- Title: ISRAEL: Land dispute threatens entire Bedouin village
- Date: 7th August 2010
- Summary: VARIOUS OF CHILDREN PLAYING IN STREET GIRL PLAYING WITH GOAT IN STREET
- Embargoed: 22nd August 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA512IYDUWJOUYVDR9ORHY0VO7M
- Story Text: Mohammed Abu-Madiyyah is already rebuilding his house which was demolished along with the rest of his village by Israel's Land Administration. His daughter, one of three children, helps.
A few days earlier, at dawn, over 1,000 policemen entered the village, located in Israel's Southern Negev desert.
The forces removed the residents and demolished some 45 constructions, mostly huts and tents, which they said were built illegally.
Al-Arakib, home to over 40 families, is one of 45 Bedouin villages in Israel, which are not recognized by the government. Israel says the land belongs to the state.
Families living in Al-Arakib say their ownership of the land dates back to before the establishment of Israel.
"The main aim of this operation is (for Israel) to occupy the land. They forgot that we are citizens in this state; how are they occupying a place which is part of their state? The aim to occupy this land is to plant these trees, they want to plant trees in order to occupy (confiscate) this land," Mohammed Abu-Madiyyah said.
Sheikh Sayyah Abu-Madighem is head of Al-Arakib village. In his hand he holds documents he says prove that his great grandfather bought the land in the days of the Ottoman empire.
"The policy of the current government led by Netanyahu and Lieberman, is to transfer the Bedouins from their lands and to plant a tree instead of the human beings (living on it)," Sheikh Sayyah says.
"(Even) if they destroy it one hundreds time, we will rebuild it again," the Sheikh says.
Shlomo Tsizer, chief supervisor of the southern district at Israel's Land Authority says the families of Al-Arakib invaded the land which belongs to the state.
"All the people evicted from there and all the demolition's were carried out according to court decisions on all levels - magistrate, district and supreme court. This land is state land, according to law all the people living there have homes in Rahat and Kfar Qassem (towns). They claim ownership of the land - it is not at all theirs," Tsizer said.
Yeela Raanan, is an anthropologist and former public relations officer at the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages, a non-governmental organisation.
Raanan says Israel's laws are written in such a way to exclude the law of the land which ruled before the state was established. Israel, she says, is trying to get the state's semi-nomadic Bedouins into towns built especially for them from the early 1960's.
"Although these people are citizens of Israel, they don't fall into this group of belonging to this land, which is the Jewish group, the people that established the state of Israel. So villages, by definition, take up land. Towns, by definition take up much less land per person and so the government and the people of Israel have very much the wish that this land be Jewish, be clean of Bedouins as much as possible. Not trying to get hem out of the country, but at least to concentrate them," said Raanan.
A move into an urban environment, Raanan says, conflicts with the Bedouin's way of life.
Six days after the village was demolished, forces return to Al-Arakib to pull down the homes which had already been rebuilt by its residents.
Soon after the forces leave, Al-Arakib's residents again begin to rebuild their homes.
About 600 of Israel's 180,000 Bedouin citizens live in villages not recognized by the state. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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