Israeli authorities today demolished a mosque built without planning permission in a Bedouin village in the Negev desert, an Arab Israeli MP said, accusing the government of "racism".
Mr Talab al-Sani of the United Arab List said interior ministry bulldozers razed the mosque at 4 a.m. (2 a.m. Irish time) in the Bedouin village of Tel el-Maleh in southern Israel that is home to around 1,000 people.
"The Israeli government has crossed the red line in the racist campaign that Sharon is waging against our villages," he said.
He said the mosque had cost $100,000 dollars to build, and said that after the bulldozers left villagers immediately started rebuilding it using material donated by businessmen.
"It is a dangerous sign to attack a mosque, they want us to move, to leave our villages," said Mr Sani.
But he stressed that as the Israeli authorities "will destroy, we will build." He said a fund was to be set up to help people whose houses are destroyed by the authorities.
Israel considers many of the makeshift villages built by the Bedouin in the Negev to be illegal and refuses to link them up to the water or power grids.
Neither are they linked to any roads, unlike the villages built by the state for the Bedouins but which many, faithful to ancient nomadic traditions, refuse to live in.
AFP