The Palestinians of Ras Ain al-Ouja are the latest Bedouin community targeted for expulsion by Israel. They are being forced out through violent settler harassment as part of Israel’s plan to annex most of the West Bank.
After being forced out of their homes by violent Israeli settlers, the Bedouin community of Maghayer al-Deir joins a growing list of Palestinian Bedouins whose villages have been taken over by settlers since October 7, 2023.
Israeli settlers and military systematically made life unbearable for the Bedouin community living in the West Bank’s Ein Samiya region. On May 22 they were forced to leave their lands and were displaced for the fourth time since 1969.
Moving without borders and traveling without restrictions is part of the nomads’ identity and way of life. During the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the semi-arid region of the an-Naqab was inhabited mostly by semi-nomadic Bedouin tribes, but this life was destroyed by Israeli colonialism. Still, a strong Bedouin identity lives on in Gaza and across the region.
The story of the Bedouin village Sa’wa in the Naqab is the story of Palestine, from the West Bank to Jerusalem and beyond. Palestinian homes are being demolished and Palestinian families are being expelled to make way for the Israeli settler population.
This month we’re excited to share Mahmoud Shukair’s “Praise for the Women of the Family,” a delightful novel set in the tumultuous time after the Nakba (the Palestinian exodus from what is now Israel), portraying the rapid advance of modernity and the growing conflict in 1950s Palestine.
Every year, workplaces in Israel distribute thousands of flowers to show their appreciation for their female employees on International Women’s Day. At the same time, these workplaces give women fewer opportunities to succeed compared to men.
Ishmael Khaldi’s success as an Israel diplomat, as well as his experience as a Palestinian of abuse at the hands of the security services, exemplifies Israel’s hybrid version of apartheid.
Long read: Physician Hatim Kanaaneh returns to Arab al-Naim, a rare case for Bedouin villages in the Galilee where the community gained recognized status after a decades-long battle for paved roads and running water.
The decades-long struggle by tens of thousands of Israelis against being uprooted from their homes – some for the second or third time – should be proof enough that Israel is not the western-style liberal democracy it claims to be.