World Bulletin / News Desk

Arab Bedouins in the Negev desert have started an all-out strike to protest Israel's Prawer-Begin plan to relocate the Bedouin communities in the region.

Arab Knesset member Talab al-Sana said that the Arab Bedouins in the Negev responded to a call by the Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, an umbrella organization that comprises all Arab political parties and NGOs in the region, to stage a strike in the region in protest of the plan.

"The popular action has started early through plans to stage rallies in several areas in the Negev," al-Sana told Anadolu Agency.

"The strike came to show consensus among the Negev residents refusing the relocation and ethnic cleansing, and to ensure our legitimate right to live with pride and dignity in the lands of our fathers," he added.

The Israeli government said the plan aims to regulate Arab communities in the Negev, but the Arab Bedouins fear that Israeli authorities would confiscate their land for the interest of Jewish settlements.

Israel classifies approximately 40 villages in the Negev Desert as "unrecognized," arguing that the roughly 53,000 Arab Bedouins living there cannot prove their ownership of the land.

Israeli authorities have repeatedly demolished Bedouin homes in the area.