Israel refuses to recognise Palestinian villages it plans to confiscate
Al Jazeera
Israel doesn’t recognize 35 Palestinian Bedouin villages, giving them pretext to uproot communities from their land.
Naqab Desert – Israel is building a town exclusively for Jewish Israelis. To do so, it is building over homes it destroyed in Umm al-Hiran, a Palestinian Bedouin village in southern Israel.
In January 2017, security forces stormed the village to bulldoze homes and evict inhabitants. They killed a resident, Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan, accusing him of attacking the forces with his car which spun out of control when they shot at it.
Most of the villagers were forced to leave their land and relocate to Hurra, a larger Bedouin village nearby, leaving tracts of destruction behind for Israel to “claim” after it had caused it.
But some 200 people refused to leave their homes and remained in Umm al-Hiran, which is one of 35 towns “unrecognised” by Israel.
“We’re fighting for our rights,” said Mourad Mohamed, 23, Abu al-Qiyan’s nephew. “We’re hoping to eventually come to an agreement with the government … to remain here.”
