When did the Bedouin tribes reach the Negev? Did they have permanent settlements in the Negev during the Ottoman Empire’s last century of rule, the British Mandate, and at the establishment of the State of Israel? How many Bedouins remained in the Negev, and how many left or returned after the 1948 war? Did they undertake agriculture? Were the Bedouins owners of registered lands in the Negev in the period between 1800–1967? This book, based on an original, in-depth, multi-decade study of thousands of historical sources, provides answers to these important questions, which have implications for the past, the present, and the future of the Bedouin population in the Negev. The book is intended for all readers interested in the history of Palestine/the Land of Israel/State of Israel in general and the Bedouins in the Negev in particular, as well as for historians, geographers, legal scholars, researchers of nomadism, deserts, agriculture, and real estate.

This scholarly, incisive, and thought provoking book provides an in depth account of Israel's rebuilding of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem after the 1967 Six Day War, in the context of approaches to post-war restoration and heritage preservation and development, both local and worldwide. Inward-directed heritage development and its importance to collective identity, and outward directed heritage development (primarily tourist but also strategic and political) were decisive concerns. The rebuilding of the Jewish Quarter is compared to contemporary preservation old cities of Jaffa, Acre and Safed, activity in the historic to heritage conservation in Old Cairo, and to postwar conservation of Beirut, Warsaw and York.

This volume provides new insights into the role of U.S. consuls in the Ottoman Middle East in the special context of the Holy Land. This volume provides new insights into the role of U.S. consuls in the Ottoman Middle East in the special context of the Holy Land. The motivations and functioning of the American consuls in Jerusalem, and of the consular agents in Jaffa and Haifa, are analyzed as part of the US diplomatic and consular activity throughout the world, and of Western involvement in the Ottoman Empire and in Palestine during the century preceding World War I. The processes of cultural, demographic, economic, environmental, and settlement change and the contribution of the US consuls and American settlers to development of and modernization of Palestine are discussed. Based on primary archival sources such facets as the role of consuls regarding the use of extraterritorial privileges, Western religious and cultural penetration, control of land and land purchase, non-Muslim settlement, judicial systems, and technological innovations are considered from American, Ottoman, and local viewpoints.

Yehoshua Hankin had two loves: love for his wife Olga, many years his senior, and a love for the land. The two competed with each other, but he never preferred one over the other. Displayed for the reader, against the backdrop of the atmosphere in the Land of Israel toward the close of the Ottoman period and into that of the British Mandate, is a broad slice of life spread over fifty years of the man dubbed by constituents as the “Redeemer of the Land,” and of the figures who accompanied him.The characters, events, times, and places described in this historical novel are to a great extent a faithful representation of reality, and they are interwoven into a multi-faceted biography illuminating the period and forgotten actors in a new light. Joining forces in writing this book were Irit Amit Cohen and Ruth Kark, who combined Irit Amit Cohen’s literary work in the genre of the historical novel with Ruth Kark’s long-term research endeavor on Yehoshua Hankin, which even encompassed oral documentation from his close associates.