Editing Negev (section)

===British Mandate===
[[File:Possible Redistribution of Ottoman and Arabian Territory on the Principle of Self-Determination November 1918.png|thumb|A map considered by the British Cabinet in 1918 suggested that the Negev could be included in either Palestine or Egypt.<ref>Map from [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7732547 CAB 24/72/7] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107155625/http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7732547 |date=2016-11-07 }}: "Maps illustrating the Settlement of Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula", forming an annex to: [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7732546 CAB 24/72/6] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107155628/http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7732546 |date=2016-11-07 }}, a British Cabinet memorandum on "The Settlement of Turkey and the Arablan Peninsula"</ref>]]

The 1916 [[Sykes-Picot Agreement]] between Britain and France placed the Negev in Area B, "Arab state or states" under British patronage.<ref>{{cite book |first=Gideon |last=Biger |title=The Boundaries of Modern Palestine, 1840–1947 |page=64 |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |year=2004}}</ref> The Negev was appropriated from the Ottoman army by British forces during 1917 and became part of [[Mandatory Palestine]].

In 1922, the Bedouin component of the population was estimated at 72,898 out of a total of 75,254 for the Beersheba sub-district.<ref name=census1922>Palestine, Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922, October 1922, J.B. Barron, Superintendent of the Census, pages 4,7</ref> The 1931 census estimated that the population of the Beersheba sub-district was 51,082.<ref>Census of Palestine 1931, Volume I. Palestine Part I, Report. Alexandria, 1933, p49.</ref> This large decrease was considered to be an artifact of incorrect enumeration methods used in 1922.<ref name=census1922/> An Arabic history of tribes around Beersheba, published in 1934 records 23 tribal groups.<ref>Palestine Exploration Quarterly. (October 1937 & January 1938) ''Notes on the Bedouin Tribes of Beersheba District. by S. Hillelson.'' Translations from ''A History of Beersheba and the Tribes thereof (Ta'rikh Bir al-Saba' wa qaba'iliha).'' by 'Arif al-'Arif.</ref>