El Araqib is an unrecognized Bedouin village situated in the Negev Desert of Israel. The village is home to Bedouin families who have resided in the region for generations. Despite this long-standing presence, El Araqib is not recognized by the Israeli government, resulting in the village being ineligible for essential services such as water, electricity, and proper infrastructure.
The lack of recognition has led to a series of legal and land disputes between the Bedouin residents and the Israeli authorities. The residents claim ancestral rights to the land, while the state views their settlements as illegal. This conflict has resulted in the demolition of El Araqib multiple times, as the government seeks to clear the area for state-planned developments. Despite these demolitions, the residents continually rebuild their homes and continue to live on the land.
The struggle of El Araqib has garnered international attention, highlighting the broader issues faced by unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel. Advocates for the Bedouin community argue for their right to remain on their ancestral lands and for the state to recognize and provide services to these villages. The situation in El Araqib serves as a focal point in the ongoing discourse on the rights of indigenous peoples, land ownership, and the complexities of state and minority relations in Israel.
The Bedouin Village of El Araqib predates the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. Israel does not recognize El Araqib, along with forty other villages throughout the Negev, and has taken an aggressive stand toward these communities.
Property demolitions are being used by the state in an attempt to relocate the Bedouin and claim their land in the Negev to fulfill the government’s plans of beautifying and resettling the region. The Jewish National Fund, which leases land in the Negev from the state, is heavily foresting the region.
The JNF receives funding from an American evangelical Christian group, G-d TV, which are sponsoring the forestation currently encroaching on the pastoral lands of El Araqib.
The State has destroyed the village of El Araqib nine times in just the past eight months. The homes of over thirty families have been leveled over and over again, in a bid to systematically depopulate this undocumented village in the Negev.
To commemorate the Roman New Year of 2011, a group of activists from the Negev Coexistence Forum gathered with the children of El Araqib to decorate three dead olive trees for Christmas, olive trees that were uprooted by the state in the demolition.
Screened at the 2013 Futures of Visual Anthropology Conference and Film Festival, Temple University Visual Anthropology Society, Philadelphia, PA.
