GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

The Sinai Bedouins: An Enemy of Egypt's Own Making

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Hilal Khashan
Board of Contributors

Apr 1, 2018 | 13:20 GMT

Egypt has long had an uneasy relationship with the nomadic Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt has long had an uneasy relationship with the nomadic Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula.

(Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Egypt historically has had an uneasy relationship with the Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula.
  • Despite their reputation in Egypt as a lawless people, the Bedouins coexisted peacefully with Israeli rule from the time of the Six-Day War in 1967 to the implementation of the Camp David Accords in 1982.
  • Unless the Egyptian government follows through on its promises to develop the northern Sinai, the area's Bedouin population will continue to depend on illegal activities such as smuggling to make a living.

Violence in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has been steadily growing over the past seven years, despite repeated military campaigns to quell it. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a massive air, sea and land operation on Feb. 9 to drive the Islamic State from the region. Not six months earlier, he ordered the army to eradicate the jihadist group following an attack on a packed mosque in north Sinai. Yet each campaign overlooked a critical factor behind the region's unrest: the government's failure to understand and accommodate the Sinai Peninsula's Bedouins....

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