Palestinians in the 1948-occupied territories confirm steadfastness in face of Israeli apartheid policy

The appeals of the Palestinians in the 1948-occupied territories and their permanent demands for the international community to stop the crimes of the Israeli occupation against them have fallen on deaf ears. The occupation continues its “apartheid” practices of racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, land grabs, house demolitions and displacement of their owners, in addition to organized impoverishment, ignorance and restrictions on education in the Arabic language.

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 razing areas of the lands of the village of Al-Atrash, inhabited by seven thousand people, amid a heavy deployment of its forces. The Israeli occupation  fired bullets and bombs at the Palestinians who rose up to defend their land in the face of the occupation’s bulldozers, despite the injury of dozens of them and the arrest of 130 others.

The village of al-Atrash is one of 35 villages in the Negev threatened with forced displacement with the aim of the occupation’s seizure and judaization of its lands.

The people of the Negev, who, like all Palestinians, have been waging a battle of existence for 74 years, have responded to the occupation’s practices by affirming their attachment to their land and continuing to defend it in the face of the occupation’s attempts to uproot and displace them. They stressed that they are ready to die and that they will foil all the occupation’s plans aimed at emptying the area from the Palestinian presence for the benefit of the settlers.

The aggressive practices of the occupation against the people of the Negev, including ethnic cleansing and demolition of homes amid the international silence, remind us of the tragedy of the Nakba.

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. The Palestinians in the occupied territories of 1948 went out with massive demonstrations. Many  solidarity stands were held in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in support of the people of the Negev in facing the plans of forced displacement and Judaization that will fail in front of their steadfastness and resistance.

The village of Al-Araqib in the Negev region has become a symbol of the battle of will that the Palestinians are waging to preserve the land and identity in the face of the policies of Judaization, as the occupation has demolished it 197 times since the year 2000.

The crimes of racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement perpetrated by the occupation that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity require the international community to intervene urgently to stop them, implement international legitimacy resolutions and end the occupation. Despite the world’s inaction regarding what the Palestinians are subjected to, they are confirming their steadfastness in the face of the occupier on this land, hoping that the international community will wake up from its slumber and restore the right to its owners.

Inas Abdulkareem