Resheq calls for uprising to counter Israeli plans to destroy Negev villages

Resheq calls for uprising to counter Israeli plans to destroy Negev villages

DAMASCUS, Hamas political bureau member Ezzat al-Resheq called on the Palestinians in the territories occupied in 1948 to revolt against plans by the Israeli occupation aimed at destroying Palestinian villages in the Negev desert, at the same time paying tribute to the residents of Araqib, some of whom were injured and arrested during an attempt to face the Israeli war machine that destroyed the entire village.

Israeli forces proceeded on Tuesday morning to wipe the Negev village of Araqib out of existence, cordoning off the village, displacing its 700 residents, and destroying all of its houses, under allegations that the village is “illegal”.

Resheq said in a press statement Tuesday: “We face today a new chapter of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe), which began sixty-two years ago, during which hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed, and hundreds of its citizens killed and displaced, and ‘settlements were built on those lands so that people brought from various parts of the world may live therein, nothing connecting them to Palestine.”

“What happened in Araqib today is a prelude to the destruction of 45 villages in the Negev desert,” he added, noting that the village is also home to a historical cemetery and Arab and Islamic antiquities dating back hundreds of years.

He added that “every Palestinian village in Palestine is within the circle of Zionist attack; which requires our people in the territories occupied in 1948 to rise up in defense of the villages of Negev,” along with defending Palestinian existence.

Resheq also called on the Arab League, the Islamic Conference Organization, and the United Nations to shoulder their responsibilities and take immediate action to stop what he described as a “process of ethnic cleansing and genocide practiced by Israeli occupation forces against our people in Palestine before the eyes and ears of the world.”

For his part, Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement Tuesday that Israel’s move to annihilate the village is one form of Israel’s ongoing displacement of the Palestinian people, adding that Israel attempts by it to create a Jewish state at the expense of the legitimate owners of the land.

The Hamas spokesman also called on relevant organizations to provide support for the village’s people to strengthen their steadfastness and enable them to subsist in the land.

For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) strongly condemned the Israeli move, which also included the uprooting of trees and assault of men, women and children by force of arms, adding that the “Zionist, racist crime is a step towards ethnic cleansing aimed to exile our people from their villages, where their fathers and forefathers dwelt, under flimsy pretexts and arguments.”

Hamas expressed its appreciation for the steadfast residents of Araqib, who countered the Israeli army and bulldozers while unarmed, calling on the Palestinian people to support the village’s people and to address the Israeli demolition plans in Negev.