were driven from their villages and towns by the Zionist forces before the creation of the State of Israel, or by institutions following its establishment, and who remained within its borders. Despite their respective socio-economic differences, the collective situation of the what is often called ‘Israel proper’ (the pre-1967 borders of the State of Israel). This terminology is used to highlight that, while the Arab community (including its Bedouin and Druze communities) has Israeli citizenship, it also has a shared history and collective experience with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, refugee camps and those abroad, and a language and culture shared with those in broader Arab societies. 4 Moti Bassok, “Israel’s population stands at 7.8 million with 2012 around the bend,” Haaretz, December 29, 2011, http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-population -stands-at-7-8-million-with-2012-around-the-bend-1.404388. 5 Today the Arab Bedouin citizens are the most disadvantaged citizens in Israel and have, since the establishment of the State of Israel, faced a systematic state policy of home demolitions, displacement and dispossession. In September 2011, the Netanyahu government formally approved the Prawer Plan which while officially claiming to ‘formalize the status of Bedouin settlements’ in the Naqab (Negev), practically calls for the mass expulsion of the Arab Bedouin community in the Naqab (Negev) area. Representing the Bedouin community, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, reports that “[i]f fully implemented this plan will result in the forced displacement of up to 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel and the destruction of 35 ‘unrecognized’ villages.” Despite intense rejection of the plan by Arab Bedouins along with international condemnation of the initiative, the Prawer Plan was placed back on the agenda on January 27, 2013 by the Israeli Cabinet who approved new recommendations put forward by Minister Benny Begin. See Prime Minister’s Office [State of Israel], “Cabinet Approves Minister Benny Begin’s Recommendations on Formalizing the Status of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev,” Press Release, January 27, 2013, http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Spokesman/ Pages/spokebedu270113.aspx; Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, The Arab Bedouin of the Naqab: Myths and Misconceptions, 2012, http://adalah.org/Public/ files/English/Publications/myths%20flyer%20campaign.pdf and “Demolition and Eviction of Bedouin Citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev) – The Prawer Plan,” http:// adalah.org/eng/?mod=articles&ID=1589. 6 Just under half of the Bedouin population live in dozens of villages that remain unrecognized by the Israeli government as well as in several new recognized townships. The internally displaced Palestinians in Israel do not receive international protection, representation or assistance since UNRWA ceased to operate within the borders of Israel in 1952. An Inter-Agency Forced Displacement Working Group led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has, since 2008, been assigned with the protection of displaced Palestinian-Arabs, but the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights reports that “[t]hese recent efforts have yet to achieve tangible solutions, particularly in the areas of prevention of new forced displacement, medium and long-term protection and durable solutions” (see Badil 2013, xviii).