The expected renewal of peace negotiations between Syria and Israel is likely to bring up again an issue that has been the central component of territorial conflict between the two since 1948: sovereignty in what were, between 1949 and 1967, three demilitarized zones (DMZs) declared on the Israeli side of the Syrian–Israeli frontier. The DMZs, the regime that maintained them, and the significance they had for Syrian–Israeli relations have been studied at some length.1 This article contributes an analysis of the history and implications of one of the three DMZs from the point of view of those for whom the zone was and still is a homeland—the Kirad bedouin moiety, who are now displaced and dispossessed.