38 years on, Israel still doesn't understand Arab protests over land seizures
Israel’s Palestinian Arab community on Sunday observes Land
Day, an annual event commemorating protests that broke out on March 30,
1976 against government land seizures in which six Arabs were killed by
Israeli security forces.
That
first Land Day began with a general strike in Israel’s Arab
communities, in the wake of a cabinet resolution approving the
expropriation of 20,000 dunams (some 5,000 acres) in an area known as
Area 9 or the Sakhnin valley, as part of the government’s goal of
increasing the Jewish population in Galilee.
In
the intervening 38 years, two events stand out in shaping the often
rocky relations between the state and its Arab citizens. The first was
the second Rabin government and the Oslo peace process, when for the
first time Arabs in Israel were seen as genuine partners and a number of
Galilee Bedouin communities received official recognition. The second
watershed moment was the events of October 2000, which precipitated the
complete collapse of Israeli Arabs’ trust in the establishments.
Over
the past decade, many issues have risen to the surface. The Higher Arab
Monitoring Committee and human rights organizations have released
documents emphasizing the desire of Israel’s Arab citizens to preserve
their national identity while accepting Israeli citizenship based on
full equality and their recognition as a minority. The state, however,
went in the opposite direction, stressing the state’s Jewish character
at every opportunity, to the current juncture in which Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has made the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state a
precondition for discussion of ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Specific
proposals, such as the so-called Prawer plan for relocating tens of
thousands of Negev Bedouin from unrecognized villages to recognized
communities and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s population exchange
proposal, send Israeli Arabs a clear message that the state wants as
few of them as possible within the state’s borders, and in the smallest
area possible.
Israeli Arabs waving
Palestinian flags during a rally in the northern Arab-Israeli town of
Sakhnin on March 30, 2013 commemorating the 37th anniversary of 'Land
Day.'AFP
This
policy is borne out in the severe housing shortage within the Arab
community. According to a recent study by the nongovernmental
organization Hagalil, Israel’s Arab community will need at least 100,000
additional homes over the next decade.
El
Baqa, an organization specializing in planning issues, cites figures
from the Interior and the Housing and Construction Ministries, according
to which only nine percent of building permits issued between March and
September 2012, or 2,200 units, were in Arab communities, for a 43
percent decline between 2012 and 2013 in building permits in Arab
communities. The practical result is a rise in unlicensed construction,
and thousands of demolition orders that hang over the heads of
homeowners.
The
bottom line is that the state has not only failed to learn the lessons
of the first Land Day, but is increasingly turning its back on its Arab
citizens.
The
Higher Arab Monitoring Committee has called a general strike for Sunday
(including schools). The traditional Land Day parade will take place in
Sakhnin and in Arabeh, and the main rally will be held in the latter
town in the afternoon. A parade will also be held in the unrecognized
Negev Bedouin village of Suween, east of Be’er Sheva on Route 25, whose
participants will call for the Prawer plan to be shelved and the
unrecognized communities sanctioned.
It
is doubtful that the participants’ calls and chants will receive broad
media coverage; Israeli public opinion doesn’t really care about the
issues, which have not changed from year to year.
The
time has come for all parties to look for a new policy, under which on
one hand the state views the Arabs as equal citizens whose housing needs
must be met, and on the other hand the Arab leadership − whether the
Arab Higher Monitoring Committee or the mayors of Arab communities −
puts forth its own plans and recommendations and demands the fulfillment
of the basic right to housing before it is too late. Parades and
slogans alone are not enough, and the younger generation of Arabs is
beginning to lose its trust in everyone.
Commenti
Posta un commento