Siyaj

Summary

The enclosed zone northeast of Beersheba — the ‘designated’ or closed zone, al-mantiqa al-muharama — into which the majority of the Bedouin who remained after 1948 were evicted and concentrated under military rule, in The Ongoing Judaisation of the Naqab and the Struggle for Recognising the Indigenous Rights of the Arab Bedouin People, on promises that the removal was temporary and that they could return within weeks or months (The Ongoing Judaisation of the Naqab and the Struggle for Recognising the Indigenous Rights of the Arab Bedouin People, PDF p.11-13 / printed p.91-93).

The expulsion mainly took place from the western Naqab (al-mantiqa al-gharbiya), which became the closed zone; the majority were never allowed to return to their original land (PDF p.11-12).
Exiled tribes were often forced onto land belonging to other tribes, including tribes expelled and no longer in Israel, and tribes to this day refuse to settle on land they know belongs to other tribes (PDF p.12-13, note 47).
The al-Oqbi family member quoted on its purpose: concentrating the Bedouin in the siyaj and convincing them to leave temporarily “was all about land control” (PDF p.13).