Sheikh Raid said that the Jews owned only eight percent of the land, but now they own 96 percent of it, and proceeded to give details about the land ownership and population growth in various towns and villages that are inhabited by the Arabs within Israel.

Sheikh Raid said the various Israeli institutions still wage a war against the Arabs and decline to recognize the Arabs’ right of existence within Israel, and they do not recognize 100 Palestinian Arab villages that have been in existence for decades. This in effect means that these villages are denied all the civic services, such as water, roads, schools, medical clinics, housing, though more than 80,000 Palestinians live in these villages.

He said that from time to time, the various Israeli Governments have been passing laws that are calculated to have the effect of confiscating land, such as the law on absentee landlords, law on land of deceased persons, and the like.

Sheikh Raid said that between 1992 and 1996 the Israelis demolished not less than 2,040 houses in the Negev that belonged to the Arab inhabitants, adding that arbitrary orders are still being issues from time to time for the demolition of houses, and replacing them by Jewish settlements.

Sheikh Raid said that on the religious level the Israelis continue to persecute their Arab compatriots, and have demolished not less than 1,200 of their mosques, and confiscated their Wakf lands, including cemeteries. He added, however, that there still remain about 100 premises that were used at one time as mosques, but the Israelis have now turned them into either restaurants, bars, museums, and animal pens.