Democratic Palestine : 21 (ص 17)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 21 (ص 17)
- المحتوى
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In the Naqab, only a small part of the two million dunums
owned by the Palestinians was left after all their villages were
destroyed in the 1947-48 war, and the ensuing confiscations on
«security», «development», and military pretexts. Then, after
the Camp David accord was signed, more than 300,000 dunums
were confiscated to build three military airports to replace the
ones from which the Israelis withdrew in the Sinai. In May 1982,
the Jewish Agency announced a project to settle one million
Jews in the Naqab and to build 100 settlements by the year 2000.
Intensive efforts are now underway to confiscate large areas of
land from the Zubeidat family to join it to nearby Jewish sett-
lements.
The Zionist government is also seeking to settle the Bedouins
in seven housing areas as a step towards confiscating their land.
However, this conspiracy has met fierce resistance despite all
the repressive measures used against the people, their herds and
crops, by the Green Patrol, created by Ariel Sharon when he was
minister of agriculture, to execute the Judaization and expul-
sion plans. Despite all the land that has been confiscated, the
Zionists have fallen short of their goals in the Naqab. At a fes-
tival held in Eshkol settlement on September 21, 1986, for the
100th anniversary of Ben Gurion’s birthday, Israeli President
Haim Hertzog admitted that «the settlement that had started
intensively in the Negev is losing its thrust, and we are today
very far away from seeing the Negev as Ben Gurion envisioned
it, and these days we need a dramatic effort in this field.» Ben
Gurion considered the Naqab as a sensitive area that must be
settled to form a human and military wall against Nasser’s
Egypt.
2. HOUSING POLICY
This is a studied policy that aims at restricting Palestinian
residents all over, forbidding them from settling down, creating
social diseases as a result of overcrowding and housing shor-
tages, and ultimately driving them to despair and emigration.
There is a dual basis for this policy. First is the lack of a plan for
the majority of Arab cities and villages. This serves the Zionists’
expansionist aims of swallowing Palestinian land to annex it to
Jewish settlements. Second is the discriminatory policy of the
Housing Ministry which denies Palestinians access to housing
projects, while providing such projects, apartments and other
facilities for Jews. As an example, the Jewish town of Upper
Nazareth was built at the expense of the Palestinian Arab city
Nazareth and the villages of Ain Mahil, Rina, Kafr Kana and Al
Mashhad. The area of Nazareth is approximately 7,500
dunums, of which one-third is owned by the state and churches,
while Upper Nazareth covers 9,500 dunums. This is despite the
fact that Nazareth’s population is over 40,000, while Upper
Nazareth’s population is about half that.
Such institutionalized discrimination is the source of the
problems of overcrowding and housing shortages from which
the Palestinian Arabs suffer, and which leave negative social
and psychological effects. Since the Israeli government delibe-
rately delays the granting of construction licenses to Palestinian
residents, they often start to build without a license. Today,
over 7,000 houses in the Galilee and Triangle were constructed
in this way, and are threatened with destruction. Many com-
mittees have been formed to study this matter, the latest being
the Kovitch committee which recommended that 4,500 of these
houses be retained, while the rest, located near or on roads,
crossings and state land, be destroyed. Stull, the government
only agreed to grant a few hundred licenses, perpetuating the
problem. Koenig, governor of the northern region, resigned last
March as a result, for he had insisted on all these houses being
destroyed.
In the. Naqab, the Zionist government refuses to grant any
construction licenses since it is seeking to settle the Palestinian
Arabs in special villages so they can serve as a cheap labor force.
The government decided to destroy all unlicensed houses, espe-
cially those in Zubeidat village. However, a committee of the
Interior Ministry, formed to handle the housing problem,
recommended issuing licenses for these houses in return for the
confiscation of 500 dunums of the village land to be annexed to
Kiryat Taoun settlement.
In Jaffa, where the Palestinian Arabs are concentrated in two
quarters, Al Ajami and Jabala, they also suffer from over-
crowding. Here the authorities refuse to grant them licenses for
construction, repair or enlarging their homes, or to buy buil-
dings or apartments. In addition, Jewish residents refuse to
lease to Palestinian Arabs. In the May 22, 1981 edition of the
Israeli daily Haaretz, Ilan Shouri wrote, «The two quarters in
which the Arabs live in Jaffa leave the impression of two
neglected refugee camps. Thousands of residents who seem to
have equal rights in the State of Israel, live there in subhuman
conditions, and in buildings more like stables or archaeological
sites at best. In Jaffa, time stopped 33 years ago.»
The situation in Acca is not different. Here the Palestinians
live behind the old walls of the city, surrounded by Jewish quar-
ters that keep them from expanding with population growth
needs. They live in old houses, about 200 of which were esti-
mated to be on the verge of collapse by Acca township in 1973.
The sunlight cannot penetrate the cracked walls that still don’t
stop the rain from coming in, all of which causes dangers and
diseases. The authorities prevent the Palestinians from repai-
ring, rebuilding or enlarging their houses in an obvious attempt
to drive them to leave for a village or emigrate altogether.
Meanwhile the residents adhere to their homes. The protest
campaigns they have mounted always elicit promises to build an
Arab quarter in Acca, and transform the old city into a tourist
attraction. However, after 12 years nothing has come of these
promises. There are houses to be bought in Acca, but purchase
is conditional on the buyer’s having finished military service,
which excludes the Palestinian Arabs.
Although Palestinian Druze are forced to do military ser-
vice, they suffer the same dilemma. Despite all promises given
by the government to build a special housing quarter, especially
for released soldiers and newly married couples, nothing ever
materialized. This proves beyond the shadow of a doubt the
discrimination practiced against the Palestinian Arabs.
3. FUNDING LOCAL COUNCILS
There are 63 local councils for Palestinian Arabs, of which 17
are in Druze villages. These councils were established in the six-
ties and seventies after continuous struggle on the part of the
Palestinians. The number of Palestinian citizens under the
Jurisdiction of these councils is over 12% higher than the total
number of residents in the jurisdiction of the other local coun-
cils in the Zionist state. However, only 2.3% of the budget for
local councils is allocated to the Palestinian councils by the
Interior Ministry. In 1985, the budget was $1.3 billion. This
means that less than $60 is spent for each Palestinian, whereas
the share of the individual Jew is $300. The Palestinian Arab
councils’ budget is subject to the Zionist regional governor’s
estimations and moods. It covers only a fraction of the needs
and services of the Palestinian towns and villages. While the
Israeli Property Department collects 400 million shekels yearly
in taxes, only 3% of this is transferred to local councils. Reve-
nues from taxes collected by the Palestinian Arab councils
constitute only 16% of their self-acquired income, while the
self-acquired income of the local Jewish councils is 32%, of
which 18% is collected from local taxes imposed by the councils
(1985 census).
This discriminatory policy has led to the accumulation of a
deficit in the local councils’ budget for many years, with no
solution. This deficit reached $17 million in July 1985, and $25
million one year later. Thus, the councils were unable to pay
employees and school teachers for many months, after which
salaries are paid in a lump sum; then things return to as they
were before. Many development projects have been stopped,
and the services provided by the councils have deteriorated.
Employees, teachers and students went on strike scores of times
in 1985-86, to protest these conditions; the citizens at large
declared their solidarity and went on a general strike. The
Regional Committee of Local Arab Council Heads, formed in
1982, negotiated with government officials, but this resulted in
nothing more than bits and pieces of no consequence. (In con-
trast, when the Jewish local councils faced a financial problem
in 1985, the government quickly granted emergency aid totalling
$6 million for each of these councils.)
Members of the local Arab councils, along with the citizens at
large, have repeatedly demonstrated in their towns and villages,
and in front of the Israeli Knesset and the Prime Minister’s
office, shouting: «Oh Peres, oh Rabin, we want bread and
flour... oh Peres, oh Rabin, you made us poor...» The results
17 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 21
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- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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