The "banality of evil" and israel's destruction. of al-Araqib

Joseph Dana writing from al-Araqib,
Live from Palestine, 10 August 2010

In the early hours of 10 August, Israeli forces destroyed -- for the third time -- the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the northern Negev desert. Israel had first destroyed the village on 27 July as EI reported, and each time the villagers have attempted to rebuild. Joseph Dana witnessed the latest destruction.

We arrived in the darkness. The horizon was blurred from the desert night sky and all that could be seen was ruin. Piles of concrete, steel reinforcing bars and wood in places where the village once sat. In this maze of construction material there were small makeshift living spaces, barely suitable for the harsh desert climate. Simple tent structures consisting of four wood shafts and a black tarp was the only remains of this village.

We, Israeli and international activists, were invited to sit in these tents through the night and sip coffee in the cool desert night with the villagers. They told us about their livelihood now that the village is constantly facing demolition. Some talked about their military service in the Israeli army and their disbelief that the country they served could behave in such a way as to destroy their entire village. Others expressed hope that at least some Israelis understood the grave nature of their government and were standing arm in arm with them.

As the night closed and the light began to change, the first sounds of the demolition crew could be heard far off in the distance. Before we had time to blink, 200 fully clad police officers were on microphones telling us to leave and that any violence would be met with harsher violence. As soon as the voices on the microphones stopped, the bulldozers began to work. The place we had been sitting and having coffee through the night was leveled before our groggy, disbelieving eyes. We barely had time to register the fact that the village was being leveled, as the police began pushing us away from the living structures with extreme force.

A Bedouin woman sits in front of her rebuilt home in al-Araqib after it was destroyed by Israeli forces, again. (Joseph Dana)

The demolition crew worked efficiently and without pause. Every structure that served some form of life in the village was leveled and all the building materials from it were trucked away. As we were pushed further from the village, a couple of activists tried to sit inside or in front of the tents. This was met with violence by the police as people were thrown to the ground like rag dolls. At one point in the chaos, a professor of medieval history at Tel Aviv University was grabbed by a police officer, who quickly wrenched his hand behind his back. The professor was held like this for a number of minutes and then arrested. It is still unclear under what terms.

Finally, the police confined us to a hilltop and had us look over the village as it was destroyed. The water canisters, which are needed because Israel refuses to give the villagers water pipes, were broken and then placed on flat bed trucks to be carted away. The image of massive bulldozers flanked by heavily armed riot police destroying makeshift Bedouin living structures is something that no one would be able to forget. As soon as the forces left, the villagers began rebuilding what little they have left. Every week, their resources shrink and yet they rebuild. They have no choice.

All of the police officers and members of the demolition crew this morning were simply following orders. It was another day for them and due to the Israeli cultural understanding of the Bedouins and Palestinians as "nearly people," they will probably not lose a wink of sleep this evening. However, the complete destruction of the village of al-Araqib is yet another powerful example of the Israeli banality of evil.

Joseph Dana, a writer and filmmaker living in Jerusalem, is active in direct action groups such as Taayush and the Anarchists Against the Wall. His website is josephdana.com.

Homeless Take On lsraeli Forces

By MEL FRYKBERG

RAMALLAH, Aug 10, 2010 (IPS) - A bruising battle of will is taking place between Israeli security forces and Palestinians recently made homeless after two Palestinian villages were razed and hundreds left homeless.

During the last few weeks over a thousand heavily armed Israeli riot police, soldiers and police, at times accompanied by helicopters and bulldozers, have clashed with the expelled Palestinians and their supporters as the latter attempt to rebuild the villages.

Al-Araqib, a Bedouin village in Israel's Negev desert, was destroyed in a pre- dawn raid at the end of July to make way for a Jewish National Fund forest. The razing of the village was carried out despite pending legal action on land ownership that Al-Araqib residents have launched in the local Beer Sheva District Court.

During the destruction hundreds of Palestinians -- including at least 200 children - were left homeless. At least 45 homes, chicken co-ops, animal pens, carob trees and fruit orchards were leveled, and about 800 olive trees uprooted. A protesting Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) was amongst those injured.

The destruction of the village came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a government meeting of the "threat" of losing Jewish majority in the Negev region. Bedouin constitute 25 percent of the population of the northern Negev, but occupy less than two percent of its land.

According to a media statement released by Human Rights Watch (HRW), "Israel has demolished thousands of Negev Bedouin homes since the 1970s and over 200 since 2009. The Land Administration also began spraying villagers' crops with herbicides in 2002 as a mechanism to cause evacuation, a practice deemed illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2007."

HRW says thousands of Bedouin were displaced following the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the 1950s and 1960s Israel passed laws enabling the government to lay claim to large areas of the Negev where the Bedouin had formerly owned or used the land. Planning authorities ignored the existence of Bedouin villages when they created Israel's first master plan in the late 1960s.

The Negev Coexistence Forum, a Bedouin rights group, said in a statement that Al-Araqib existed before the creation of Israel in 1948, and that residents returned there after being evicted by the state in 1951.

Tens of thousands of Bedouin live in "unrecognised" villages in the south of Israel. Israel considers them "illegal", and has refused to connect them to basic services and infrastructure.

However, Israeli authorities granted large tracts of land and public funds for Israeli Jews to establish ranches in the area, and connected them to national electric and water grids despite the absence of proper planning permits, according to Israeli rights group Adalah. The ranches were legalised a month ago.

"It is clear to us that this action by the Israeli government is politically motivated and systematic discrimination. Here we have a large group of Israeli-Arabs who want to be part of Israel and this is how they are treated. It appears the Israeli government is shooting itself in the foot and the consequences will be bad," Noga Malkin from HRW told IPS.

Last week clashes broke out again, and structures were destroyed when Israeli security forces dispersed Al-Araqib villagers and their supporters as they tried to rebuild the village.

Meanwhile, across the Green Line, the internationally recognised border between Israel proper and the occupied Palestinian West Bank, many Palestinians were recently made homeless. Israeli authorities declared the decades-old village Farasiya in the northern West Bank a closed military zone, and razed it.

In the middle of July Israel's Civil Administration, which controls large swathes of the West Bank, demolished 55 structures, including animal shelters and agricultural buildings.

On Saturday Farasiya villagers, accompanied by Israeli and international sympathisers, tried for the third time to rebuild the village after it had been leveled twice during the last month.

Farasiya falls within Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control. Under the 1993 Oslo Accords Area C, which comprises approximately 60 percent of the territory, was meant to be slowly handed over to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Instead, Israel has been enlarging and establishing new Israeli settlements and expropriating Palestinian land for the benefit of Israeli settlers in the area in violation of international law and UN resolutions. Farasiya village was located near to five of the illegal settlements.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that more than a hundred structures in the Jordan Valley have been demolished in the last month.

"The spate of demolitions raises concerns over whether Israeli authorities could further escalate demolitions throughout Area C. More than 3,000 demolition orders handed down by Israeli officials to locals are still outstanding," says OCHA.

Residents from both villages, and their supporters, have vowed to return to the site of the destroyed villages and continue attempting to rebuild them, while the Israeli authorities have warned that they will take further action. "The recent plans of the government and the level of force used indicate longer and bigger clashes ahead," Malkin told IPS. (END)

West Bank home demolitions continue

Palestine Note , August 9, 2010

As Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stall, Israel’s military continues to raze Palestinian homes in the West Bank.Ma’an News Agency reported from Tubas in the West Bank Monday:
Israel’s Civil Administration began razing housing units Monday in the Ein Hilwa area of the northern Jordan Valley, campaign officials said.

Save the Jordan Valley campaign coordinator Fathi Ikhdeirat said Israeli authorities, accompanied by border guards, began tearing down structures and handing down stop-work orders to residents.

He described the move as an attempt “to clear the area of its indigenous people and include it into Israel and called on international human rights groups to intervene to bring the demolitions to a halt.

A spokesman for Israel’s Civil Administration did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The US as arbiter for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has called on both parties not to take part in an inflammatory behavior, but Israel has demolished several West Bank structures as well as Arab homes within Israel with frequency over the past several months.

Ma’an said the Jordan Valley in particular has been “a target for demolitions by Israel’s Civil Administration.”

On Sunday, dozens of Palestinians as well as foreign activists rebuilt areas in the nearby Al-Farisiya village that were recently bulldozed by Israel’s Civil Administration.
Over the past 10 days, several shacks, homes and agricultural structures were torn down in the village by the administration, which has complete planning and building control over Area C. Last Thursday, the Civil Administration returned to the valley to demolish 23 structures rebuilt by residents and farmers.
Meanwhile, in the nearby Bardala village, locals said the Civil Administration distributed several stop-work orders to residents in late July.

The orders, known locally as “demolition orders,” demand that homeowners appear before a magistrates court to defend allegations. Because legal action at the court rarely succeeds, the stop-work orders essentially constitute a demolition order.

Ma’an News Agency reported from Tubas in the West Bank Monday:
Israel’s Civil Administration began razing housing units Monday in the Ein Hilwa area of the northern Jordan Valley, campaign officials said.

Save the Jordan Valley campaign coordinator Fathi Ikhdeirat said Israeli authorities, accompanied by border guards, began tearing down structures and handing down stop-work orders to residents.
He described the move as an attempt “to clear the area of its indigenous people and include it into Israel and called on international human rights groups to intervene to bring the demolitions to a halt.
A spokesman for Israel’s Civil Administration did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The US as arbiter for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has called on both parties not to take part in an inflammatory behavior, but Israel has demolished several West Bank structures as well as Arab homes within Israel with frequency over the past several months.

Ma’an said the Jordan Valley in particular has been “a target for demolitions by Israel’s Civil Administration.”

On Sunday, dozens of Palestinians as well as foreign activists rebuilt areas in the nearby Al-Farisiya village that were recently bulldozed by Israel’s Civil Administration.

Over the past 10 days, several shacks, homes and agricultural structures were torn down in the village by the administration, which has complete planning and building control over Area C. Last Thursday, the Civil Administration returned to the valley to demolish 23 structures rebuilt by residents and farmers.
Meanwhile, in the nearby Bardala village, locals said the Civil Administration distributed several stop-work orders to residents in late July.
The orders, known locally as “demolition orders,” demand that homeowners appear before a magistrates court to defend allegations. Because legal action at the court rarely succeeds, the stop-work orders essentially constitute a demolition order.

Ma’an cited a recent UN report, saying some 86 Jordan Valley structures were razed two weeks ago, and another 17 were demolished the following week other parts of the West Bank.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanian Affairs said Palestinians living in Israeli-controlled Area C in the West Bank have no choice but to build illegally:

“The spate of demolitions raises concerns over whether Israeli authorities could further escalate demolitions throughout Area C,” a UN report said, noting more than 3,000 demolition orders handed down by Israeli officials to locals were still outstanding.

“Currently, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits to maintain, repair or construct homes, animal shelters or necessary infrastructure in Area C,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest report on Area C.

Ma’an cited a recent UN report, saying some 86 Jordan Valley structures were razed two weeks ago, and another 17 were demolished the following week other parts of the West Bank.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanian Affairs said Palestinians living in Israeli-controlled Area C in the West Bank have no choice but to build illegally:

“The spate of demolitions raises concerns over whether Israeli authorities could further escalate demolitions throughout Area C,” a UN report said, noting more than 3,000 demolition orders handed down by Israeli officials to locals were still outstanding.

“Currently, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits to maintain, repair or construct homes, animal shelters or necessary infrastructure in Area C,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest report on Area C.