Despite The 202nd ‘Israeli’ Demolition, Palestine’s Al-Araqib Residents Persist In Rebuilding Their Village

By Staff, Agencies

The ‘Israeli’ occupation forces demolished on Tuesday the Palestinian village of al-Araqib in the Naqab desert in the ‘Israeli’-occupied Palestinian territories for the 202nd time since the year 2000 and the sixth this year.

However, every time the village is demolished under the pretext of illegal construction, its Palestinian residents return to the land and rebuild their homes in a clear rejection of the ‘Israeli’ attempt to dislodge them from the land where they lived for decades.

The Zionist occupation forces raided the village this morning, removed its residents, mainly women and children, by force, and proceeded to demolish what the residents had rebuilt to shelter their families.

Al-Araqib is home to 22 families, numbering about 800 people, living on raising livestock and farming.

In the 1970s, residents of the village were able to prove through legal means their right to own 1,250 dunums of land out of thousands of dunums in the area of al-Araqib. Yet, they have not been allowed to live in their village in peace.

The Naqab desert is home to over 240,000 Palestinians, most of them live in villages and communities that lack basic humanitarian services such as electricity and water networks, roads, schools, and health centers. Their residents are under constant threat of being forcibly removed and relocated and their homes are repeatedly demolished.