Dozens of residents of an Arab-Bedouin neighborhood with Keshet Karmiel for Social Justice (a local municipal common Hadash and Meretz list) activists in northern Israel on Friday vowed to continue a public struggle against efforts to evacuate them from their land.  Residents of Ramya, who live in tin shacks and sheds within Karmiel, waged a protest in the city center urging neighbors to support their battle against the authorities. The state expropriated Ramya residents’ land in 1976, and their efforts to thwart evacuation have been going for decades.

Demonstrators at Friday’s protest near Karmiel city hall (Photo: Keshet Karmiel for Social Justice)

 Demonstrators at Friday’s protest near city hall included residents and their families, Arab and Jewish activists who support the cause and Knesset members including Hadash chairman MK Mohammed Barakeh, among others. One of the protest leaders, Saleh Sawad, addressed the crowd, saying, “The time has come to face us. Why do they want to evict us? We have lived here for hundreds of years, and we want to live with you as human beings. The nation of Israel suffered greatly in Europe, so don’t transfer that to the residents of Ramya. What is happening is unacceptable – all we are asking is that we and our children have a roof over our heads.”

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