Preface:
The modern
State of Israel was founded on the ideology of Zionism. Zionism holds Jewish settlement in Israel as one
its highest goals and achievements.[1] The new Yishuv
(see Glossary of Terms,
subsequently referred to as GoT) were
referred to as “pioneers” whose primary function was to “redeem the land” of Israel for
future Jewish settlement.[2] Zionist rhetoric, which refers to Israel as “the Holy Land” and Jewish immigration
as Aliyah (“Ascension” in Hebrew), aims to tie Jewish identity to the land of Israel in an essential process of nation
building.[3] Therefore, settlement and control of the land
in the modern state of Israel
is a crucial part of the Zionist project of creating an Israeli national
identity.
A
Brief History of Land Acquisition by the Israeli Government
Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the
Palestinian Arab community has been denied basic rights to land, housing, and
planning. After the 1948 War, which
resulted in Israel’s
independence and the Palestinian Nakba (GoT), the young Israeli
government found itself in an uncomfortable predicament. While the State of
Israel was meant to be a “Jewish state,” Jews only owned 7-8% of the land.[4]
The government began to quickly enact policies that sought to legally transfer
Palestinian land to Jewish control. In
1950, the government enacted the Absentees’ Property Law, which defined
persons who were expelled or fled between 1948 and 1952 as “absentees,”
regardless of whether they were living as refugees in another country, or as
“internal refugees” (GoT) within Israel.
Therefore, all property belonging to absentees, including land, dwellings
and bank accounts, was expropriated by the government.[5] “Abandoned” houses left by Palestinian
refugees were either demolished by the Israeli Land Administration (ILA) to
“clear” the country for new settlements[6]
or used to house Jewish immigrants.[7] Additionally, The Land Acquisition Law
(1953) allowed for the government expropriation of an additional 1.2-1.3
million dunams (GoT) of land from 349 Arab towns and villages for “essential
development and settlement needs.” Much of the confiscated land was used to
build new Jewish settlements and towns.[8] Additionally, the state took control of all
Muslim Waqfs, which include Muslim mosques and cemeteries, as well as
thousands of dunams of surrounding land for shops that were once used as
charitable income for the Muslim community.[9] These policies were clearly part of a larger
plan for “Judaization” and “De-Arabization.”[10]
Moreover, the government expropriated
20,000 dunams from Arab locales in 1976 and 500 dunams in 1998.[11] These policies led to the current
situation in Israel
in which the State owns 93% of the land while Palestinian Arab citizens own only
3.5%.[12]
How
Israeli State Land is Managed: the ILA and the JNF
The large majority of the land in Israel is managed by a governmental
body called the Israeli Land Administration (ILA). Until recently, a law dictated that 50% of
the seats on the ILA’s board of directors must be members of the Jewish
National Fund (JNF).[13]
The JNF is a semi-private organization whose mandate is to buy land and
distribute land solely to the Jewish people.[14] It is “semi-private” due to its intimate
relationship with the ILA. Not only does it have an abnormally high percentage
of members as ILA decision-makers, but the JNF also owns 13% of State lands. These
lands are in the highest demand due to their locations in fertile farming areas
and large cities.[15] In 2005, three human rights groups, including
the Mossawa Center, filed suit against the ILA for
supporting the JNF, which clearly discriminates against Arab citizens in its
land policies. Israel’s Attorney
General, Menachem Mazuz, ruled in favor of the human rights groups, stating
that as a state body, the ILA is obligated to market JNF lands to non-Jews as
well.[16] Unfortunately, the Attorney General also
ruled that when the ILA sells a piece of JNF land to non-Jews, the ILA must
reimburse the JNF for an equal amount of land.[17] This ruling allows the JNF to keep its
current hold over 13% of Israel’s
land. Furthermore, in 2009, the State emphasized its support for the JNF by
signing a Principles of Agreement, which outlined legal land swaps
between the two parties. The contract
states that the JNF will transfer to the State all the lands it has rented to
third parties for housing or employment in exchange for State lands in the
Galilee and Negev regions, which are “available and unplanned” (around
Palestinian Arab towns, which inadvertently restricts their growth).[18] Thus, while the ILA
and the JNF are separate bodies in name, they are closely linked in practice. The Israeli government, which is meant to
represent all of its citizens, regardless of ethnicity, should denounce the JNF
for its discriminatory land polices.
Instead, the government supports the JNF through granting it land swaps
and disproportionate representation in land governing bodies.
The
Harsh Reality for Palestinian Arab localities in Israel
The Israeli government discriminates
against the Palestinian Arab community through the amount of land allocated for
housing, as well as through the way existing towns and villages are dealt with.
For example, while many Jewish towns are planned on a regular basis and
provided with public housing units, most Arab towns do not have approved master
plans and are denied assistance programs like the ones provided in Jewish
areas.[19] Additionally, the Palestinian Arab
minority has increased in size seven-fold since 1948 and the government has yet
to create one new Arab city. Renting
apartments in mixed cities is also a problem; there are no formal regulations
for rental contracts and in many cases, landlords can evict tenants without
warning. This feeds into existing racial
discrimination.
Because of these reasons, many Palestinian Arab localities
in Israel
are extremely overcrowded. In 2008, the
average housing density for Arab housing was 1.43 persons per room, compared to
0.84 persons per room for Jewish housing.[20] Without adequate planning and government
services, Palestinian Arab citizens are often forced to build houses on land
without permits. For instance, 48 Arab
municipalities have plans for new neighborhoods, which include 45,395 new
housing units. Due to a lack of
government approval for these plans, more than 36,000 houses in Arab
municipalities are built “illegally.”[21] Instead of seeking solutions to the housing
crisis in the Palestinian Arab community, the Israeli government has turned to
home demolitions. This policy has been prevalent in the occupied territories
for decades. In 2009, 165 Arab Palestinian citizens’ homes and buildings were
bulldozed on government orders. 134 were
from unrecognized villages in the Negev (see Negev
section for more details) and 18 were from the North and the Triangle regions.[22] In the past year, home demolitions in the
Triangle area increased dramatically, especially in the mixed cities of Ramle
and Lod.[23] While the international community has
continuously condemned the Israeli house demolitions in the occupied
Palestinian territories, many continue to be blind to that fact that State uses
the same policy on its own citizens.
One common question is why Palestinian Arab citizens don’t
try to live in predominately Jewish localities that have superior sources of funding
and services from the government. The
answer to this question involves a variety of factors, including social racial
discrimination and racial discrimination on a systematic, governmental
level. For example, one major
contributing factor to this phenomenon is the recent Admissions Committees
Law passed by the Israeli Knesset.
This law, which functions in 695 agricultural communities in 69% of
towns and 85% of villages, allows community selection committees to reject
applications for residency based on an applicant’s “social unsuitability.” The law is so vague about what “social
unsuitability” entails that many communities have already interpreted it to
mean citizens who do not have Zionist values or do not support the “Zionist
vision.”[24] Obviously, these measures are taken in order
to exclude Palestinian Arabs from living in Jewish communities. Under these difficult circumstances, many
Palestinian Arab citizens feel that it is futile to apply to live in Jewish
localities.
[1]Oren
Yiftachel, “Ethnocracy: The Politics of Judaizing Israel/Palestine,” Constellations
1999: 9.
[2]Aron
Shai, “The Fate of Abandoned Arab Villages in Israel, 1965-1969,” History
& Memory 2006: 90.
[3]Yiftachel, 9.
[4]Yiftachel, 10.
[5]The Mossawa Center, “The Palestinian Arab Citizens
of Israel: Status, Opportunities and Challenges for an Israeli-Palestinian
Peace,” 2006
<http://mossawacenter.org/files/files/File/The%20Palestinian%20Arab%20Citizens%20of%20Israel_Status...2006.pdf>:
22.
[6]Shai, 87.
[7]Yiftachel, 9.
[8]Adalah:
The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, “The
Inequality Report,”
2011<http://www.adalah.org/upfiles/2011/Adalah_The_Inequality_Report_March_2011.pdf>:
31.
[9]
Arab Association of Human Rights (HRA), “Sanctity Denied: The Destruction and
Abuse of 252 Muslim and Christian Holy Places in Israel,” 2004 < http://www.arabhra.org/hra/Pages/PopupTemplatePage.aspx?PopupTemplate=139>:
Section A.
[10]Yiftachel, 8.
[11]Yossi Yonah and Ishak
Saporta, “The Politics of Land and Housing in Israel: A Wayward Republican
Discourse,” Social Identities 2002:
9.
[12]The Mossawa Center, 8.
[13]Adalah, 34.
[14]The Mossawa Center, 23.
[15]The Mossawa Center, 23.
[16]The Mossawa Center, 23.
[17]Adalah, 34.
[18] The Mossawa Center, One Year..., 31-32.
[19]ACRI: The Associated
for Civil Rights in Israel,
“Shadow Report to UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” 2011
<http://www.acri.org.il/en/2011/11/02/acris-shadow-report-to-un-committee-on-economic-and-social-rights/>:
13-14.
[20]Adalah, 34.
[21]The Mossawa Center, “The Mossawa Center Analysis of
the Government State Budget 2012,” <http://mossawacenter.org/files/files/File/Publications/TheMossawaCenterAnalysisoftheGovernmentStateBudget2012.pdf>:
1.
[22]ACAP: The Arab Center
for Alternative Planning, “165 Buildings Owned by Arabs Were Demolished in
2009,” 2010 <http://www.ac-ap.org/194916/165-Buildings-Owned-by-Arabs-Were-Demolished-in-2009>.
[23]ACRI, 13.
[24]Adalah, 31.
