JNF for forestation of the lands of al-Araqib would establish facts on the ground that would further sever the ties of the Palestinian Bedouins to their lands. After the return of some former residents to the village and the start of cultivation of the lands, Israel took measures to destroy the crops and force the residents out.121 “In 1998,122 they [the Israeli Land Authority] sprayed the land with chemicals from planes, and again in 1999.123 There are no laws that protect Palestinians; in Israel, the law only protects Jewish-Israelis. They continued to spray our land and farms with poisonous chemicals for four or five more years, which caused many diseases like cancer. Four people from my family died because of this and doctors in Israel refused to give us a paper with the cause of death. Eventually the Supreme Court ruled that the spraying had to stop, but nothing else. There was no compensation for all the animals that died or the crops which were all poisoned. Israel didn’t compensate people for what they lost from the poisonous chemicals. After all of this, we went back to work and we started farming our land again. For a few years, we would farm the land and then Israelis would come during the spring with their big machines and take all the harvest. We farm the land and they take everything.” Nader Touri, 74-year old resident of al-Araqib. Interview: Al-Araqib, 23 February 2017 In 2007, following a petition filed by Adalah, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on the illegality of spraying the fields, without granting any compensation for the losses caused by the chemicals.124 In the meantime, the forestation plans continued. In 2006, Israel and the JNF began another foresting project on the land of al-Araqib. A third attempt at forestation by the JNF of al-Araqib, estimated at covering around 1,200 dunums, began in 2009.125 This year, the JNF and God-TV channel126 started planting a million trees in the western part of al-Araqib.127 121 Zochrot, “al-’Araqib,” supra note 113. 122 It should be noted here that the interviewee mentions the spraying of the land with poisonous chemicals as having occurred before 2002 (date cited by Human Rights Watch) or 2003 (date cited by Adalah). 123 It also took place in 2003-2004. 124 Human Rights Watch mentions this event as having started in 2002; See Human Rights Watch, “Israel: Halt Demolitions of Bedouin Homes in Negev,”, 1 August 2010,available at: https://www.hrw.org/ news/2010/08/01/israel-halt-demolitions-bedouin-homes-negev [accessed 21 September 2017]. 125 Adalah, “ILA and JNF,” supra note 114. 126 International Christian media network. 127 Nadia Ben-Youssef, Suhad Bishara, and Rina Rosenberg, “Forced Displacement,” supra note 120. 45