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Cultural Survival expresses our profound grief for the thousands of Palestinians and Israelis killed in recent weeks after Hamas’ horrific October 7 attack and taking hostage of innocent Israeli civilians and the ongoing bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli military. We repudiate the current and decades-long genocidal violence against the Palestinian people. We add our voices to those of millions of people around the world demanding a safe corridor for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip and demanding an immediate ceasefire.

The Bedouin are traditionally a pastoral, semi nomadic Arab people, Indigenous to the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev desert in southern Israel. Today, while most live in towns and villages, they are still considered the “Arab nomads” of Israel -- a minority within the Arab minority -- in the Jewish state. There are an estimated 160,000 Bedouin in Israel, 110,000 of which live the Negev. As one, Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder remembers growing up among the three distinct cultures in her hometown of Beer Sheva, the largest city in the Negev. Sarab was the first Bedouin woman to earn her Ph.

On March 15, the United Nations General Assembly voted 170–4 to create a new Human Rights Council, effectively dissolving the oft-criticized Commission on Human Rights. Candidates for the Council will need to be elected by an absolute majority of 96 votes in order to secure a position, and once elected members can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.

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