By Anees Barghouthi

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli forces on Thursday demolished a mosque in the Bedouin village of Rakhma in the Negev Desert under the pretext that it had been built without a permit, eyewitness said.

“Dozens of Israeli forces, backed by a bulldozer, stormed the village this morning and began demolishing the mosque,” local resident Mohammed Al-Saghayreh said.

The Israeli government classifies approximately 40 villages in the Negev Desert as “unrecognized,” arguing that the roughly 53,000 Palestinian Bedouins living there cannot prove their ownership of the land.

Last week, Israeli forces razed the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in Negev for the 93rd time. The village was first demolished in July 2010, before being rebuilt multiple times.

Dozens of Palestinians, who bear Israeli citizenship, live in al-Araqib. They say they have owned the land long before Israel came into existence in 1948.

Author Aness Suheil Barghoti

[Photo: Another mosque in Negev Desert: Tirabin al-Sana mosque. Photographer: Romayan/Creative-Commons]