- Dozens of Bedouin residents of unrecognized villages
in the Negev Desert demonstrated in Be'er Sheva on Sunday morning against
the Interior Ministry's and Israel Lands Administration's policies of home
demolitions and crop destruction in their villages.
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- The protest was held opposite the Interior Ministry's
Be'er Sheva offices.
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- Last week, the ILA's crop-duster planes again sprayed
wheat fields planted by the Bedouin citizens, killing the crops.
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- Sheikh Sayikh Al-Turi, of the Al-Arakib village near
Kibbutz Lahav, said this was the fifth time in five years that state authorities
had sprayed his crops.
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- "Two hundred people live off this land. We have
no other choice than to plant again. I hope enough rain falls for the wheat
to sprout," he said.
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- The Bedouin were also protesting to harm to people, pasture
lands and livestock caused by the spraying.
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- "One of my family members passed out after breathing
the spray that was used," Al-Turi said.
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- The demonstrators carried signs reading "The destruction
of croplands is terror" and "The state is using weapons of mass
destruction against the Bedouins."
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