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<h1 class="title">Israeli forces demolish Palestinian Bedouin
village for 119th time</h1>
<div style="margin: 5px 0 10px 0;">
<div class="BodyDiv">Oct. 4, 2017 - <font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779262">http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779262</a></font><br>
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces demolished the Palestinian
Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Naqab (Negev) region of
southern Israel on Tuesday for the 119th time since 2010,
Palestinian Authority-owned Wafa news agency reported.<br>
<br>
<div>Aziz al-Turi, a local activist, told Wafa that Israeli
bulldozers accompanied by Israeli police forces raided the
village and demolished its makeshift homes "without any
consideration for their residents, and despite of the bad
weather conditions," the report said.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>“The (Israeli) police is always trying to provoke us …
The demolitions will not frighten us and will not deter us
from rebuilding our homes,” he was quoted as saying.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>An Israeli court<a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778829"
target="_blank"> ruled </a><a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778829"
target="_blank">last month</a> that<span style="font-size:
11pt;"> six residents of al-Araqib must pay 262,000
shekels (more than $72,000) for previous demolition costs,
in addition to 100,000 shekels ($27,693) to cover the
costs of the state’s lawyer. It was</span><span
style="font-size: 11pt;"> only the latest payment in which
the village has had to compensate Israel for its routine
demolitions in the village.</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;">According to al-Araqib
residents, before the latest court ruling, the village was
ordered to pay more than two million shekels
(approximately $541,000) for the cumulative cost of
Israeli-enforced demolitions carried out against the
village since 2010.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Al-Araqib is one of 35
Bedouin villages considered “unrecognized” by the Israeli
state. According to the Association for Civil Rights in
Israel (ACRI), more than half of the approximately 160,000
Bedouins in the Negev reside in unrecognized villages.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The unrecognized Bedouin
villages were established in the Negev soon after the 1948
Arab-Israeli war following the creation of the state of
Israel.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Many of the 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.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Now more than 60 years
later, the villages have yet to be recognized by Israel
and live under constant threats of demolition and forcible
removal.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Right groups say that the
demolition of unrecognized Bedouin villages is a </span><a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=775038"
target="_blank" style="font-family: inherit; font-size:
inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit;
font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border:
0px; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;
width: auto; height: auto; line-height: 14.6667px; color:
rgb(72, 0, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">central
Israeli policy aimed at removing the indigenous
Palestinian population</a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned
townships to make room for the expansion of Jewish Israeli
communities.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
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