Israel demolishes 4 homes in Bedouin village of Sawa

Israeli occupation authorities yesterday demolished four homes owned by Arab Bedouin families in the village of Sawa in the Negev under the pretext that they were built without licenses, Arab48 reported.

Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli occupation’s bulldozers, protected by Israeli police, closed the village, forced the families out and demolished four homes.

The Israeli occupation forces also demolished homes in the villages of Hadaj and Al Bat and uprooted olive trees.

+972 Magazine said some of the families have lived in the village since before 1948, when the occupation state of Israel was established, noting that a number of families were ordered to demolish their own homes.

The Israeli magazine said that the Israeli occupation authorities do not recognise both parts of the village –the part where residents have been living since before the Israeli occupation was established and the part established after 1948.

About 300,000 Palestinian Arabs living in the Negev have suffered systematic apartheid and racism imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities as their villages are unrecognised, leaving them with no access to basic services.

There are some 51 “unrecognised” Arab villages in the area and they are constantly targeted for demolition ahead of plans to Judaise the Negev by building homes for new Jewish communities. Israeli bulldozers, which Bedouins are charged for, demolish everything, from the trees to the water tanks, but Bedouin residents have tried to rebuild every time.

Bedouin in the Negev must abide by the same laws as Jewish Israeli citizens. They pay taxes but do not enjoy the same rights and services as Jews in Israel and the state has repeatedly refused to connect the towns to the national grid, water supplies, and other vital amenities.

READ: Israel orders demolition of more Palestinian homes