ISRAEL APPROVES 5 NEW SETTLEMENTS IN NEGEV DESERT

Local residents Preparing for the immortal Land Day activities in the village of Al-Araqib in the Negev (March 26) – FILE PHOTO:

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Sun 27 March 2022:

The Israeli government will approve the creation of five new settlements in the Negev desert despite protests from the Arab Bedouin population inhabiting the territory and the Palestinian side, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday.

According to the resolution, which was approved by the Israeli cabinet on Sunday, the settlements will consist of one set aside for Bedouin, one as a kibbutz, and three as “communal” villages.

The resolution gives the World Zionist Organisation’s Settlement Division the power to recruit residents to move to the new settlements.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Construction and Housing Minister Zeev Elkin have said they intend to have admissions committees vet applicants, a move that was criticised by Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg of the centre-left Meretz party, according to Haaretz.

The ministers described the new settlements as “a significant step in strengthening settlement in the Negev with an emphasis on the eastern Negev, which is a region of national strategic importance”.

The Bedouin community inhabiting the Negev regards the Israeli plan for the development of the desert as a land grab and opposes the creation of new settlements on its territory. Bedouins are highly supported by the Palestinian authorities who believe the desert to be part of their country’s areas occupied by Israel despite objections from the United Nations.

There are almost 300,000 Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship and who live in dozens of villages in the Negev.

Some 100,000 of them live in unrecognised villages and are denied any infrastructure or support from the government.

There are no means of transportation, no roads, no schools, and Israeli authorities don’t collaborate with local leadership.

Last week, Zeev Elkin, the housing minister, announced that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) will resume a controversial forestation plan in the Negev in close proximity to Palestinian towns.

In December and January, hundreds of Palestinians protested against the JNF forestation plan, which they claim is a pretext to push them out from their lands to make way for new Jewish towns. The plan was temporarily put on hold.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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