The Israeli government on Tuesday demolished the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib, Tuesday, for the 188th consecutive time.
Israeli police forces and the “Yoav” unit of the so-called “Negev Development Authority” government, accompanied by military vehicles and armored bulldozers, stormed the village of “Al-Araqib” and proceeded to demolish the tents and homes of Palestinian citizens there.
This is the seventh time that the occupation authorities have demolished the modest tents of the people of Al-Araqib during the current year 2021, and the 188th time since the demolitions began, but the people re-construct them every time.
The Israeli authorities continue to prosecute Al-Araqib residents who refuse to compromise on the land. The government sends troops to demolish the homes of the impoverished Palestinian shepherds and farmers.
The troops demolish their homes and destroy their crops, and impose penalties and fines on them under the pretext of building without permits.
The Quds News Network describes the steadfastness of the residents of the village of “Al-Araqib” as “legendary”, as they rebuild tents and houses and confront plans to uproot and displace them from their land every time it happens.
Demolitions of Al-Araqib and other unrecognized Palestinian villages continue on a regular basis under the claims that these homes were built without a permit on land owned by the Israeli state. But Israel has never issued these indigenous residents the permits to live on their own land, despite the fact that the Bedouin community has been living there for far longer than the state of Israel has existed.
The Israeli authorities’ state objective is to displace the residents of Al-Araqib from their original lands, paving the way for the land to be settled by Israelis.
Al-Araqib is a Palestinian village located to the north of the city of Beersheba in the Negev desert (southern Palestine). It was established for the first time during the Ottoman rule. It is one of the 51 Arab villages in the Negev that the Israeli government does not recognize.
And the occupation authorities have worked since 1951 to expel its residents, with the aim of controlling their lands, through extensive house demolitions, in an effort to control the vast lands that are equivalent to two-thirds of historic Palestine.
The village was completely demolished by Israeli bulldozers on July 27, 2010; Israeli troops demolished all its homes and displaced hundreds of its residents, under the pretext of building without a permit.
The residents of the village built it again, to be demolished again and again, the most recent demolition being the 188th one that happened today. The tents that the villagers had set up were demolished, instead of the houses that were demolished in the past times.
The steadfastness of Al-Araqib became a symbol of the battle of wills waged by the Palestinians of the occupied interior, especially in the Negev, in order to survive and preserve land and identity from the policies of Judaization.
About 240,000 Palestinians live in the Negev desert, half of whom live in villages and Bedouin camps, some of which have been in place for hundreds of years.
The Israeli occupation authorities do not recognize their ownership of the lands of these villages and communities, refuse to provide them with basic services such as water and electricity, and try by all means and methods to push the Palestinian Arabs to despair and frustration in order to uproot and displace them.
Article 17 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in section 1: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others; and in section 2: No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
