International Law in Transit: The Concept of ‘Indigenous Peoples’ and its Transitions in International, National and Local Realms—the Example of the Bedouin in the Negev

Abstract

The question of how global legal norms transit between international and national realms preoccupies scholars across disciplinary divides. The objective of this contribution is to shed light on how the Bedouin in southern Israel have gradually become indigenous, and to illuminate the ways in which international legal concepts and categories become active and effective in the national realm. In particular, this chapter attempts to elucidate the mobilisation of the concept of ‘ indigenous peoples ’ from the international to the national by the Bedouin in Negev, who are increasingly employing the concept of indigenous peoples, and engaging in the indigenous peoples’ movement, transnational networks and programmatic activities. Therefore, this intervention draws attention to the role of international law in the conceptualisation and legalisation of indigenous peoples and the justification for indigenous recognition, or non-recognition, for collectives like the Bedouin in Israel. What will become clear is that the transit of law and the interplay between the international and the national not only produces inconsistencies, uncertainties and indeterminacy at the theoretical level but also generates tensions, hybridities, frictions and new subjectivities and new legal and political dynamics at the national and international level. Acknowledging the mutually informative nature of law and knowledge production, this study offers a unique insight into the ways in which international law is transformed and studied in the era of globalisation and global interconnections; a development that challenges key distinctions and categories upon which our concept of international law is premised.