Lepus, would you have felt any better if I had said "just" instead of "only"?" Probably not, since you seem to have an axe to grind at any post that gives the appearance of disparaging the Palestinian Arabs.
Since The Bedouins were nomads or semi-nomads they used the land in very different ways than did the farmers and they had just as much right to the land as anyone. But it is a political and historical fact that land belongs to whoever can hold it and keep it. Your comments about the Roma and what the Han have done to the Tibetans quite true. The Han are doing the same thing to the people of Western China, the Uighir.
But the world changes and peoples change with it or they disappear. Control of land changes. The nomads of the world have gotten short shrift from the governments of the lands they once roamed freely but the security of borders outweights the wants and needs of small groups of nomads.
It isn't a nice thing to contemplate and much may be lost to the world in the way of languages and folk-knowledge to name two but there it is. Reality rears its'ugly head.
So get off your high horse.
Now, as far as the Bedouin being the aboriginal inhabitants of that area, most historians seem to feel that the Cannanites were there first and they were supplanted by the Twelve Tribes of Israel under Joshua. There have been Jews in that part of the world ever since. I don't know when the Bedouin came into the area but I'm pretty sure that it was after the Roman occupation.
I'm not passing judgement on anyone, herder or farmer. I'm simply stating that the late 19th and early 20th century Jewish settlers took land which they percieved as un- or under-utilized and by hard work made it arable. They purchased the land in most cases and there is extant correspondence regarding that. One of the links in this post talks about the problems encountered.
I am aware that there were times when Arab farmers were forced off land they considered theirs when it was sold by an absentee landlord. I can sympathize with them; the same thing happened to my people in Scotland.
Now Carol, I didn't say that the whole land was empty outside of Jerusalem. Jaffa oranges were mentioned by the Crusaders. The Jewish and later Zionist (not always the same) settlers bought the lands they farmed or took up land where there were no people using it. I'm certain that there were Bedouin herders who got a major shock when they found people farming what they had long considered their grazing grounds. As I said earlier, conditions change.
There follows Mark Twains account of traveling through the Jezreel Valley in 1867. There is also a link to an account of Zionist attempts to purchase the valley. Also there is a link to the Church of the Nativity story in Time Magazine. Just to keep things current.
You have asked for a break? You got it.
On Saturday morning at zero dark thirty, I, one suticase and two guitars will board a plane for Japan for a six month gig at Disney Tokyo Resort. I'm taking a laptop but I don't know how expensive it will be to get online. The cost may be prohibitive in which case I'll use the laptop to compose e-mails to Memsahib and post them at the local internet cafe. If I can get online, you'll know it but it will be at least a week so enjoy the respite.

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There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent [valley of Jezreel] — not for 30 miles in either direction. . . . One may ride 10 miles hereabouts and not see 10 human beings.

For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee . . . Nazareth is forlorn . . . Jericho lies a moldering ruin . . . Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation . . . untenanted by any living creature . . . .

A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds . . a silent, mournful expanse . . . a desolation . . . . We never saw a human being on the whole route . . . . Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country . . . .

Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes . . . desolate and unlovely . . . . — Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1867

http://www.tzemach.org/fyi/docs/nopal.htm

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-breitbart051402.asp

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