The Prawer Plan, which was put into effect last week, involves demolishing Arab Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert to make way for new Jewish settlements. World Bulletin / News Desk

The Arab League on Thursday warned of serious consequences of a controversial Israeli plan, dubbed the Prawer plan, to destroy dozens of unrecognized Bedouin villages in Negev and evacuate tens of thousands of locals.

"This plan contradicts substantially with efforts to provide an atmosphere conducive to the success of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks," the pan-Arab body's chief Nabil al-Arabi said in a statement.

"It would hinder international efforts to reach agreement on final-status issues," he asserted, calling on the international community to stand against the Israeli scheme.

Al-Arabi said the plan would lead to evacuating 70,000 residents of 40 Palestinian villages in Negev and confiscating over 800,000 acres of lands in the region.

The Israeli government said the plan aims to regulate Arab communities in the Negev, but the Arab Bedouins fear that Israeli authorities would confiscate their land for the interest of Jewish settlements.

Israel classifies approximately 40 villages in the Negev Desert as "unrecognized," arguing that the Arab Bedouins living there cannot prove their ownership of the land.

Bedouin and human rights activists blast the controversial plan as yet another Israeli land grab, slamming the planned forced evacuation of Arab Bedouins as "ethnic cleansing."

Israeli authorities have repeatedly demolished Bedouin homes in the area, which has a Bedouin population of more than 200,000.