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Photo: Khirbit Makhould - File Radio Bethlehem 2000

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JENIN (Ma'an) -- Israeli bulldozers demolished the Jordan Valley village of Makhoul for the fourth time overnight Wednesday, a local official said.

Aref Daraghmeh, the mayor of al-Maleh and the Bedouin dwellings, told Ma'an that Israeli military forces arrived in the area at 2 a.m. and seized two large tents and demolished several structures.

Israeli forces issued demolition orders for tents re-built by local and international activists and demanded to know why construction had taken place in the village.

Israel's army destroyed the entire village of Makhoul on Sept. 16, forcibly displacing 10 families, including 16 children, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Despite being declared a closed military zone by Israel's military, activists have managed to enter the area and rebuild the structures destroyed by Israel.

Days after the demolition, Israeli forces used force to disperse foreign diplomats distributing aid to residents of Makhoul.

French diplomat Marion Fesneau-Castaing was dragged out of an aid truck by an Israeli soldier, who later confiscated the vehicle.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's spokesman demanded an explanation from Israel following the confiscation of humanitarian aid.

The Israeli military said Palestinians were to blame for instigating the incident.

Israel has destroyed more than 500 Palestinian properties in the West Bank and mostly East Jerusalem since the beginning of this year, displacing 862 people, according to OCHA.

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by IMEMC & Agencies

[Thursday October 3, 2013] Israeli soldiers destroyed Khirbit Makhoul Bedouin village in the West Bank’s Northern Plains area, for the fourth time in a row.
Local sources have reported that dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded the village, approximately at 2:30 at dawn, and forced the residents out of their sheds and tents, and demolished the structures.

The attack comes two days after the residents rebuilt their structures, and installed tents, after the army demolished them in a previous attack.

Soldiers also drove one of their armored vehicles through a shed that was installed just two days ago after the army destroyed the village for the third time on Monday at dawn [September 30].

The tents that have been removed, and the structures, were donated by international human rights organizations a few days ago.

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Israel does not recognize dozens of small villages, Bedouin tribes, in the Northern Plains areas of the West Bank, and near occupied East Jerusalem, as well as near Hebron and other areas.

With no services, no recognition from the occupation, those villages have been repeatedly demolished, and removed, and the residents are frequently displaced due to Israel’s ongoing violations.

Bedouin villages in the Negev are also subject to such frequent attacks and violations, as dozens of small villages have been uprooted and demolished, some tribes have been displaced and their shelters removed hundreds of times.

Hundreds of similar attacks targeted Bedouins in the Negev, who live in villages unrecognized by Israel, and are subject to frequent displacement and ongoing assaults.

Around 70,000 Arab Bedouin – whose presence in the Negev dates to the seventh century – live in 35 villages that either predate the establishment of the state of Israel in historic Palestine in 1948.

These villages are not recognized by Israel, and the inhabitants are considered trespassers. Basic services have been withheld from these villages, and thousands of houses have been demolished since 2011.

Palestinian Bedouins have faced decades of repression and forced removal by Israeli authorities because of this refusal to recognize their legitimate claim to continue to live on their ancestral land.
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