Protesters have clashed with police at a controversial tree-planting programme in the south of Israel. 

Nearly a dozen people were arrested on Wednesday morning as several Knesset MKs attended ceremonies organised by the Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael-Jewish National Fund. 

MK Itamar Ben-Gvir from the Religious Otzma Yehudit party attended the planting on Wednesday after receiving rabbinic permission to plant trees in a shemitah year, where the torah mandates that Israeli lands be left fallow.

The forestation efforts have been criticised by Bedouin communities who say that the works are being carried out on their tribal land. The Bedouin protests have the backing of several Arab party MKs, including Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Arab Ra’am party who has stopped voting with Naftali Bennett’s coalition in protest.

According to Israeli news site Ynet - Ra’am MK Walid Taha criticised the planting, saying: “What is required of us is to exhaust all the existing methods and tools in order to stop the plantings and prevent this crazy policy from happening again in the coming year.”

The Israeli government has ruled that the land in question is publicly owned, despite Bedouin claims to the contrary. 

Naftali Bennett’s fragile coalition of Israel nationalists and Arab parties has been rocked by the protests and subsequent police response. Foreign Minister and centrist MK Yair Lapid said that politicians on both sides should avoid “fanning the flames” of the dispute.