Israel plans to house thousands of settlers in place of destroyed Arab villages

Israel plans to house thousands of settlers in place of destroyed Arab villages

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM,  Israel is planning to house thousands of Israeli families in the Negev and the Galilee in place of the Arab villages and houses demolished in those two areas, Hebrew media sources revealed on Wednesday.

The sources said that the ministry of Negev and Galilee and the housing and finance ministry had allocated around 30 million dollars to intensify the building of settlement outposts in place of the destroyed Arab villages. The plan envisages the construction of 30 such outposts over four years (2010 to 2014), the sources added.

They noted that the plan targets housing 10,000 Israeli families in those areas and extends lucrative conditions for owning and constructing houses there, adding that 2,000 of those would inhabit rural areas while the remaining 8,000 would inhabit urban areas.

The scheme was uncovered only one day after Israeli forces wiped out the village of Arakib in the Negev and displaced all its inhabitants. More than 70,000 Palestinians live in 65 Arab villages in the Negev threatened with a similar fate. Israel did not recognize those villages, which are consequently deprived of basic municipal services and lack infrastructure.