Qaid Farhad Alkadi, 52, is one of Israel’s roughly 300,000 Bedouin Arabs, a poor and traditionally nomadic minority that has a complicated relationship with the government and often faces discrimination.
While they are Israeli citizens and some serve in the army, about a third of Bedouins, including Alkadi, live in villages the government considers illegal and wants to tear down.
Since November, about 70% of Khirbet Karkur residents have been told the government plans to raze their homes because they were built without permits in a “protected forest” not zoned for housing, according to a lawyer representing them.
Alkadi’s family hasn’t received a notice, but the looming mass displacement of this close-knit community has cast a pall on what has otherwise been a joyous 24 hours.
Look I’m not out here trying to defend the Israeli government but as someone who works office-side in contruction and who deals with building codes frequently I kinda get it. I’m sure they’ll go about it all wrong and treat the people like a racist afterthought but codes and permits exist for a reason.
Here’s the thing: They unilaterally declared these places to be “protected”. It’s not like the Bedouins started living there last Tuesday.
Where’s the permit for the settler colonialism?