Arab citizens of Israel have gone on a nationwide strike after Israeli authorities destroyed 11 Palestinian homes they said were illegal in the central town of Qalansawe.

“We condemn the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally for these crimes,” Mohammad Baraka, the head of the High Follow-Up Committee, a representative body for Palestinian citizens of Israel, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The committee called on Arab citizens of the Jewish state to stand together to repel “the new attack that the government has taken against us”.

Workers in both the public and private sectors were encouraged to participate in Wednesday’s symbolic one-day walk out. It is estimated that of Israel’s 1.5million Arab citizens, around 500,000 took part.

The dispute comes after buildings in the Arab-majority town of Qalansawe were demolished for allegedly being built without proper planning permits. The residents whose homes were destroyed said they had been denied permits several times, forcing them to build illegally.

Israel’s Finance Ministry released a statement on Wednesday saying that the buildings were not inhabited because they were still in varying stages of construction, and built on land outside the town’s approved borders.

Qalansawe’s mayor has resigned in protest.

“The Arab population at times builds in an unregulated manner because it hasn't been given the possibility of building,” Zionist Union politician Zuhair Bahloul said.

“Illegal Arab building is needed because the current policy is failed and discriminatory… It’s a provocation against... Arab citizens of Israel. [Prime Minister] Netanyahu is telling them, 'You don't belong to the state.'"

Israel: From independence to intifada Show all 7 1 /7 Israel: From independence to intifada Israel: From independence to intifada The proclamation of the state of Israel is read by David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948 © EPA Israel: From independence to intifada Sixty years on, an illuminated flag is shown in Tel Aviv this week © PA Israel: From independence to intifada Young Jews celebrate the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948 © AFP/Getty Images Israel: From independence to intifada Palestinian children throw stones at a retreating Israeli tank during an incursion into the West Bank city of Jenin in August 2003 following a suicide bombing in Jerusalem © AP Israel: From independence to intifada How Israel's borders have changed - click image to enlarge © Independent Graphics Israel: From independence to intifada From 1948-50, the world's mostcelebrated war photographer Robert Capa captured extraordinary imagesof Israel's pioneering settlers. Here, Turkish immigrants arrive in Haifa © Robert Capa/Getty Images Robert Capa/Magnum Israel: From independence to intifada The Negba kibbutz, where the walls have been damaged by shells fired during the Israeli-Arab war © Robert Capa/Getty Images Robert Capa/Magnum

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the controversy with a statement on his Facebook page which said that: “We are continuing to implement equal enforcement in Israel... Home demolitions must be egalitarian.

“The same law which necessitates the evacuation of Amona, necessitates the evacuation of illegal construction elsewhere in our country... I will enforce Israeli law in the Negev, in Wadi Ara, in the Galilee, in the centre – all over the country.“

Amona, a wildcat outpost in the West Bank built without government permission, is currently being emptied of residents after a high court ruling last year deemed the settlement illegal.

More than 5,000 Arab homes in Israel have been destroyed in the last 20 years and Palestinians control of just 2.3 per cent of the state’s land, which activists say is indicative of their status as “second class citizens” of the country. Strikes are a common method of protest for Palestinian citizens.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently involved in a corruption investigation. Police are trying to determine whether he accepted lavish gifts from business leaders and allegedly attempted to curry favourable coverage in the Israeli media in exchange for a financial deal.