Screwed

News in Brief

Since 2010, al-Araqib, a Bedouin village, has been destroyed 12 times by the Israeli army, and rebuilt 12 times by the villagers. Grounds for eviction were that the 300 villagers could not produce title deeds to land they have lived on for generations. In a further turn of the screw, Israel sued 34 al-Araqib villagers on 26 July for over £300,000 to pay for their evictions. Bedouin are being herded off their traditional lands into state “recognised” villages; still half remain in “unrecognised” villages, subject to eviction at any time.