The community of Ras Jaraba, on the outskirts of Dimona, has become the latest target in a long pattern of pressure on Bedouin villages across the Negev. A recent court ruling has given residents no more than three months to abandon their homes, threatening the removal of roughly 500 people who have lived on this land for generations. For many families, the decision is not merely a legal matter but an attempt to sever a living connection to territory settled long before Dimona existed, long before the policies that now seek to empty it.

Elders in the village speak with a mixture of defiance and disbelief. One resident in his nineties insists that leaving is unthinkable; he was born on this land and views the ruling as an attempt to rewrite history by erasing those who shaped it. Younger generations echo this sentiment, saying there is no alternative home and no justification strong enough to uproot an entire community. They describe a lengthy legal struggle in which courts consistently dismissed their rights while advancing plans aligned with political agendas focused on expanding Jewish towns deeper into Bedouin territory.

Ras Jaraba’s history highlights the depth of the displacement. The land belonged to local tribes long before the modern city of Dimona emerged, its earliest neighbourhoods built around wells dug by the very families now being told to leave. Activists say the latest ruling mirrors broader efforts across the Negev, where dozens of villages face demolition orders, restrictions on construction, and policies that frame long-established residents as intruders on their own land. The pattern, they argue, is unmistakable: strategic depopulation to clear space for urban expansion while offering residents nothing but temporary arrangements far removed from their heritage.

Legal groups observing the case warn that the ruling reinforces an already entrenched system of inequality in the region. They point out that previous planning objections were dismissed despite evidence of environmental concerns and the absence of any viable development framework. To them, the court’s stance signals that long-standing communities can be erased on the basis of administrative claims, while authorities avoid recognising the residents’ historical presence or providing meaningful relocation options. For families in Ras Jaraba, the message is clear, their future is being decided without them, and the land they have protected for generations is now being redefined as a space to be cleared.