ISRAELI FORCES DEMOLISH AL ARAQIB VILLAGE FOR 79TH TIME

Beersheba, 16 Safar 1436/9 December 2014 (MINA) – Israeli bulldozers demolished on Monday houses in the al-Araqib village in the Negev area for the 79th time.

Inspectors of the Israeli Land Authority raided th village escorted by the Israeli police’s Yoav unit. Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

They raided an Islamic cemetery and demolished houses of villagers.

Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli forces also turned over and plowed lands of the area to prevent residents from finding appropriate pieces of land on which to rebuild their homes.

Sheikh Sayyad al-Turi, a villager said, “Let them keep demolishing and we will keep rebuilding, we are the rightful owners of the land and we will stay here.”

Al-Araqeeb is a unrecognized village of the Al-Turi Arab Bedouin tribe, five miles (8 km) north of Beersheba demolished and rebuilt 59 times.

The Jewish National Fund planned to include the land of Al-Araqeeb in a new forestation project in the Negev Desert called Ambassadors’ Forest, honoring the assistance provided to Israel by the world’s diplomatic corps.

This plan spurred objection from some Bedouin living in Rahat and several villages nearby. In July 2010 the village was demolished by 1,300 police officers, acting under orders of the Israel Land Administration.

Aziz al-Touri, a representative of the village has asked why Jews are permitted to move to the Negev and live in kibbutzim, moshavim and isolated farms while that right is denied the Bedouin desiring to dwell in their own villages. The interviewers comment that the 1948 Palestinian exodus never ended. (T/P006/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)