Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian home in Umm Qabu village in the Negev of southern Israel for the eighth time on Thursday.
According to witnesses, Israeli bulldozers raided the village on Thursday morning and demolished a house belonging to Salman Abu Sabileh, whose home was demolished seven times before by Israeli authorities for allegedly lacking difficult-to-obtain building permits.
Israeli forces had also raided other villages in the Negev at the time, according to locals, including Umm Batin and Abu Kaff village.
Israeli demolition processes continue; Israeli occupation forces demolish a Palestinian's family house on Zaroura village in occupied #Negev pic.twitter.com/mrDlWe1pyW
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 15, 2017
Bedouin villages in the Negev face routine Israeli demolitions for not obtaining Israeli building permits, as rights groups have pointed out that Israeli development plans mostly exclude the expansion of Palestinian communities.
Unable to obtain permits, many residents in the villages have no other option but to build without a permit.
Groups have also noted that Israel’s demolition campaigns in the Negev coincide with Israeli plans of transferring the Bedouin population to alternate sites to make room for Jewish communities.
Ethnic Cleansing!#Israeli Occupiers demolish a #Palestinian house in the village of Wadi al-Naam in the Occupied
an-Naqab (Negev). pic.twitter.com/lgsUEvKUcW— Abbs Winston (@AbbsWinston) May 24, 2017
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya released a reporton the treatment of the Bedouin in the Negev back in 2011, stating that Bedouin in Israel “rank on the bottom of all social and economic indicators and suffer from the highest unemployment rates and income levels in Israel.”
According to rights groups, Bedouin communities have continued to face these same discriminatory policies some six years later.
(Maan, PC, Social Media)
