The study examines outdoor-leisure patterns of a Bedouin minority population in a semi-arid desert in southern Israel. This study is the first of its kind to focus on an Israeli minority’s outdoor recreational activities in forests. Using extensive quantitative and qualitative methods: over 180 interviews and data analysing from motion sensors conducted among the Negev Bedouins in 2019-2020.
The study demonstrates the forest’s unique role as an “enabling space”, neutral and free from internal cultural, traditional, and social constraints. New internal processes and trends were observed in the minority society, which had not yet been revealed. These include the empowerment of marginalized groups and the formation of a gap between Bedouins who settled in cities and those living in rural areas. Moreover, the study points to the trend of adaptation of the Bedouin society to the majority society’s leisure patterns, along with physical closeness between the majority and the minority during recreation.
