Atir

A Bedouin family demolishes its own home in the unrecognized village of Sawa, Negev Desert, December 23, 2014. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Nearly 1,000 Bedouin structures demolished in past year

Over 1,700 structures were self-demolished by their owners over the past three years following pressure by police and state inspectors. Around half the demolitions were carried out in recognized Bedouin villages. Israel demolished 1,041 Bedouin structures in the Negev between 2013 and 2015, with a further 1,711 structures being destroyed by their owners after receiving…

By Natasha Soffer-Roth June 7, 2016

Bedouin children take part in a demonstration outside the Be'er Sheva District Court against the planned demolition of Umm al-Hiran and Atir, two unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel's Negev Desert, March 3, 2016. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

PHOTOS: Arabs and Jews protest planned expulsion of 1,200 Bedouin

Demonstrators march outside Be’er Sheva court, calling on the government not to evacuate two unrecognized Bedouin villages. Text by Yael Marom, photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org Over 300 demonstrators marched outside the Be’er Sheva District Court Thursday against the planned demolition of two unrecognized Bedouin villages, Umm al-Hiran and Atir, in Israel’s Negev Desert. Two villages…

By +972 Magazine March 3, 2016

A man from the Zanoun family sits on the ruins of his house a few hours after it was demolished by the Israeli Land Administration, in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Wadi Al Na'am, Negev Desert, May 18, 2014. The family of seven people was living in the house demolished for being illegaly built. Wadi Al-Na’am is the largest unrecognized village in Israel, with about 13,000 inhabitants, most of its inhabitants are internally displaced. The village is not connected to electricity and its inhabitants are subjected to Israel's house demolition policy. (Keren Manor/Activestills)

New Jewish settlements planned ‘on top of’ Bedouin villages

The Israeli government approves a plan for five new settlements in the Negev/Naqab. Rights group says the plan, like Israel’s overall policy regarding its Bedouin citizens, is discriminatory. The Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan for five new Jewish settlements to be built in the Negev (Naqab) in the south of Israel. The plan,…

By Natasha Soffer-Roth November 23, 2015

Latest

Sanda Abulkian sits outside her demolished house in the unrecognized village of Atir on July 12, 2013. The Abulkian house has demolished four times already, three of them during 2013. (Photo: Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

A living legacy of displacement

The impulses that drove the dispossession of the 1948 war are still acted on today, on both sides of the borders it forged. “Did you know I’m afraid of sleeping? … I’m scared of sleeping and waking to find myself in a strange land whose language I can’t speak. I’m scared I won’t wake up.” —Elias…

By Natasha Soffer-Roth June 19, 2015

The separation wall being built in al-Walaja, December 7, 2010. Once completed, the wall will completely surround the village. (Photo by Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

It’s time to erase the Green Line

If the Israeli government makes no distinction between Palestinians on either side of the Green Line, there is no reason for human rights activists to do so. By Neve Gordon Around 50 students sat on the concrete floor of a makeshift shack, absorbing the desert heat as they listened to Salim talk about the imminent…

By +972 Magazine June 18, 2015

Ali Abu Al-Qi’an speaking to a group visiting Atir on May, 23 2015. (Photo by Lina Othman)

Bedouin village of Atir to be replaced with forest of ‘Yatir’

Atir is hardly the first case in which forestation has been used by the Israeli government and the JNF as a method of displacement and land grabbing against Palestinians — on both sides of the Green Line. “Apparently in Israeli democracy, the state is permitted to uproot Arabs from their homes and plant trees in…

By Amjad Iraqi June 16, 2015

A Bedouin woman after authorities demolished her village of Al Araqib, January 16, 2011 (Keren Manor/Activestills.org)

Cabinet OK’s razing Bedouin towns to build Jewish settlement in their place

After being expelled and relocated in the 1950s, the residents of Umm al-Hiran are about to lose their homes once again – this time to make way for a Jewish national-religious settlement. (This post has been updated.) The Israeli government on Sunday made one of its most outrageous decisions in recent years (and there is…

By Noam Sheizaf November 10, 2013

Israeli border police guard the Separation Wall between the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras Al 'Amud and the West Bank town of Abu Dis, May 19, 2013, after Palestinian protesters broke a large hole through it during a demonstration two days previous. (Photo by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

From a hole in the Wall to home demolitions in the Negev: A week in photos May 16-22

This week: A hole in the wall, protests against conscription, house demolitions in Jerusalem and the Negev, price tagging Women of the Wall, masked protesters in Tel Aviv and the West Bank, and demonstrations against occupation and settlements.

By Activestills May 23, 2013