The Israeli authorities on Wednesday morning demolished all the homes of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Araqib in the Negev desert for the 144th consecutive time at the pretext that the structures were unlicensed.
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 harsh weather 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 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.
