Negev residents: We will not allow the Israeli occupation to uproot us from our land

Occupied Jerusalem-SANA

“We will die on our land in the Negev and will not leave.. We will stay here even if there is no roof over our heads.. If they arrest all our men and women.. we will not allow the tragedy of the Palestinian Nakba to be repeated as long as we have a beating race.” This is the case of the people of the Negev in the occupied Palestinian territories in 1948 who continue the battle to defend their existence rooted in their land that the Israeli occupation is trying to uproot and displace them from.

At the beginning of this year, the occupation authorities began implementing a plan to seize the rest of the Palestinian lands in the Negev and began bulldozing areas of the lands of the village of al-Atrash, inhabited by 7,000 people, and neighboring villages, with an area of ​​45,000 dunams, amid a heavy spread of its forces, which fired bullets and bombs at the Palestinians who blew up their chests. Naked in defense of their land, women, children and the elderly stood against the bulldozers of the occupation, despite the injury of dozens of them and the arrest of 130 others.

In a statement to SANA reporter, a member of the Defense Committee of Al-Araqib village and a specialist in the field of settlements, Aziz Al-Toury explained that the people of the Negev, like all Palestinians, have been fighting for 74 years a heroic battle to defend their land in the face of the occupation’s attempts to Judaize it, indicating that the occupation has demolished the village of Al-Araqib 196 times since the beginning of the year 2000. Each time the Palestinians were rebuilding, and the village of al-Atrash is one of 35 villages in the Negev threatened with forced displacement with the aim of the occupation taking over its lands and Judaizing it.

Al-Toury indicated that the people of the Negev and the villages threatened with displacement that were demolished more than once live in carts, caravans and tents, and they assure that they will not leave their land despite all the oppressive practices of the occupation, including killing, arrest and displacement, stressing that the resistance of the Negev people continues until all the occupation plans aimed at emptying the land are thwarted. The area from the Palestinian presence for the benefit of the settlers.

Regarding the brutality of the occupation during its suppression of the residents of the village of al-Atrash when they confronted his bulldozers, Muhammad al-Atrash said: They used bullets, poisonous gas bombs and sound.. Hundreds of soldiers stormed the village with military vehicles, horses and motorbikes.. They attacked us.. They surrounded us.. But they did not defeat our resolve.. since In 1948, while we were facing the attacks of the occupation, our house was demolished, our agricultural crops were destroyed, we sprayed them with chemicals and poisoned the livestock we raise, but all of its crimes aimed at displacing us and seizing our lands failed and will fail.

Member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Maryam Abu Daqqa, pointed out that the aggression of the occupation against the people of the Negev brings us back to the beginnings of the Nakba, the chapters of which are still ongoing, including ethnic cleansing and the demolition of homes. The international community was silent, stressing that the Palestinian people will win and defeat the occupation thanks to their steadfastness and defense of their land and sanctities.

For his part, a member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Mahmoud Khalaf, said that the battle to defend the Negev in the face of Judaization is part of the Palestinians’ battle with the occupation in Jerusalem, Nablus, the Jordan Valley, Hebron and everywhere, indicating that the Palestinians went out in mass demonstrations in the occupied territories of 1948, the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. A victory for the people of the Negev in the face of the plans of forced displacement and Judaization, which will fail in the face of their steadfastness and resistance.

In turn, the head of the International Commission to Support the Rights of the Palestinian People, Salah Abdel-Ati, stressed that the crimes of racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement committed by the occupation in the Negev amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the international community should intervene urgently to stop them, implement international legitimacy resolutions and end the occupation.

Mohammed Abu Shabab