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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <a
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<h1 id="reader-title">Demonstrators March against Israeli
Takeover of Umm al-Hiran</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by IMEMC News &
Agencies<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.imemc.org/article/72822">http://www.imemc.org/article/72822</a> </small></small></b><span
class="article-details"><span class="article-detail">August
27, 2015 </span></span></div>
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<blockquote class="article-intro">Dozens of Palestinians
protested on Thursday, in the Bedouin village of Umm
al-Hiran near the town of Hura, in the Negev, as
Israel's <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.imemc.org/article/72761">construction
of a Jewish town</a> on the village's land
continues, local sources said.</blockquote>
<p class="article">The Umm al-Hiran community -- around
700 strong -- is unrecognized by the Israeli
government and residents' lands were claimed by the
state in 2013 in order to make way for the expansion
of the Beersheba metropolitan area.</p>
<p>
As a march set off from the village and moved towards
the site of construction, protesters said they were
able to force Israeli police to remove the bulldozers
from the area.</p>
<p>
Leaders and members of national and Islamic parties,
Palestinian members of the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.imemc.org/newswire?search_text=Knesset&button=Search+%3E%3E">Knesset</a>,
members of committees for Palestinians in the Negev,
and Jewish-Israelis took part in the march.</p>
<p>
Sources told Ma'an News Agency that the contractor
responsible for razing the village is a Palestinian
citizen of Israel from the Negev, and locals have
condemned the use of Palestinian contractors against
their people by the Israeli authorities.</p>
<p>
Participants of Thursday's demonstration called for
launching an international media campaign in support
of Umm al-Hiran and other villages threatened with
land confiscation in order to pressure Israeli
authorities to stop longstanding policies to displace
Palestinian Bedouins.</p>
<p>
Umm al-Hiran residents are a fraction of the thousands
of Bedouins living in villages that the Israeli
government does not recognize and are at risk of
displacement in the Negev due to Israeli policies that
critics argue amount to ethnic cleansing.</p>
<p>
The community's residents appealed their displacement
in court earlier this year on the grounds that the
Israeli military administration ordered the community
to be moved to the area in 1956, but the appeal was
rejected.</p>
<p>
On Sunday, Israeli excavators began work on
infrastructure for the Jewish-only town in Umm
al-Hiran, building a new road under heavy protection
of Israeli forces, locals told Ma'an at the time.
Knesset Member Talab Abu Arar described the Israeli
move as racist.</p>
<p>
"Racism has become crystal clear in Umm al-Hiran as a
Jewish settlement Hiran is being built on the ruins of
the Arab Umm al-Hiran village," Abu Arar told Ma'an on
Sunday.</p>
<p>
He added that Israeli courts and authorities ignored
the rights of Palestinians and worked towards
confining them to a few recognized towns and denying
their rights.</p>
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