National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir escalated his clash with Bedouin leaders in the Negev on the eve of a large protest planned for Thursday outside the Israel Land Authority office for Bedouin settlement regulation in the Negev. Speaking at the Local Government Conference on Wednesday, he rejected criticism of his ministry’s home demolition policy and said he would continue it despite public pressure.
Ben Gvir said he had been told that Bedouin families whose homes were demolished were sleeping in a school in Arad. “They are there because they say, ‘Ben Gvir is destroying our homes,’” he said. “So I am telling them to prepare many more schools across the Negev, because I am going to destroy more and more and more.” He added, “No demonstration will change the policy.”
The minister said a day earlier that he would not be deterred by the expected rally. According to him, since he took office more than 5,000 illegal structures have been demolished, and land equivalent to Tel Aviv and Givatayim combined has been returned to the state. “Anyone who builds against the law should know one thing, illegal construction will not pay off,” he said.
The Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Negev sharply rejected his figures, saying the combined area of Tel Aviv and Givatayim is 55 square kilometers, while the area cleared in the Negev is at most 2 square kilometers. The council said thousands of families have lost their homes and estimated the cumulative economic damage from the demolitions at about 250 million shekels. Thursday’s protest is expected to draw thousands of Bedouin demonstrators and demand an end to house demolitions and recognition of unrecognized villages. The wider dispute between the government and Bedouin leadership over enforcement, illegal construction and land regulation in the Negev remains unresolved.
