Spray planes of the Green Patrol this morning destroyed 2,000 dunams (500 acres) worth of crops planted by Bedouin on lands not their own north of Be'er Sheva. Two weeks from now, the government will hold a special meeting on the topic of the Bedouin take-over of many Negev lands, as well as the widespread illegal construction by Israeli-Arabs in the Galilee and Wadi Ara areas. Housing Minister Effie Eitam (National Religious Party) requested the session.
Shortly before the Shavuot holiday, the Green Patrol took Minister Eitam and senior Housing Ministry officials on an aerial tour of the Negev. They saw Kibbutz Revivim, 20 kilometers south of Be'er Sheva, surrounded on all sides by illegal Bedouin construction, in most places right up to the Kibbutz fence. The same is true around the Nevatim Military Air Force Base, just east of Be'er Sheva. They then flew north, Haggai Segal reports, where they saw three long strips of illegal Arab construction dividing the Lower Galilee "in a most definitive manner." Eitam has long been saying that there are 80,000 illegal structures in Israel, nearly all of them owned by Arabs.