Israeli Knesset to trigger expulsion of Palestinian bedouins

Bedouin residents of the Negev are gearing up for new Israeli measure to expell them from their land as the Israeli Knesset is slated Sunday to discuss a plan to forcibly relocate thousands of Bedouin Palestinians.

The so-called Prawer Plan was approved by the Israeli government in 2011 but shelved in 2013 amid widespread protest among Palestinians within Israel and international condemnation.

Israeli minister of agriculture Uri Ariel of the Habayit Hayehudi party (Jewish Home) has since reintroduced the plan to the Knesset .

Palestinian Bedouin MK Talab Abu Arar on Saturday urged a committee representing Bedouin residents of the Negev to have an emergency meeting to discuss preventive measures that could be taken to prevent displacement.

“We call upon our people to roll sleeves up and join the struggle," Abu Arar said.

Approved without any consultation with the Bedouin community, the plan would evict nearly 40,000 Bedouins from their villages and force them to live in concentrated areas that critics called "reservations."

Israel currently refuses to recognize 35 Bedouin villages in the Negev, which collectively house nearly 90,000 people.