The demolition on last Thusday, March 21, in Al-Arakib in the Negev marks the 223nd time since the major demolition of the Arab-Bedouin village in 2010. Israel Land Authority has expanded its actions, also confiscating vehicles used by the residents, near the ancient cemetery.

Al-Arakin is an unrecognized village west of Route 40, between Lehavim and Goral Junctions. Until the State began repeated demolitions in 2010, around 400 people lived in the village. Today, only few residents remain, in the vicinity of the village cemetery, continuing to wage a struggle against its destruction.

The weekly protest vigil on Sundays against the demolition of Al-Arakib (Photo: Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality) 

After a process lasting two decades, last year the Be’er Sheva District Court ruled that the original village residents have no rights. The court did not deny that they were the landowners until the 1950s, but approved the state’s land expropriation process. This ruling finalized the dispossession. The families affected are Al-Uqbi (the oldest in the area), Abu Mdi’am, and Abu Freih.

The village was established during the Ottoman period, on land that the village’s inhabitants purchased during the 20th century. In late 1951, they were expelled from the village, based on a rationale formulated by Moshe Dayan, then commander of central command, and revealed by Prof. Gadi Algazi. Dayan wrote then that “the transfer of the Bedouins to new lands will cancel their rights as landowners, and they will become like rent-paying farmers of the government’s lands.”

Dayan also wrote that the expulsion of the Bedouins from the area of Kibbutz Shoval – including from Al-Arakiv – to the eastern Negev, would free up about 60,000 dunams. “With the evacuation of this area from the Bedouins, it will be possible to fill it with Jewish settlements,” he explained. And in the end, they claim we are the invaders.

Regarding the law that led to the expropriation of Al-Arakiv’s lands, which were used for extensive and documented agriculture former Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch wrote that it is a “draconian” law. She further wrote that “there is no doubt that such legislation today would not pass the constitutional test.” Nevertheless, she took part in the land expropriation process.

“The goal of the Israeli government is to take control over Arab land in the Naqab and to expel entire communities from their land,” Hadash MK Youssef Atawneh said. “This has been ongoing since 1948 and some families have been displaced twice,” he added. “People are very angry over the racism that is taking place,” he stated. “But despite the difficult circumstances, fines and displacements, people are remaining steadfast and strong.”

Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=1349