<p>Read Cuse -- I urge to read.</p>
<p>Released by The Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages </p>
<p>On Tuesday, January 17, 2006 in the early morning about 200 Israeli soldiers came with two bulldozers to demolish several houses of Bedouin families living in the Naqab.</p>
<p>At 7 o'clock they started demolishing the house of Khaled al Nasasra living in the unrecognized village of Abu Solub, leaving him, his wife and his seven children with no dwelling. Right afterwards the soldiers moved on to another unrecognized village called Tlal Rashed where they pulled down the home of Khaleel Al-Hauashla. Another house of Al-Ataiga has been demolished in an unrecognized village just behind Rahat. </p>
<p>All those families are left with nothing but despair. They have no alternative accommodation for the night, making the situation worse is the fact that it is winter and very cold and rainy outside. </p>
<p>Pictures of House Demolition in Abu Solub. Note that the Bulldozers being used are made by VOLVO - Click on thumbnails to view pictures </p>
<p>Residents of the unrecognized villages - Israeli citizens - cannot build their houses legally, lacking any government planning policy in their villages and the government even acknowledges that this "illegal" building is done out of necessity. Nevertheless home demolitions are carried out in order to make the population abandon the land and force them into the government established 'concentration towns' to vacate the lands for Jewish settlements. The townships however are unable to absorb the entire population of the unrecognized villages. </p>
<p>This is a shamefully racist policy that is destroying the lives of entire families whose homes have been destroyed. Furthermore, this policy is clearly in violation of Israel's Basic Laws.</p>
<p>Before houses are demolished the state does not investigate a family's living alternatives and all those families of Tuesday's demolitions are left with no accommodation. What is making the situation worse is the way that demolitions are carried out - in a very brutal and cruel way. A large group of soldiers with their riffles in their arms, entering a family's home in the early morning and chasing everybody out, irrespective of the women and little children. Those women and children were left alone, crying out of fear and desperation, with no psychologist or anyone else to take care of them.</p>
<p>It is known that there are another 10.000 houses that the government wants to demolish because they were built without building permits. At the same time there are 1000 houses in Jewish settlements that were also built without permit, but not even one of them is subjected to demolition order. </p>
<p>Arabs are citizens of Israel - same as Jews - and should be treated equally. The government has to support those citizens and not destroy their homes. </p>
<p>The Association of the Naqab as well as the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages has decided to rebuild the houses that were demolished yesterday because those families cannot be left without dwelling during winter season. We also wish to contact the acting PM Ehud Olmert because the situation can not continue like that. Houses cannot be demolished, especially not when it is as cold and rainy outside as it is now but an appropriate solution must be found for the Arabs living in the Naqab, helping them instead of destroying their lives.</p>
