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<h1 class="article-title">Al-Araqib Village Buildings Demolished for
80th Time</h1>
<div class="article-subtitledetails">
<span class="article-details">
<span class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part1.07000302.07010809@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> Thursday January 15, 2015 12:04</span><span
class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part2.02020803.03090803@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> by IMEMC<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.imemc.org/article/70264">http://www.imemc.org/article/70264</a></small></small></b></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="article-intro">Israeli authorities, on Wednesday,
<a
href="http://www.imemc.org/newswire?search_text=demolished&button=Search+%3E%3E"
target="_blank">demolished</a> a number of steel structures
belonging to Palestinian citizens of Israel, in the Negev-region
village of al-Araqib, for the 80th time in a row.</blockquote>
Ma'an further reports that Israeli bulldozers, escorted by police
forces, also demolished a building in the industrial area of Rahat,
in southern Israel.<br>
<br>
Both towns are populated primarily by Palestinian Bedouins with
Israeli citizenship, with al-Araqib in particular being targeted
repeatedly, since 2010, for demolition by authorities.<br>
<br>
Israel considers al-Araqib and most other Arab villages in the Negev
illegal, while, for Bedouins, the region is their ancestral land and
they claim the right to live in the area.<br>
<br>
Residents of al-Araqib have repeatedly fled into the village
cemetery and lived there after Israeli authorities bulldozed several
areas of the town, since they had been assured the cemetery would
not be destroyed.<br>
<br>
There are about 260,000 Bedouin in Israel, according to Ma'an,
mostly living in and around the Negev in the arid south. More than
half live in unrecognized villages without utilities and many also
live in extreme poverty.<br>
<br>
Al-Araqib is among some of the 40 Negev villages Israeli authorities
have deemed unrecognized, arguing that the 53,000 Palestinian
Bedouins living there cannot prove land ownership.
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