NEGEV, (PIC)– Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) demolished on Wednesday the Bedouin village of al-Araqib, in the Negev in the southern 1948 occupied territories, for the 62nd time in a row since 2010.
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers accompanied by military bulldozers abruptly raided the unrecognized village and started to demolish and remove hundreds of Palestinian homes and facilities.
Local sources said that IOF removed the demolition wastes and cleaned the area as a prelude to plant it with trees and seedlings, claiming that it belongs to Israeli lands.
Al-Araqib is one of roughly 40 unrecognized Bedouin villages, some of them predating the state itself. Those villages are deprived of basic government services, like running water and electricity; they are not entitled to zoning plans, such that every house built in these villages is at risk of demolition.
It is worth mentioning that the Negev constitutes about 40% of historic Palestine, an area of 12 thousand and 577 km 2, and home to nearly two hundred thousand Palestinians.
The sources added that Israeli forces arrested 4 of the village’s residents a few hours after the demolition process.
The village’s Sheikh Sayah al-Touri and his three grandsons were arrested and interrogated for establishing houses without permits. The three children were earlier released, while Sheikh al-Touri’s arrest was extended.
The residents protested outside the police station demanding the release of all detainees, stressing their right to live in their village.
Meanwhile, the IOF arrested a young man from the Old City in al-Khalil and took him to Etzion detention center. The IOF also raided Romaneh vilage in Jenin where they erected a military checkpoint. No arrests were reported.
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The Prawer Plan: What you need to know
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What is the Prawer Plan
Demolition and Eviction of Bedouin Citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev) – The Prawer Plan
On 24 June 2013, the Israeli Knesset approved the discriminatory Prawer-Begin Bill, with 43 votes for and 40 votes against, for the mass expulsion of the Arab Bedouin community in the Naqab (Negev) desert in the south of Israel.If fully implemented, the Prawer-Begin Plan will result in the destruction of 35 “unrecognized”Arab Bedouin villages, the forced displacement of up to 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel, and the dispossession of their historical lands in the Naqab. Despite the Arab Bedouin community’s complete rejection of the plan and strong disapproval from the international community and human rights groups, the Prawer Plan is happening now.
The Prawer-Begin Bill is an unacceptable proposition that entrenches the state’s historic injustice against its Bedouin citizens. Adalah and our NGO partners have been challenging the Prawer Plan before courts, government authorities and the international community, but we need your help to stop what would be the largest single act of forced displacement of Arab citizens of Israel since the 1950s!
Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel, inhabitants of the Naqab (Negev) desert since the seventh century, are the most vulnerable community in Israel. For over 60 years, the indigenous Arab Bedouin have faced a state policy of displacement, home demolitions and dispossession of their ancestral land. Today, 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens live in 35 villages that either predate the establishment of the State in 1948, or were created by Israeli military order in the early 1950s. The State of Israel considers the villages “unrecognized” and the inhabitants “trespassers on State land,” so it denies the citizens access to state infrastructure like water, electricity, sewage, education, health care and roads. The state deliberately withholds basic services from these villages to “encourage” the Arab Bedouin citizens to give up their ancestral land. If Israel applied the same criteria for planning and development that exist in the Jewish rural sector, all 35 unrecognized villages would be recognized where they are.
In September 2011, the Israeli government approved the Prawer Plan, the brainchild of former Deputy Chair of the National Security Council, Mr. Ehud Prawer. The Prawer Plan will result in the destruction of the unrecognized villages and the forced displacement of up to 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens. This plan was completed without consultation of the local community, and is a gross violation of the constitutional rights of the Arab Bedouin citizens to property, dignity, equality, adequate housing, and freedom to choose their own residence.
Prawer is Happening Now
Despite complete rejection of the plan by the Arab Bedouin, and strong disapproval from the international community, Prawer is happening now. More than 1,000 houses were demolished in 2011 alone, and civil society observed the same practices in 2012. Since Prawer was announced, the government announced plans that will displace over 10,000 people and plant forests, build military centers, and establish new Jewish settlements in their place.
The Prawer Plan is today being turned into an Israeli law. On 6 May 2013, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved the proposed “Law for the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev – 2013” (“the Prawer-Begin Bill”, after recommendations by Minister Benny Begin were included). On 24 June 2013, the Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin Bill with 43 votes for and 40 votes against. The bill will now be sent to the Committee for Interior Affairs and Environment to be prepared for the second and third readings.
The international community has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the Prawer Plan. In March 2012, the UN Committee on the Elimination for Racial Discrimination called on Israel to withdraw the proposed implementing legislation of the Prawer Plan, on the grounds that it was discriminatory. In July 2012, the European Parliament passed a historic resolution calling on Israel to Stop the Prawer Plan and its policies of displacement, eviction, and dispossession.
Adalah calls on the Israeli government to:
Cancel the Prawer Plan
Recognize the “unrecognized villages” and the land claims of the indigenous Arab Bedouin community
Halt home demolitions and forced evictions
Engage in meaningful dialogue with the Arab Bedouin community and the Arab political leadership to justly resolve the land claims
Invest in greater health, education, and employment opportunities for Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel
November 21, 2013 
Occupied Palestine | فلسطين 
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