The Israeli occupation authorities on Tuesday demolished the Palestinian village of Al-Awaroub, which was stripped of recognition in the occupied Negev (south of occupied Palestine), for the 163rd consecutive time.
Our correspondent quoted local sources in Al-Iraqiabe, as saying that the occupation police raided the village and arrested Sheikh Sayah al-Turi and his son Aziz, before demolishing their homes and leaving residents in the open.
The Iraqi occupation authorities demolished for the 162nd time on September 26, and imposed heavy fines on the people of Al-Iraqiya and arrested a number of them, including Sheikh al-Iraqiis, 69, several times.
The occupation intensified its incursions into Iraq and the recent demolition of its modest houses to push the people to despair and frustration and leave their land, but they confirmed their steadfastness and returned to their village after the demolition and reconstruction of their houses.
The demolitions of al-Arunb and other Israeli-owned Palestinian villages follow, claiming that their homes were built without a permit on land owned by the Jewish state.
The occupation aims to displace the people of Al-Awarabe from their original lands, which is intended to be used in expansionist settlement projects.
Al-Aruba is a Palestinian village north of the city of Beersheba in the Negev desert (southern Palestine), first established during ottoman rule, and is one of 51 Arab villages in the Negev that are not recognized by the Israeli government.
Since 1951, the occupation authorities have expelled their inhabitants, with the aim of controlling their lands, through massive demolitions of houses, in an effort to control the vast territories equivalent to two-thirds of historic Palestine.
The village was completely demolished by Israeli bulldozers on 27 July 2010, demolishing all its houses and displacing hundreds of its residents, under the pretext of building without a permit.
The villagers rebuilt it, to be demolished again and again, most recently today, where the tents erected by the villagers were demolished, instead of houses that had been demolished in the past.
Al-Awarab´s steadfastness became a symbol of the battle of the wills of the Palestinians of the occupied interior, especially in the Negev, to survive and preserve the land and identity of judaization policies.
Some 240,000 Palestinian Arabs live in the Negev desert, half of whom live in villages and communities, some of which have been in place for hundreds of years.
The Israeli occupation authorities do not recognize their ownership of the land of these villages and communities, refuse to provide them with basic services such as water and electricity, and try in all ways and methods to cause Palestinian Arabs to despair and frustration for uprooting and displacement.
