Representations of Palestinian Naqab Bedouin Women in Israeli Cinema: Gender and Sexuality in Settler-Colonial Imaginaries

The Palestinian Naqab Bedouins have been represented in Israeli cinema as “nomadic”, “primitive”, and “tribal” people, among other such seemingly derogatory labels. This produces knowledge that reifies stereotypes about the colonized Palestinian Naqab people, creating dichotomies of male/female, traditional/modern, backward/civilized and Third World/First World. Relying on the theoretical articulations by postcolonial and poststructural writers, such as Foucault and Spivak, I understand language, but also visual representations, as discursive formations, i.e. as means of knowledge production which constitutes a source of power. My thesis analyzes different themes of representation of the Palestinian Naqab Bedouins by using a visual discourse analysis approach. I analyze two Israeli films, Sand Storm (2016) and Desert Brides (2008), studying the film’s discourse which is not only words, but also symbols, images, settings, costumes and other elements. Among different issues raised in the films, is the “problem” of polygamy, presented as distinctive to the Naqab Bedouins. Both films, in most of the scenes, depict women as subdued and weak; they are controlled by their patriarch husbands and by tribal society, which encourages men to practice violence against women, devaluing and objectifying them. Along with the theme of marriage and polygamy, I analyze how the films present tribalism/nomadism, and the “public/private” sphere in gendered ways. I argue that both films adopt a gendered Orientalist perspective, labelling the Palestinian Naqab Bedouins as “exotic others” who reject to be modernized, urbanized or sedentarized and prefer to stay in isolated desert-based tents with goats and camels as primitives.