[News] Israeli Troops Demolish Al-Arakib Village for 188th Time

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://imemc.org/article/israeli-troops-demolish-al-arakib-village-for-188th-time/ 
<https://imemc.org/article/israeli-troops-demolish-al-arakib-village-for-188th-time/> 



  Israeli Troops Demolish Al-Arakib Village for 188th Time

June 2, 2021
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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 
<https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-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.

-- 
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