AL-ARAQIB, Israel — Every Sunday at 3 p.m., several dozen residents and supporters of al-Araqib gather alongside a highway to protest the government’s repeated demolition of the dusty Bedouin settlement in Israel’s southern Negev.

It’s one of al-Araqib’s many unfortunate routines: Residents say they own the land and refuse Israel’s orders to leave; legal proceedings and fines ensue; authorities demolish tents and homes; people rebuild, and intimidation and protests follow — and each time al-Araqib’s status becomes ever more precarious.

“They [Israeli government] are trying to erase our history in this way,” Aziz Al-Turi, one of al-Araqib’s remaining residents, told Al-Monitor. “They are trying to erase the Arab history and plant a new history.” 

When authorities first demolished al-Araqib in July 2010, the Bedouin village became a symbol for the Israeli government’s push to relocate around 35 Bedouin communities it doesn’t recognize and for the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to reforest the land in their place. In the interim years, a series of legal cases ensued, even reaching the Supreme Court, as the Arab residents have argued they are the rightful owners of al-Araqib, contrary to Israel’s claims that it legally appropriated the land. By the 100th demolition this June, residents and activists struggled to keep their cause in the international arena, as the same sequence seemingly occurred again and again amid deepening political indifference in Israel.