Why Israel wants these bedouins to pay for their village’s demolition

AL MONITOR — RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Bedouin al-Araqib village (status unrecognized by Israel) in the Negev (Naqab) region is facing an ongoing demolition campaign that started on the morning of June 27, 2010, when the whole village was flattened to the ground. Since then, demolition work has been recurring each time the inhabitants set up new tents, with Israel claiming lack of permits. The latest incident took place April 5 and was the 96th to date.

Before the demolition campaign started in 2010, Araqib had a population of 400. The number is now down to 22 families (80 people) after some inhabitants were forced to leave the village.

Following the destruction of their houses, the people of Araqib now live in tents or trailers, suffering from a complete lack of health care and educational services, as well as an acute shortage of electricity and water, to a point where they rely on generators and solar panels to generate electricity and pay a high price to transport water via tankers.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Aziz Touri, a member of the Araqib defense committee, said, “The village is experiencing harsh living conditions amid the absence of the [minimum] standards of living, as Israeli authorities have demolished the residents’ houses and destroyed their crops and livestock. However, the people have survived and are continuing their peaceful fight to claim their rights, gain official recognition for their status and acquire the ownership of the land they live in.”

In parallel with the ongoing demolition campaign, Israeli authorities have instituted legal proceedings against the residents of Araqib before Israeli courts, demanding that they bear the cost of demolition, in a bid to force them to leave the village.

CONTINUE READING