Resistance to the Colonial State: the Bedouin of Southern Palestine under the British Rule, 1917-1948 This region of southern Palestine was inhabited entirely by Bedouin tribes, mainly semi-nomadic pastoralists. Once they established their active control of southern Palestine sub-district in 1917, the British administered the Bedouin tribes through a network of military governors. Beersheba remained the main economic centre for the Bedouin, and the policy of making the city the administrative and control hub for the southern Palestine region continued. Recognizing that the sheikhs represented their tribes and were responsible for keeping them in order, the British made the sheikhs their key contact points with the tribes, thereby reaffirming this traditional power relationship within the community. This paper will examine the southern Palestine Bedouin and their relationship with the British from 1917 until the end of the Mandate era in 1948, looking specifically at the policies of the British Mandatory authorities for governing the Bedouin and the extent to which these policies were effective. By investigating the interaction of the southern Palestine Bedouin with the Mandate authorities, the significant part played by Bedouin inter-territorial tribunal courts, the influential role of the Palestine Police (Bedouin Gendarmerie), the dispute over land ownership, and the role of the Bedouin in the 1936 revolt, I will seek in this paper to produce new interpretations of the actual relationship between the British Mandate and the Bedouin tribes of southern Palestine until 1948. I will argue that despite significant instances of co-operation, Bedouins’ resistance to British governance peaked during the Great Revolt (1936–39). The Bedouin also played an important administrative role in managing Palestine’s southern district, since without their influence in securing the borders of the colonial state and their substantial organizational role in Beersheba, the Mandate could have not survived in a region dominated by a powerful Bedouin tribal society.