The Be'er Sheva District Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of the prison sentence imposed on Sheikh Sayah Abu Amdam (Sayah Al-Turi), a key activist in the construction of the illegal village of Al-Arakib on state land near the Lehavim Junction, about 10 kilometers north of Be'er Sheva'.
The sheikh was sent to ten months in prison after being convicted of 19 counts of trespassing, 19 offenses of illegal entry into public land and a violation of a legal order. In addition to the prison sentence, the court sentenced him to five months' probation and a fine of 36,000 shekels. The Al-Okbi family from the town of Rahat, which allegedly built various structures on the property claimed that these lands belonged to the family for generations and that they were evicted from the area after the War of Independence by the IDF with a promise that their removal was only temporary.