Abu Qrenat is a

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

village in

southern Israel The Southern District (, ''Meḥoz HaDarom''; ) is one of Israel's six administrative districts, the largest in terms of land area but the most sparsely populated. It covers most of the Negev desert, as well as the Arava valley. The populatio ...

. It’s located in the

Negev desert The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

, south of Highway 25, between the village of

Abu Talul Abu Talul (; ) is a Bedouin township in southern Israel. Located in the Negev desert around ten kilometres east of Beersheba and to the south of highway 25, it falls under the jurisdiction of Neve Midbar Regional Council. In it had a populatio ...

to the west and the Al-Talma

mountain ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

to the east. The village, named after the local Abu Qureinat

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

, was unrecognized by the

Israeli government The Israeli system of government is based on parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of government and leader of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government (also known as the cabinet). Legislat ...

until 1999. Although officially recognized, it still lacks basic services such as paved roads, electricity, and clinics. According to the

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (, ''HaLishka HaMerkazit LiStatistika''; ), abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government office established in 1949 to carry out research and publish statistical data on all aspects of Israeli life, including ...

, around 2,200 people live there, though local estimates suggest the population might be closer to 5,000. The village has faced home demolitions in recent years, like many nearby Bedouin communities.

Archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

have also discovered ancient remains in the area, including

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

, buildings, and

burial sites Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects ...

from periods such as the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, Early Muslim, and Ottoman eras

Status

Abu Qureinat is a Bedouin village in the

officially recognized by the

in 1999. The village is named after the Abu Qureinat tribe, who form the majority of its population. Despite being recognized, the village still lacks many basic services such as paved roads, healthcare clinics, water, and electricity. The living conditions remain poor and are similar to those in unrecognized Bedouin villages in the region. In 2015, residents and leaders from the village and other Bedouin communities marched to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

to protest the government’s

Prawer Plan The Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev, also called the Prawer Plan or the Begin–Prawer Plan was formulated in September 2011 when the Israeli government approved a controversial five-year economic development plan.

, which aimed to relocate Bedouins from unrecognized villages to planned towns. Instead, they called for official recognition of all Bedouin villages and better support for their traditional

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

lifestyle, which depends on

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and livestock herdin.

Oren Yiftachel Oren Yiftachel (; born 1956) is an Israeli professor of political geography, political and legal geography, urban studies and urban planning at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beersheba. He holds the Lynn and Lloyd Hurst Family Chair in Ur ...

, a

political geography Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Conventionally, for the purposes of analysis, ...

professor at

Ben-Gurion University Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli national founder David Ben-Gurion, the university was founded in 1969 and currently has f ...

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

, led the planning

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

for the alternative recognition plan. He said the plan was developed in collaboration with local communities and based on Israeli rural planning standards, which he believes reduces costs compared to government proposals. The

Joint List The Joint List (, ''al-Qa'imah al-Mushtarakah'', , ''HaReshima HaMeshutefet'') was a political alliance of four of the Arab-Israeli, Arab-majority political parties in Israel: Hadash, Balad (political party), Balad, the United Arab List and Ta' ...

member MK Taleb Abu Arar noted that even recognized Bedouin villages like his hometown of ‘Arara continue to suffer neglect and underdevelopment compared to nearby Jewish communities. It was also reported that in August 2023, Israeli forces demolished homes belonging to local Bedouin tribes. This demolition is part of an increased wave of home demolitions in the Negev region since late 2022, with over 2,000 demolitions recorded. These demolitions have been seen as part of efforts to forcibly displace Bedouin Arabs in the area.

Geography

It is a village, sometimes referred to as a

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...

, located south of Route 25, bordered by

to the west and the Al-Talma (Rahma) mountain range to the east. According to the

Neve Midbar Regional Council Neve Midbar Regional Council (, ''Moatza Azorit Neveh Midbar'', , ''al-Majlis al-Iqlīmī Wāḥah'') is one of two regional councils formed as a result of a split of Abu Basma Regional Council on November 5, 2012. This regional council is situa ...

, the population is approximately 5,000. However, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics reports a population of as of . In addition to the Abu Qureinat tribes, the village includes tribes such as Ibn Rashid and Al-Ghanami.

Archaeology

A salvage excavation was conducted in August-September 2016 in the El-Ghanami

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

. The work, carried out ahead of planned development, was conducted by the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

(IAA) and funded by the

Negev Bedouin The Negev Bedouin (, ''Badwu an-Naqab''; , ''HaBedu'im BaNegev'') are traditionally pastoral nomadic Arab tribes (Bedouin), while some are of sub-Saharan African descent, who until the later part of the 19th century would wander between Hija ...

Settlement and Development Authority. The excavation covered about 1.5

square kilometers The square kilometre (square kilometer in American spelling; symbol: km2) is a multiple of the square metre, the SI unit of area or surface area. In the SI unit of area (m2), 1 km2 is equal to 1M(m2). 1 km2 is equal to: * 1,000,000 squar ...

and uncovered 31

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

structures and features. Most of them were poorly preserved, but they show signs of use from several periods, including the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

, Early Islamic,

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

, and Ottoman eras. Main Discoveries: * Corral 20: A

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

stone enclosure with pottery dating to the Byzantine or Early Islamic periods. * Residential Cave 39: A

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

cave with a

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development and growth *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ec ...

, reused in modern times. * Building 19: A small square stone building containing Ottoman-period

. * Structure 47: Possibly an open

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

with a southern niche (

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

), similar to a mosque found at Ramat Barnea. * Tomb 50: A

rock-cut tomb A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...

holding the skeleton of a woman, buried facing south, consistent with Muslim

burial customs Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and object ...

, along with a Mamluk-period

potsherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

. * Water Systems: Several rock-cut cisterns and terraces designed for collecting runoff water, some still used today. * Agricultural Features: Terrace walls, semicircular slope reinforcements, and

dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

indicating long-term farming activity. * Pottery: Fragments from Byzantine, Islamic, Mamluk, and Ottoman periods.

References

{{Neve Midbar Regional Council Arab villages in Israel Neve Midbar Regional Council

Status

Geography

Archaeology

See also

References