On December 21st 2011 the Israeli government demolished the village of Al Araqib for the 33rd time. The inhabitants of Al Araqib are Palestinian Bedouin Arabs who now hold Israeli citizenship. A film was recently made about the Beduoin of Al Araqib called “Sumoud” meaning steadfastness which is exactly what these amazing people are showing as they refuse to be removed from their land.
The people of al Araqib are resisting hard as they insist to stay on their land in the most difficult of conditions. Not only have they had their homes regularly demolished since 2010 but they have to live in the heat and cold of the desert without mains water and electricity. These previously nomadic people of Al Naqab desert used to graze their livestock over a huge area but since the formation of the State of Israel the land they used to roam has been either appropriated by the State for “security purposes” or bought up by “charities” such as the Jewish National Fund who have a policy of only marketing land to Jews. The J.N.F. is supposedly working to make the desert bloom but evidently they are engaged in ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land, not just in Al Naqab but in other areas as well, I suspect this was the reason that David Cameron had to resign as a patron from the British J.N.F. last year.The Jewish National Fund is campaigning on “Green Sunday”, February 5th 2012 by asking people to buy a tree to plant in Israel. I advise all those people who are for Human Rights and against Ethnic Cleansing to spread the word far and wide about this “Greenwashing” and to be active in promoting the truth about what the Jewish National Fund really stands for.
More information on how to help can be found on the website of the “Stop the Jewish National Fund Campaign http://www.stopthejnf.org/actionalerts_5feb2012.html
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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