See attachment

Thursday, April 17, 2008 Dr. Yeela Raanan, Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages (RCUV) · Yesterday morning three Israeli soldiers were killed in battles along the Gaza Strip – one of them a Bedouin. · Immediately after that the Government of Israel demolished three Bedouin homes in the Unrecognized Villages – and arrested three women – two from the village, and me – Yeela.

Yesterday, April 16th, immediately after it was known that a Bedouin soldier from the unrecognized village of al-Baht was killed, the Government of Israel demolished the home of Ziad Ziadna from the village of Um el Mileh, located north of Rahat. Ziad was intended to get married in 40 days – now with no home his wedding will be postponed indefinitely, together with another hundred young people who are fearful of building homes, because of the massive demolitions recently in the unrecognized villages. Manhash, the soldier that was killed yesterday, was planning to marry in June.

The home he built for himself and his new bride also had a demolition order placed on it. Israel`s policy of demolishing many new homes, while not providing opportunities for building legally, is creating serious resentment among the young adults in the Bedouin community.

The Government of Israel has told the residents of the village of Um el-Mileh that their village will be soon recognized. Why then, asks Adel Ziadna from Um el-Mileh, is the government demolishing our homes? Now Ziad`s home and dreams have been demolished, together with his feeling of belonging to Israel.

The police forces and bulldozers continued to demolish two homes and an extension to another home in the village of Shahabi, ten kilometers south east of Beer Sheva.

The demolished the brick home of Musa Abu-Sabila, which he had completed several months ago. Musa`s youngest son – just over a year old – had heart surgery for the second time two weeks ago, and during the demolitions was in the hospital with his parents taking out the stitches from his little chest. The tin home that his family lived in was harmful for the baby`s health. So his father took down the tin home and built the brick home instead.

Now the family has only the animal shed to stay in. I was arrested together with two young women from the village – the police station commander: What I really don`t need now is Jews joining the protest… The second home could not be demolished immediately because the courts were still debating if the demolition order should be postponed or canceled. When the verdict – it is ok to demolish – came through Sliman abu Abaid and I from the RCUV were by the home.

I decided to sit in the house in order to make it more difficult to demolish the home. The Bedouins have a bitter history with this type of protest. The last time, two years ago, when they protested quietly by standing and not allowing the police forces into their village – the unrecognized village of Bir el Mshash – the police decided to attack the women in order to incite the men. They succeeded. The result was nine women hospitalized, two of them miscarried, one went into early labor, an old man had a heart attack because he was beaten and kicked by the police.

In addition the courts added over 100,000 nis in fines and put seven of the family providers under house arrest for months. The trial for the men arrested is still ongoing in the courts. No policemen were hurt. As I was the only Israeli Jew in the area I sat alone, with full understanding that as a Jew in Israel, it is more difficult to use the system to hurt me, as it is done to the Bedouin citizens of Israel.

The police special forces came and took me out forcefully, and arrested me. They also arrested two young women from the village, claiming that they threw stones. Maybe they did, most likely they did not. The house was demolished. When the procedures of investigation etc. in the police station ended, the commander of the station, Yoseph Mahluf, expl

Back