One Thousand Bedouins Protest Mosque Demolition

Around 1,000 people gathered to protest the demolition of the mosque. Some tried to stand in the way of bulldozers as they rammed into the walls of the building. Five people were arrested, and taken to "Israeli" government detention facilities.

The residents of Rahat gathered at the site after the mosque was demolished, and began to rebuild it. They told reporters that no matter how many times the Israeli authorities destroy the mosque, they will rebuild it again.

Palestinian Bedouins have lived in the Negev desert in present-day Israel for centuries, but since the creation of "Israel" in 1948, have been forbidden from building homes and other structures. "Israeli" authorities have repeatedly forced the Bedouin population to move from one place to another, and have dislocated whole villages.

A massive force of "Israeli" police, accompanied by officials with the "Israeli" Lands Administration, descended on the Palestinian Bedouin town of Rahat, in southern "Israel", where they demolished a mosque that they claimed was ‘built without a permit'.