Israeli bulldozers demolished, Thursday, the al-Araqib ‘unrecognized’ Bedouin village, in the Negev, for the 132th consecutive time, and abducted three Palestinians.
Media sources said dozens of officers surrounded the village, before demolishing and removing residential structures and tents, in addition to barns.
They added that the police also abducted Sheikh Siyam at-Touri, and his son Aziz, in addition to Salim Abu Ashraf, for obstructing the work of the officers.
Israeli demolitions of al-Araqib are carried out in the attempt to force the Bedouin population to relocate to government-zoned townships.
Like the 34 other Bedouin villages “unrecognized” by Israel, al-Araqib does not receive any services from the Israeli government, and is constantly subjected to the threats of expulsion and home demolition.
These “unrecognized” 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 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 threat of demolition and forcible removal.
