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RAHAT: Under an overcast sky in southern Israel, Bedouin villagers wandered through the rubble of what used to be their homes, the latest to be demolished after being deemed illegal structures by Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n
The residents of Al-Dahiya in the Negev desert say they have nowhere else to go after bulldozers destroyed around 80 structures housing some 400 people on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen night falls, where are we supposed to sleep? Under the open sky, or by the light of the moon \u2014 if there is a moon,\u201d said 65-year-old Muhammad Abu Wadi.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod willing, it won\u2019t rain tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demolition orders issued by Israeli authorities plague Bedouin villages, threatening the traditionally semi-nomadic communities with forced eviction.<\/p>\n
Roughly 300,000 Bedouins live in Israel\u2019s Negev, around 30 percent of whom reside in villages like Al-Dahiya which are not officially recognized by the government.<\/p>\n
These unrecognized villages lack most basic services and are fighting the biggest battle to stay on the land.<\/p>\n
The mayor of the nearby city of Rahat, Talal Al-Krenawi, told AFP that Israeli bulldozers demolished a mosque and 80 inhabited homes \u201cwhere about 400 people lived, including 250 students between the ages of six and 18.\u201d<\/p>\n Adnan Abu Wadi, a father of four and resident of Al-Dahiya, said the village had received demolition orders six years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cFor four years we\u2019ve been in and out of the courts and paid hundreds of thousands (of shekels) to cancel the order, but the court ruled a year ago in favor of demolition.\u201d<\/p>\n The residents\u2019 lawyer, Eli Ben Zaken, told AFP the destruction formed part of a wider effort by far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and diaspora minister Amichai Chikli to \u201csignificantly increase the number of demolitions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is going to be established on this land after the demolition. It is land empty of any project, and the residents have been living on it since before the establishment of the state,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The Israeli police, which are under the ministerial responsibility of firebrand Ben Gvir, did not immediately respond to AFP\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n For Adnan Abu Wadi, the demolitions in his village were nothing more than an election stunt ahead of close-fought polls on October 27.<\/p>\n Ben Gvir \u201cis trying to win as many voters as possible and please them with the criminal acts he is committing,\u201d Abu Wadi said.<\/p>\n \u2018Displacement crisis\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n Before Israel\u2019s creation in 1948, the Negev \u2014 or Naqab in Arabic \u2014 was home to approximately 92,000 Bedouins.<\/p>\n But only 11,000 remained within Israel\u2019s borders after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, according to Adalah, an advocacy group for Arab minorities in Israel.<\/p>\n Many of them refused to be resettled in the cities, and Bedouins have continued to be impoverished and marginalized in Israeli society ever since.<\/p>\n In March, Adalah said that the Negev\u2019s Bedouins were \u201cfacing an unprecedented crisis of forced displacement, mass evictions and home demolitions at the hands of the State of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe current, imminent displacement crisis is driven by an explicit state policy of \u2018Judaization\u2019, with the state\u2019s planning to establish over a dozen new Jewish towns\u201d in the area, it added.<\/p>\n Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich in August laid out his party\u2019s plan to dramatically increase the number of Jews living in the Negev and the Galilee \u2014 another area with a large Arab-Israeli population.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will cancel the reckless plans in Arab communities, which have taken over land reserves and threaten Jewish settlement in the area,\u201d he said, pledging \u201cone million additional Jews\u201d in the areas and 40 new communities.<\/p>\n Abu Wadi said the court had offered Al-Dahiya\u2019s residents compensation in the form of a plot on which they could build new homes, but said the land was owned by other Bedouin families and therefore impossible to move to.<\/p>\n Lawyer Ben Zaken said the proposed site was unsuitable.<\/p>\n For 30-year-old Hisham Abu Wadi, the prospect of moving was out of the question.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are holding our ground and setting up tents like back in the day,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as the Bedouins lived back in 1948.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n