The Israeli authorities on Wednesday morning demolished all Palestinian homes of the Bedouin village of Araqib in the Negev desert for the 139th consecutive time at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
Local sources said that Israeli bulldozers escorted by police forces stormed the village and embarked on removing all crude homes and tents.
Dozens of Bedouin citizens including children have become homeless and will suffer from the cold weather 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 rebuild it again.
However such Israeli arbitrary criminal and inhumane policy of demolition uprooting and displacement will only increase the residents’ resolve and adherence to their land and village even if Israel demolishes it thousands of times.
Al-Araqib is one of several Bedouin villages in the Negev desert which are “unrecognized” by Israel.
The demolition of al-Araqib and other villages in the Negev is 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.
