Al Araqeeb is the story of Palestine
There is a specific war being waged by Israel against Palestinians, who, despite their harsh living conditions, remain resolute
he ethnic cleansing of Palestine has never ceased, seven decades after the tragic Nakba. Al Araqeeb Palestinian Bedouin village is a testimony to this fact. After the 1947-48 emptying of Palestine from most of its original inhabitants, Israel turned its focus to the Al Naqab (Negev) desert, initiating a brutal campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestinian Bedouins from their ancestral homeland and replace them with newly-arriving Jewish immigrants.
By 1953, nearly 90 per cent of all Palestinians from the northern Negev area were expelled — some placed in reservations with limited economic opportunities and others sent to live in crowded refugee camps in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. But many remained and others returned in violation of Israeli military orders.
Their story is the story of all Palestinian refugees who, despite their harsh conditions remained resolute in their determination to return home. Yet, no other refugee community symbolises the journey of exile and return as much as the residents of Al-Araqeeb, an ‘unrecognised village’ inhabited mostly by Al Turi Palestinian Arab tribe.
On August 1, the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al Araqeeb was destroyed for the 116th time. As soon as Israeli bulldozers had exhausted their loathsome attack and hundreds of soldiers and police officers began evacuating the premises, the village residents immediately began rebuilding their destroyed homes in an act of defiance and resolve.
By now, the residents of the devastated village are all familiar with the painful routine, considering that the first round of destruction took place in July 2010.
It would be no exaggeration to state that there is a specific war waged by Israel against Palestinian Bedouins. The aim is to destroy their culture and to force them into townships similar to those of Apartheid South Africa. The geographic space of that war extends from the Negev desert to the Southern Hebron Hills to occupied Jerusalem.
The epicentre of this ongoing fight is Al Araqeeb. Not only has Israel destroyed the resolute village numerous times, in violation of international law, it actually delivers a bill to the homeless residents expecting them to cover the cost of the very destruction wrought by the Israeli state.
According to latest estimates, the families that live in makeshift huts and rely on rudimentary means to survive, are expected to pay a bill of two million shekels (around Dh2.2 million). Israel dubs Al Araqeeb, along with 35 villages in Negev, as ‘unrecognised’ by the Israeli government’s master plan, hence they must be erased and their population driven into townships designated and made for the Bedouins. The Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse the Bedouins of Negev is no different from the plan to colonise the West Bank, Judaise the Galilee and Palestinian East Jerusalem.
Indisputable historical reality
A simple look at statistics demolishes that deceptive claim entirely.
As of 1935 — 13 years prior to the existence of Israel — Bedouins “cultivated 2,109,234 dunums of land where they grew most of Palestine’s barley and much of the country’s wheat,” stated the IPS. Moreover, Jewish colonists did not arrive in Negev till 1940 and, by 1946, the total Jewish population there did not amount to more than 475. “The amount of land cultivated by the Bedouins in Negev prior to 1948 came to three times that cultivated by the entire Jewish community in all of Palestine even after 60 years of “pioneering” Zionist [colony],” the IPS concluded. To reverse this indisputable historical reality, Israel has led a decided campaign aimed at vanquishing the Bedouins by severing their relationship with their land. Although this has been done with a great degree of success, the struggle is not yet over.
To preclude any legal wrangling, the Israeli government has been actively pursuing wholesale, irreversible actions to seal the fate of Bedouins once and for all.
The story of Al Araqeeb is witness to the never-ending Israeli desire for colonial expansion at the expense of the indigenous population of Palestine, but also of the courage and refusal to give in to fear and despair as demonstrated by the 22 families of this brave village. In some way, Al Araqeeb represents the story of all of Palestine and its people. The struggle of this village should evoke outrage at Israel’s constant violation of human rights and its refusal to recognise the national aspirations and rights of the Palestinian people, but it should also induce hope that 70 years of colonial expansion cannot defeat or even weaken the will of a village, of a nation.
Dr Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle. com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.