NAQAB (Al Jazeera) – Recent data from the Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), an Arab-Jewish NGO advocating for Bedouins in the Naqab (or Negev) Desert, show approximately 15,000 buildings have been razed in the last six years in the Bedouin areas of the Naqab.
Home demolitions are not unusual for Palestinians, but often the focus is on the occupied territory. Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab did not leave their native place after the Zionist regime was established in 1948.
Regime authorities have carried out repeated demolitions in both recognized and unrecognized villages in the southern desert region – home to most of the 200,000 Bedouins. But only 11 out of 35 Bedouin villages have been recognized by the occupying regime, which means most houses are deemed “illegal”.
Zionist regime authorities regulate construction activity in the desert, but they have not implemented urban plans in many villages due to land ownership disputes or because of the backlog in approving building permit applications. Palestinian Bedouins say it is nearly impossible to secure permits to build legally.
In this regard, there is virtually no difference between recognized and unrecognized villages as both residents often cannot obtain building permits and lack basic infrastructures of water, electricity, sewage disposal, and roads.
While the highest number of demolitions – 192 in 2022 – was in the unrecognized village of al-Furah, the recognized Bedouin city of Rahat – the largest Bedouin city in Naqab – experienced the second highest number of demolitions at 176.
This year has already seen a sharp rise in demolitions with the regime’s so-called lands authority (ILA) distributing 450 demolition notices to residents across Naqab in February.
Huda Abu Obaid, a coordinator at NCF, the Arab-Jewish NGO, said they expect to see the number of demolitions spike this year, attributing the increase to technological developments and the new hardline regime in office.
In 1992, Mohamed Abu Qwaider watched his mother’s home bulldozed by the Zionist army in the unrecognized Bedouin village of az-Zarnug in the Naqab Desert.
The then-10-year-old helped his family rebuild the house using stone and concrete, sturdier than the previous metal shack. A few days after completing their new home, the family got another demolition order stating the structure was built illegally and had to watch it flattened to the ground.
“I was too young so I didn’t know the regulations,” Abu Qwaider, now 41, said. “All I knew is that we had the right – anybody has the right to upgrade their house and live peacefully,” he told Al Jazeera.
More than 30 years later, the constant cycle of demolitions and rebuilding has not stopped – rather, it has accelerated as the occupying regime steps up its campaign against construction carried out by Palestinian Bedouins.