The Israeli authorities demolished on Tuesday morning all the tents and structures in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Araqib in the Negev desert for the 212th consecutive time displacing its Bedouin residents.
According to local sources Israeli police forces and employees from the Bedouin development authority — which is responsible for such demolitions — stormed the village and wreaked havoc on everything.
Consequently dozens of Bedouin citizens including children have become homeless once again and will suffer from the harsh weather conditions of the desert for a while before they could have new makeshift homes again.
Araqib residents live in a constant state of fear because they expect the demolition of their village at any moment after they manage to rebuild their homes anew. About 22 families made up of 110 people live in Araqib.
An estimated 80000 Bedouin Palestinians who carry Israeli citizenship live in several Negev communities which are often denied vital services including water electricity and educational facilities.
The demolition of al-Araqib and other villages in the Negev is believed to be a systematic Israeli policy aimed at expelling the native population from the Negev and transferring them to government-zoned areas to pave the way to expand and build settlements for Jewish communities.
However such Israeli arbitrary criminal and inhumane policy of demolition uprooting and displacement will only increase the Negev residents’ resolve and adherence to their lands and villages even if Israel demolishes them thousands of times.
In a related context the Hamas Movement condemned the demolition of Araqib village in the Negev as “persistence in the policy of ethnic cleansing and uprooting which is pursued by the Israeli occupation government against the Palestinian people.”
In a statement on Tuesday Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanu said that “the criminal demolition policy that is used by the extremist Israeli government against the Palestinian people and their villages violates the international law and reflects its barbarism and colonialism.”
The spokesman added that such a policy would never succeed in undermining the Palestinian people’s will and their determination to defend their land and uphold their rights.
