The denial of electricity is particularly stark. It is incredibly ironic we don’t have any electricity connection in the village, despite the fact that since 1981 the electric power generation plant has sat exactly in the middle of Wadi Al-Na’am, and is still expanding towards our houses, thus the only source of electricity is being achieved through gas generators and solar panels. Moreover, we have only one school in the village, which goes up to the 9th grade, and we also had to struggle to keep it open. After the 9th grade, our students have to go to Shqeb Al-Salam (Segev Shalom) which is 12 km away. Furthermore, we don’t have clinics in the village, and if anyone gets sick or injured, the nearest public clinic is in the city of Bir Al-Sabe’ (Beer Sheva), some 16 km away. We have home demolitions on a weekly basis, which are usually accompanied with random detentions. For instance, last week a young couple that were just about to get married, were both arrested for 15 days while trying to stop the demolition of their newly-built house, in which they were supposed to start their life in. The notion that the Prawer-Plan was stopped from being implemented is basically an illusion, the facts on the ground show that the plan is still ongoing, mainly through home demolitions. Although alternative plans were submitted in order to recognize our villages, it does not seem that Israel will accept them. To Israel we represent a demographic threat to the Jewishness of the State. This very racist idea was publically expressed by the Minister of Agriculture Yair Shamir during a recent visit to the Naqab, where he also pointed out that Israel should examine ways to lower the birthrate of the Bedouin community! The Israeli planning policies have become openly discriminatory in the last 10 years, by creating 59 individual farms, for Jewish-Israeli citizens only. These farms have everything: water and electricity connections, paved roads, tax relief and they also get financial help to develop agricultural farms in the desert. Planning Obstacles Planning obstacles refer to factors that lead to rejection of building plans submitted by Palestinian towns. Palestinian local authorities that submit building plans and zoning proposals face unreasonable delays in getting them approved, thus impeding the issuing of legal building permits. The rejection rate is high, and usually the justification for rejection tends to relate to national and district plans currently in place and Ministry of Interior policy which aims to inhibit Palestinian building and development.61 In order to approve a local outline plan, the plan should fit in the national and district Master Plans, otherwise the plan will be rejected. However, since their inception in 1951, national Master Plans have systematically aimed to limit the development of Palestinian localities through various pretexts such 61 Nasser, Severe Housing Distress and Destruction of Arab Homes: Obstacles and Recommendations for Change. 21