On July 26, Israeli police demolished 45 buildings in the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Arakib, razing the entire village to the ground to make way for a Jewish National Fund forest. The destruction was part of a larger project to force the Bedouin community of the Negev away from their ancestral lands and into seven Indian reservation-style communities the Israeli government has constructed for them. The land will then be open for Jewish settlers, including young couples in the army and those who may someday be evacuated from the West Bank after a peace treaty is signed. For now, the Israeli government intends to uproot as many villages as possible and erase them from the map by establishing “facts on the ground” in the form of JNF forests. (See video of of al-Arakib’s demolition here).
One of the most troubling aspects of the destruction of al-Arakib was a report by CNN that the hundreds of Israeli riot police who stormed the village were accompanied by “busloads of cheering civilians.” Who were these civilians and why didn’t CNN or any outlet investigate further?
I traveled to al-Arakib yesterday with a delegation from Ta’ayush, an Israeli group that promotes a joint Arab-Jewish struggle against the occupation. The activists spent the day preparing games and activities for the village’s traumatized children, helping the villagers replace their uprooted olive groves, and assisting in the reconstruction of their demolished homes. In a massive makeshift tent where many of al-Arakib’s residents now sleep, I interviewed village leaders about the identity of the cheering civilians. Each one confirmed the presence of the civilians, describing how they celebrated the demolitions. As I compiled details, the story grew increasingly horrific. After interviewing more than a half dozen elders of the village, I was able to finally identify the civilians in question. What I discovered was more disturbing than I had imagined.
Arab Negev News publisher Ata Abu Madyam supplied me with a series of photos he took of the civilians in action. They depicted Israeli high school students who appeared to have volunteered as members of the Israeli police civilian guard (I am working on identifying some participants by name). Prior to the demolitions, the student volunteers were sent into the villagers’ homes to extract their furniture and belongings. A number of villagers including Madyam told me the volunteers smashed windows and mirrors in their homes and defaced family photographs with crude drawings. Then they lounged around on the furniture of al-Arakib residents in plain site of the owners. Finally, according to Matyam, the volunteers celebrated while bulldozers destroyed the homes.
“What we learned from the summer camp of destruction,” Madyam remarked, “is that Israeli youth are not being educated on democracy, they are being raised on racism.” [Read Max’s full report which includes photos.]
I believe that the inhabitants of the Middle East should prepare for the worst. When the youth of a country are being taught racism, such as are in Israel today, then it’s only a matter of time before they have their own 9/11. They’re emulating the Nazi’s, that exterminated Jews during W.W.II, all the while whining about how anyone who is not with us, is against us. Sound familiar? The ugly part being, that they want to drag the World down the road to extinction with them. Are they, the leaders in denial? As the U.S. is finding out the folly of their own extending to every part of the world with the military, the end is coming soon, as the treasury being wasted can’t be sustained. So, what’s left? When the bully in the sand box drives all the others out, who is left to play? The Israeli’s already have tasted defeat, but still consider themselves invincible, are in for a rude awakening. And if they think they are the chosen people, as some of the Christens do, then so be it, but that won’t be in Heaven, it will be in Hell.
Someone should tell these kids. There is a day of reckoning ahead — no policy of ethnic cleansing will be tolerated forever. No amount of violence and war criminality will stave off the world’s verdict.
These are the new victims on the railroad platforms to be loaded on the cattle cars en route to an Auschwitz of the Zionist’s own manufacture.
Ditto above comments.
But I am wondering, trying to figure out how and when and by whom that Israeli day of reckoning is going to be brought about.
We know the US won’t do.