More than 30 houses and buildings in the Arab village of Almukemin will be demolished if the proposed plan to build a military camp is approved.  This plan was prepared by the Israeli Defense Ministry and submitted to the District Committee for Planning and Building in the Southern District.  The proposed plan is for the establishment of a new camp, a special intelligence unit in the army, on the land of the unrecognized Arab village of Almukemin in the Negev. 
 
Through its continuous “watchdog” function, the Arab Center for Alternative Planning (ACAP) revealed the plan which will extend over an area of ​​up to 5,070 dunums, of which 3,000 dunums will be used for the construction of the camp itself, while the rest of the area will have specific restrictions for building.  The residents of Almukemin currently living on the 3,000 dunams of land that the plan will use will be forced to leave their homes and land, and will be accused of illegal seizure of these lands, even though they have lived on the land since before the establishment of the State. 
 
ACAP sent letters to the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev and to the local authorities in Abu Basma Lakiya to alert them regarding the proposed plan.  ACAP described the adverse affects that the plan would have on their communities, including limiting the future development of these towns, in addition to potential dangers as a result of the nature of military exercises that would be held at the camp.   
 
ACAP also indicated that the proposed plan would restrict construction and development on 460 dunams of land belonging to the jurisdiction area of the village of Lakiya.  ACAP urged the affected Regional Council and local authorities to submit legal objections within 60 days of the announcement of the plan, which dates back to January 16, 2012.   

Comprehensive Plan Will Cost 27 Billion NIS:
 
The proposed new camp is part of a larger comprehensive plan to move various military camps from the Center of the country to the Negev.  The total cost of this initiative is estimated to be 27 billion NIS; this is in addition to the cost of 15 billion NIS to move the camp’s intelligence unit, approximately 8 billion NIS for the administration of the camp’s technology, 2.5 billion NIS to establish a special military complex guide, and 1.6 trillion NIS to transfer the military aviation base from the Center of the country to the Negev.
 
This comprehensive plan was initiated during a cabinet meeting in August 2009 in Beer Sheva by the Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak.  According to various sources in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the main objective of the plan is to encourage new and young families to move to peripheral areas, far from the center of the country, especially in the Negev and the Galilee. 
  
The Arab Center for Alternative Planning sent letters at the time (over 2.5 years ago) to the local authorities affected and to the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages to alert them of the plan and that the proposed plan would have economic benefits only for a small group of potential investors, who could exploit these empty areas of land in the center of the country, where land values are very high.