Representatives from the Interior Ministry and the Israel Lands Administration accompanied by police razed 17 homes in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al-Twayil in the Negev on Wednesday.

The village, north of Be'er Sheva, consists of about 50 houses. Residents who lost their homes are considering building a tent city on the site.

During the demolition, four local youths were arrested.

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The demolitions came in spite of a Knesset Interior Affairs and Environment Committee recommendation to postpone the demolitions in Bedouin villages in order to allow residents to find substitute housing elsewhere, or some other temporary solution.

Nonetheless, Interior Minister Roni Bar-On told the committee Sunday that there are over 42,000 illegal buildings in unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, and the state has the authority to demolish them.

Knesset member Talab El-Sana from the United Arab List said the demolitions left children and the elderly without a roof over their heads in the dead of winter, and signified "a declaration of war by the state against its Bedouin citizens."

El-Sana also stated that the demolitions were "a crime that is no better than those committed by the Israel Defense Forces in Beit Hanun," referring to the errant shelling by an IDF artillery crew on November 8 that killed 20 Gaza civilians.

El-Sana argued that while the state was demolishing Bedouin houses, it was also apporving the construction of tens of farms and houses for Jewish residents of the Negev. According to El-Sana this derives from "a policy of racism."

"This terrorist act will not deter us from our struggle for justice and a life of dignity," El-Sana added.

MK Hanna Swaid (Hadash) harshly condemned what he called "brutal demolitions", referring to them as "underhanded opportunism," coming only
two days after the Knesset committee deliberations.

The demolitions come only a month before a trip planned by the Interior Ministry to the Negev, meant to deal with the situation in Negev Bedouin villages, and ostensibly to seek solutions to the problems they experience.