"The government used force against us, they detained people, demolished houses, fined us and nothing helped," said Aqil al-Talalqah, 66, a retired headmaster who now lives in a tent in Twayil, only a few hundred yards from the demolished two-room building where he once went to school as a child. "They say we are invading state land. How are we invading state land? This is our land."

A leading international human rights group yesterday accused the Israeli government of discrimination against the bedouin, citing a sharp increase in housing demolitions and a "systematic violation" of their land and housing rights. The detailed 126-p...

"The government used force against us, they detained people, demolished houses, fined us and nothing helped," said Aqil al-Talalqah, 66, a retired headmaster who now lives in a tent in Twayil, only a few hundred yards from the demolished two-room building where he once went to school as a child. "They say we are invading state land. How are we invading state land? This is our land."

A leading international human rights group yesterday accused the Israeli government of discrimination against the bedouin, citing a sharp increase in housing demolitions and a "systematic violation" of their land and housing rights. The detailed 126-page report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) comes as a new government-appointed commission begins a study on the long-running land ownership dispute.

The Goldberg Commission, appointed by the housing ministry but without any representatives from the unrecognised villages, is due to report later this year.

...Guardian

Tens of thousands of Bedouin-Arabs who have lived a semi-nomadic life on the land for many generations and who all carry full Israeli citizenship - live in 39 "unrecognised villages" in southern Israel where their homes are subject to frequent demolition.

"Discriminatory land and planning policies have made it virtually impossible for bedouin to build legally where they live and also exclude them from the state's development plans for the region," HRW said in the report.

It described "discriminatory, exclusionary and punitive policies" and noted that new farms and towns for Jewish Israelis were being built in the area. [i]"The[b]...

Tens of thousands of Bedouin-Arabs who have lived a semi-nomadic life on the land for many generations and who all carry full Israeli citizenship - live in 39 "unrecognised villages" in southern Israel where their homes are subject to frequent demolition.

"Discriminatory land and planning policies have made it virtually impossible for bedouin to build legally where they live and also exclude them from the state's development plans for the region," HRW said in the report.

It described "discriminatory, exclusionary and punitive policies" and noted that new farms and towns for Jewish Israelis were being built in the area. "The state appears intent on maximising its control over Negev land and increasing the Jewish population in the area for strategic, economic and demographic reasons," it said. In 2005, the Israeli government adopted a $3.6bn (about £1.8bn) plan to bring another 200,000 Israelis to the Negev to ease housing pressure elsewhere.

HRW called for an immediate halt to house demolitions and the creation of an independent commission to investigate the dispute.