Last update - 00:00 19/03/2008
Arabs, Jews in Sakhnin Valley strive to counter legacy of strife
By Jack Khoury
Seventy Arab and Jewish community leaders and residents met last weekend to promote a plan to turn the scenic Sakhnin Valley, studded with Mount Tabor oaks, into a model of intercommunal cooperation rather than strife.
"The idea is to turn the valley into a really attractive area and encourage area landowners to begin projects like raising spice plants and other things of interest," other than the olive harvest, said Hsein Tarbia, director of the Beit Netofa Municipal Association for the Environment.
The Abraham fund, which advances coexistence and equality among Jews and Arabs in Israel, is also behind the new initiative which is supported by the Environment Ministry as well.
"We propose a different planning concept that will meet everyone's needs."
The move comes as Arabs in Israel get ready to mark the events of March 30, 1976, when Land Day protests spiraled into violence and six Arab citizens were killed.
Evidence of the initiative can already be seen: Groups of area women take weekly walks on a trail across the valley. A cycling trail is in the approval pipeline and a long trail through the valley along Nahal Hilazon is also in the works, as are horse and jeep trails.
The Municipal Association for the Environment is working on rehabilitating the valley's sewage disposal by diverting sewage to the purification plant in nearby Carmiel. Garbage removal is being funded by the Environmental Protection Ministry.
At last weekend's meeting, planning-team members Eitan Rosenberg and Hannah Livneh from the Segev region near Sakhnin presented ideas to allow the valley's farmers to earn a respectable living from their land, while allowing area residents to enjoy the landscape, nature and sports.
According to the newly elected chairman of the Segev Regional Council, Ron Shani, "what is important is that the idea and the planning came from the grass roots, out of cooperation, and not from above. It is based on the needs of the local people and not lines on a map."
Sakhnin's mayor, Mohammed Bashir, said, "We have to live together, and the whole concept of ruling by force and dictating to others has failed. Therefore a shared life based on full equality is the solution to every conflict." On March 30, 1976, Arabs protested the expropriation of some 20,000 dunams (5,000 acres) of land near the Galilee villages of Sakhnin, Deir Hanna and Arabeh. The idea had been to increase the Jewish presence in the area.
In the 1980s, the government reversed the expropriation order, and much of the area is under cultivation, albeit mainly olive groves due to a lack of modern agricultural infrastructure. Some of the open areas, however, have become illegal garbage dumps.