Description

NEGEV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Thursday demolished homes in a Bedouin village in the Negev.

Israeli authorities destroyed the homes in Um al-Hayran after a court in Beersheba ruled they were built illegally, a Ma'an reporter said.

They belonged to the Abu al-Qiean family.

Um al-Hayran is one of dozens of Bedouin towns and villages in the Negev that Israel does not recognize.

The "unrecognized" villages are not connected to water, electricity or sewerage systems.

On May 6, an Israeli government committee approved a draft bill setting a framework to implement the evacuation of "unrecognized" villages, most of which existed before the state of Israel.

"The government approved a plan that will cause the displacement and forced eviction of dozens of villages and tens of thousands of Bedouin residents, dispossessing them of their property and historical rights to their lands, destroying the social fabric of their communities, and sealing the fate of thousands of families into poverty and unemployment," said lawyer Rawia Aburabia, who works for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

"All of this while the government simultaneously promotes the establishment of new Jewish communities, some of which are even slated to be built on the fresh ruins of Bedouin villages," Aburabia said in a statement.