After many years during which the Planning and Building Law was enforced by different bodies and, in effect, barely enforced at all, there are now officials at the interior and justice ministries calling for a firm stand against construction violations. During the past year, serious steps have also been taken to destroy illegal buildings. Enforcement has been stepped up, but these are still initial and partial measures.

The planning authorities and Interior Ministry have begun taking consistent action against illegal activities in agricultural areas where wedding receptions are held, many of which are set up without permits. About half a year ago, the Pardes reception area in Emek Hefer was pulled down because it was built on agricultural land. The reception area was on a 4,300 square meter site and had a 7,500 square meter parking lot.

Inspectors from the interior ministry have destroyed several illegal fences around beaches on Lake Kinneret in the past few months. In addition, court action is continuing against illegal building on the shores of the lake, including construction by Aharon Rosenzweig, who operated the Kursi shore on behalf of the Golan regional council. Rosenzweig asked the Nazareth District Court to postpone the date of the order to bring down the building, but his request was rejected a few weeks ago.

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In a response to the court following Rosenzweig's request, the northern district of the state prosecution described the situation on the shores of the Kinneret: "The phenomenon of law infringement along the Kinneret is expressed in grabbing land, illegally drying parts of this land, building commercial compounds without permits, fencing off parts of the shore, collecting fees from the public illegally, various uses of the land that are not in keeping with their designation, and more."

According to the prosecution, in the past few years law enforcement has been strengthened, and in this framework the beaches were mapped, the priorities for dealing with matters were defined, and dozens of indictments were submitted against people who operated beaches illegally. In its response, the prosecution wrote: "Despite the relatively short time that has elapsed since this policy was implemented, and despite the budgetary restrictions of the unit which inspects construction, there is already a certain improvement in the way in which the beaches are being run on the shores of the Kinneret as a result of this activity and of the verdicts in which orders were given to destroy [illegal building]."

With reference to Rosenzweig, the prosecution pointed out that he has no permit or contractual arrangement with the Israel Lands Authority to operate the Kursi beach. He started off as the operator of a 20-meter kiosk, and for several years there were legal proceedings against him for illegal building. While these proceedings were continuing, he continued to expand his businesses on the shore without permits. Today he has a restaurant, parking lot, an area where events can take place and bungalows.

The attempts to enforce the planning and building law are still in the initial stages and a great deal of work still faces the interior and justice ministries. According to the 2006 Report on Environmental Poverty published a few weeks ago by Adam, Teva V'Din - the Israel Union for Environmental Defense - "the regulations of the planning and building law in Israel have to a large extent begun to resemble regulations for good manners. Those who do not care simply do not abide by them."

One of the authorities most involved in illegal building is the Hof Hasharon regional council, within whose jurisdiction the commercial compounds of Kibbutz Shefayim and Kibbutz Ga'ash operate. The poverty report devotes a special section to it.

The report notes that a year has gone by since the state comptroller published his scathing report about the widespread infringements of the planning and building law on the Sharon shoreline, but the violations continue and the money is pouring into the pockets of those who do not abide by the law. One of the examples to which Adam, Teva, V'Din point is the "Hutsot Shefayim" compound where the commercial areas go far beyond the boundaries permitted by the planning authorities. "This is an intolerable phenomenon, first and foremost because the law makes it possible to take swift and decisive action in cases like these," the report says. "All that is needed is to issue a legal injunction making it possible for the court to immediately order a halt to the building or the illegal usage, without having to wait for years until the trial of the violators is completed."

Half a year ago, the central region's committee for planning and building concluded that it had to employ special means to deal with the Hof Hasharon local planning and building committee. At a meeting a month ago, the district committee decided that the local committee of Hof Hasharon would no longer discuss the permits for building on agricultural land near residential areas on the moshavim or in the kibbutzim's residential areas until it received a written recommendation on its stance from the regional committee.

The state has a great deal of difficulty dealing with the widespread problem of illegal building in Arab communities, unrecognized Bedouin villages and Arab neighborhoods in mixed cities such as Lod and Ramle. In these two towns alone there are many hundreds of illegal buildings that are under the threat of destruction since they were built without permits.

The problem of illegal building in Arab and Bedouin communities is different to a large extent from the problems in the Jewish sector. In almost all the cases, there is a total lack of overall planning, which the Interior Ministry has begun addressing only in the last few years. Another reason is the inability to solve issues of ownership of the land between the state and the Arab and Bedouin residents who claim to have legal possession of the land. They present documents whose validity the state does not recognize. To this must be added the problems of the Arab communities in which residents refuse to change the nature of planning to make it possible to have more housing units, or where residents are not prepared to cede private land even for compensation so that infrastructure can be built which will ensure the orderly development of the village.

The progress that has been made toward arranging the planning and building sphere in the Arab and Bedouin communities is sparse, and to a large extent lags behind the expanding rate of unauthorized building. This gap increases the state's attempts to enforce the law by carrying out orders to destroy illegal buildings. But it feeds the frustration of residents who feel that justified claims have not been addressed. One of the surprising scenes that reflect this is the train neighborhood (Shechunat Harakevet) in Lod. Giant rocks have been placed in one of the open fields in the neighborhood to prevent the residents from building illegally.

Recently, several attempts have been made to change the situation by planning Bedouin villages in the Negev and turning them into legal villages, making it possible to build additional and orderly housing units. Meanwhile, there are still destruction orders hovering over the residents of the Arab neighborhoods. On the other hand, plans have been pushed forward to establish "a quality neighborhood for the national religious public" in Lod, in effect meant for Jews only, and these were initiated by the Housing Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office.