Sunday may 26 2013, personnel of the Israeli Ministry of Interior placed official orders on 18 under construction homes, being rebuilt after the army demolished them a week ago, in Atteer village in the Negev, informing the villagers that their homes will be demolished again.Arab Member of Knesset, Talab Abu Arar, said that the villagers were rebuilding the demolished homes when the army came again, placed the new orders, and removed a protest tent that was installed in the village, the Palestine News Network (PNN) has reported.
Arar stated that Israel insists on displacing and removing “unrecognized” villages in the Negev, despite the fact that they have existed before Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine, and added that Israel aims at blocking any geographical contiguity between the Arabs in Israel and the West Bank.
He also said that the village is located on the Green Line between the West Bank and the Israel.
Arar added that a protest will be held on Monday, at 11 before noon, in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem, and called for an active participation.
The protest, organized by the Arab Follow-up Committee in the Negev, is part of ongoing protests against the so-called Negev Development Plan.
In 2005, Israel approved the so-called “Negev Development Plan” aiming at building shopping centers and tourist areas, but at the same time displacing more than 65.000 Bedouins living in what Israel refers to as “unrecognized villages”.
The plan calls for annexing more than 700.000 Dunams (185329 acres) and displacing the residents by demolishing 14 “unrecognized” Arab villages in the area. Al-Araqeeb village in the Negev is one of the most affected villages by the plan as it was removed more than 50 times, and is still facing ongoing aggression.
All unrecognized villages in the Negev are under repeated Israeli attacks and violations, as Tel Aviv does not recognize the residents’ right to live on their land — land they inhabited long before the 1948 creation of the state of Israel in historic Palestine.
The Green Line is the demarcation line, set in 1949, separating historic Palestine, following the establishment of Israel 1948, from its neighboring Arab countries.
The Line was also enforced by Israel following the 1967 six-day war, when Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
