The parliamentary activity and significance of the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers led by Knesset Member Hamad Abu Rabia in Israel (1973–1977)

The article examines a theoretical perspective for understanding the leadership of minority groups in Israel, focusing on the challenges and strategies of both formal and traditional leadership among minorities. One of the central challenges is coping with the tension between minority and majority populations. Another challenge is the transition from traditional leadership patterns to public and institutional forms of leadership. A third challenge is the tension between different minority groups, particularly between the Bedouin and the Druze, regarding representation in the Knesset, a tension that led to the first political assassination in Israeli politics. The Arab Bedouin society of Israel’s Negev region serves as a case study. Methodologically, the article is based on interviews as well as various archival sources, including the Israeli State archives, the Labor Party archives, the Knesset archives, and historical press sources. The article, the first to discuss the Bedouin political involvement in Israel in the elections of 1973, seeks to show that although the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers, through its founder Sheikh Hamad Abu Rabia, was the first to give political voice to the Bedouin minority in the Negev and its needs, it ultimately fell short in achieving the goals it set for itself.