Israeli bulldozers demolished the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb in the Negev desert in southern Israel for the 141st time, on Thursday.
Locals reported that Israeli police forces secured the way for demolition bulldozers, pointing out that women, children and the elderly of the village, were evacuated and left without shelter under the rain.
Sheikh Sayah al-Turi, the head of al-Araqib, arrives at Israeli prison on Christmas Day for a 10-month sentence for "trespassing." Al-Araqib is not recognized by the state and has been demolished more than 100 times in the past several years. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills) pic.twitter.com/0hRENVQ81D
— Asa Winstanley (@AsaWinstanley) January 8, 2019
Villagers said that they insist on remaining in their village, adding that they will keep re-building their village.
Israeli bulldozers had demolished the village in early February.
The Israeli demolitions of al-Araqeeb are carried out in attempts to force the Bedouin population to relocate to government-zoned townships.
Like the 34 other Bedouin villages “unrecognized” by Israel, al-Araqeeb does not receive any services from the Israeli government and is constantly subjected to the threats of expulsion and home demolition.
Israeli army bulldozers and bulldozers demolished the houses of the village of Al-Araqib, south of the country, and displaced their residents for the 141st time, despite the stormy and cold weather. https://t.co/uQqFZnOJLh
— STJEPAN TOKIC (@6P592) March 7, 2019
These villages were established in the Negev soon after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war following the creation of the state of Israel when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes and made refugees.
Many of the Bedouins were forcibly transferred to the village sites during the 17-year period when Palestinians inside Israel were governed under Israeli military law, which ended shortly before Israel’s military takeover of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967.
Now more than 60 years later, the Bedouin villages have yet to be legally recognized by Israel and live under constant threats of demolition and forcible removal.
(Ma’an, PC, Social Media)
