Israeli forces demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the
Negev region of southern Israel for the 116th time since 2010 on Tuesday
morning, and for the eighth time this year, according to Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency.
Wafa quoted witnesses as saying that officials from the Israel Land
Authority (ILA), accompanied by Israeli police and bulldozers, raided
the village and demolished all the tin homes in the area, which were
built by the village’s residents following the most recent demolition in
early July.
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.
The classification of their villages as “unrecognized” prevents Bedouins
from developing or expanding their communities, while Israeli
authorities have also refused to connect unrecognized Bedouin villages
to the national water and electricity grids, and have excluded the
communities from access to health and educational services.
Moreover, al-Araqib residents have been 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.
