Following the 1948 War, the Bedouin population in the Negev Desert in southern Israel was forced to change its way of life. Prior to that time Bedouin wandered freely in the deserts, which are now under Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian jurisdiction. In 1953, the Israeli army ordered many of the Bedouin, among them the villagers of Al-Araqib, to abandon their lands for six months. During this time the army used the land for military exercises. To this day, the right of the Bedouins to return to their land has not been recognized. With no consideration of their traditional nomadic lifestyle, many Bedouin were moved to permanent urban settlements where they suffered from unemployment, crime, and psychological distress.
In the 1950s, a small number of Bedouin managed to return to their land in the village of Al-Araqib and were joined by a number of additional families in the late 1990s. The families understood that if they did not return they would ultimately lose all rights to their land. Because the villages are “unrecognized” they have no infrastructure: no electricity or water, no health and educational services, and no road and sewage systems. The Israeli authorities have made the lives of the villagers impossible. Those who returned suffer from the repeated destruction of their homes which are considered illegal, and of their agricultural crops. In 2009 the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) began planting the Ambassadors Forest on the lands of Al-Araqib in an effort to complete the Israeli appropriation of the land and to prevent the dwellers from using the land for housing or farming.
Between July 27, 2010 and the end of 2011, structures in the village were demolished 33 times, but the residents continue to struggle and refuse to leave their ancestral land.
