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Last update - 10:10 31/03/2008 Backs to the demolished wall By Hanna Swaid Tags: Israel Protest tents against the demolition of houses have recently become part of the landscape surrounding Arab communities and Arab neighborhoods in mixed cities. In the Negev, it appears the planning and building authorities have been mainly demolishing houses in unrecognized Arab communities instead of planning and building. In Lod, seven homes of Arab families were demolished recently (in the Ta'ayush neighborhood, whose name means "coexistence"). In Tira, Kalansua and most of the communities in Wadi Ara (Nahal Iron) and the Galilee, public committees are fighting the authorities' plans to demolish houses and buildings put up over the years without building permits. The authorities are conducting the campaign to demolish houses, which is accompanied by very heavy fines on their owners, in the name of the rule of law. But as long as the rule of law works in a selective way, it becomes an instrument of discrimination and revenge. It is right that Arab citizens, who suffer from a housing shortage and a dearth of legal building solutions, are wondering: What about the construction in the Jewish settlements in the territories, in the outposts and the Jewish agricultural sector, where illegal construction for business purposes is flourishing? The only difference is that in those places there are politically connected local authorities and lobbies that ensure illegal construction or the turning of a blind eye. The lack of proper housing and planning has developed in the Arab communities over decades and has reached the current proportions because of institutionalized failures and neglect. Until the mid-1990s, there were hardly any adequate building plans, if at all, for most Arab communities, even though the Interior Ministry was directly responsible for planning in them through the regional planning commissions it appointed and managed for them. Advertisement In the meantime, needs only increased because of the population's natural growth, and with them the need to develop and renew the urban structure of the Arab communities that for the most part had started out as casbahs and developed into mega-villages. There are hardly any instances of prior planning in Arab communities. Instead, the method has been to authorize sporadic building retrospectively. A planning project in dozens of Arab communities that the Interior Ministry initiated about a decade ago, in cooperation with other government ministries, has not yet borne fruit because of bureaucratic problems, a lack of budgets and the limitation of the public and local councils' participation in the steering and planning processes. No wonder that in a situation where the authorities are prohibiting and restricting nearly everything, behavior develops in which nearly everything is considered permissible, sometimes to the distress of the communities' leaders themselves. The court system, too, is responsible for the frustration and anger among Arab citizens because of the way the state deals with the problem. It imposes, at the request of the enforcement authorities, heavy and disproportionate punishments on those convicted of illegal building while ignoring almost entirely the authorities' responsibility for the problem and their failure to satisfy building and development needs, which is required of them by law. A situation has thus emerged in which the planning authorities pursue their aggressive policy in the name of the rule of law but sweep under the rug the market failure they have created themselves. The vast majority of buildings in Arab communities under the threat of demolition are residences and not shopping centers or structures for industry and trade. The need for a roof over one's head is an elementary human need, where one cannot compromise. The solution to the current distress comes in two stages. First, suspending the house demolitions that have been gathering momentum of late, and carrying out the necessary planning, and second, expanding the approved building zones in the communities, in an accelerated procedure, by 20 percent of the existing area. It is clear that on this issue the Arab population, in all its variety, feels it is standing with its back to the wall, united in an existential defense and protest against the continuing discrimination against it. It is neither wise nor responsible to allow the tension to explode and develop into a major confrontation, when the solutions are at hand. The writer a Hadash MK and urban planning expert. Bookmark to del.icio.us   The gift of dignity T.A. charity provides female drug addicts with shower, meal and counseling. Sign of life Hamas leader says Gilad Shalit is still alive after two years in captivity.   1.   Not just Arab homes 11:19  |  William 31/03/08   2.   F.. the arab extorsionists expecting everythin`s allowed for them 11:20  |  Absolute Sweden 31/03/08   3.   no overall control or planning in israel 11:43  |  v hardman 31/03/08   4.   H.Swaid.Explosions led to demolition of homes.Remember? 12:26  |  PETER SM 31/03/08   5.   About time 12:31  |  Dror 31/03/08   6.   market failure? 12:38  |  Dror 31/03/08   7.   Take responsibility 12:38  |  Seth J. Frantzman 31/03/08   8.   Wanted: Bionic eye for unrecognized villages! 12:42  |  sh 31/03/08   9.   query 12:46  |  potobac 31/03/08   10.   This is chilling 13:25  |  Edith 31/03/08   11.   #8 SH and the missing factor of practicallity 13:36  |  v hardman 31/03/08   12.   The odor of "Ethnic Cleansing" 13:43  |  Mark Lincoln 31/03/08   13.   People build homes without permits? 14:02  |  Lynn 31/03/08   14.   M.LINCOLN congratulations. 14:24  |  PETER SM 31/03/08   15.   jews build 14:36  |  rm 31/03/08   16.   jews build 14:36  |  rm 31/03/08   17.   The Israeli Arabs are ?Palestinians?. 15:00  |  Jean Van Daem 31/03/08   18.   The Israeli Arabs are ?Palestinians?. 15:00  |  Jean Van Daem 31/03/08   19.   Lynn and building without permits 15:00  |  sh 31/03/08   20.   israel`s legal system is discriminatory towards Arabs because the 15:02  |  lakshmi 31/03/08   21.   #14 PETER SM, you remind me of someone... 15:15  |  Johnboy 31/03/08   22.   jewish have it harder 15:22  |  miriam 31/03/08   23.   John the boy,dumber than his students (#21) 15:45  |  Hastaroth 31/03/08   24.   # 19 sh.....Sounds as if there is a major 15:48  |  Lynn 31/03/08   25.   Something should be done 16:17  |  Tamara 31/03/08   26.   #24 no lynn generally not at all 17:32  |  v hardman 31/03/08   27.   Lakhshmi 17:34  |  likesorder 31/03/08   28.   Now I see 17:46  |  hollingsworth 31/03/08   29.   Lynn that`s what generally happens here too 19:08  |  x-ray 31/03/08   30.   I see the resident anti-Israeli crowd supports illegal building 19:35  |  Gee 31/03/08   31.   # 26 vik and # 29 x-ray.....I`ve seen a couple of 19:43  |  Lynn 31/03/08   32.   the law must be enforced 100% for public good 19:49  |  zionist forever 31/03/08   33.   Gee it is their land 19:49  |  Marilyn 31/03/08   34.   What a joke-in the name of the rule of law 20:22  |  Dutch 31/03/08   35.   "Absolute Sweden" an embarrassment 20:24  |  Roger 31/03/08   36.   Eventually, the Israeli Arabs 20:58  |  Benjamin Netanyahu 31/03/08   37.   israel arabs want no more israel 21:08  |  andy 31/03/08   38.   zionist forever 21:48  |  hollingsworth 31/03/08   39.   To Roger 22:13  |  Harald Haaretssen 31/03/08   40.   If enforcing LAW is... 22:27  |  Afflalo 31/03/08   41.   # 33 Marilyn...not all of it is their land 22:40  |  Lynn 31/03/08   42.   Marilyn #34 22:50  |  Gee 31/03/08   43.   # 35 roger 23:30  |  Axel 31/03/08   44.   # 40 afflalo 23:40  |  Axel 31/03/08   45.   # 42 gee 23:43  |  Axel 31/03/08   46.   #12 Correct, but that`s to put it very mildly 00:09  |  Mohamed Malleck 01/04/08   47.   Apartheid Israel is at it again 00:10  |  Joe 01/04/08   48.   TO NO 13 LYN 01:39  |  DANNY. 01/04/08   49.   #23 Oh, I understand Hastaroth 01:46  |  Johnboy 01/04/08   50.   Well now Lynn #41 01:56  |  Roo 01/04/08   51.   Lakshmi #20- Israeli laws more fair than you think 02:28  |  William 01/04/08   52.   Marilyn#33 - ignorant of Israeli law 02:33  |  William 01/04/08   53.   Joe#47 - wave the Pal flag, call for death of Israel... 02:42  |  William 01/04/08   54.   JOHNBOY.It looks like what happens if you build illegally in Aust 02:45  |  PETER SM 01/04/08   55.   Mohamed Malleck 02:48  |  Mark Lincoln 01/04/08   56.   William - the issue of `the law" 02:50  |  Mark Lincoln 01/04/08   57.   Transfer 03:24  |  Ron 01/04/08   58.   POTOBAC In fact illegal Jewish housing HAS been pullled down 03:41  |  PETER SM 01/04/08   59.   #54 And if the Aust Govt granted permits by RACE? 03:42  |  Johnboy 01/04/08   60.   # 50 Roo...."well I never" 03:48  |  Lynn 01/04/08   61.   WHAT ABOUT THE JEWISH GAZA REFUGEES? 03:49  |  PalestniansAreA Myth 01/04/08   62.   Let them build in Jordan,or on the sands of Arabia. 04:39  |  YSL 01/04/08   63.   MK Swain is writing a sound article that deserves respect. 04:46  |  Fortuna Benmayor 01/04/08   64.   For A Change, I agree with the Israel bashers 05:01  |  Slibovitz 01/04/08   65.   What BS is "in the name of the rule of law" 05:14  |  betz55 01/04/08   66.   #55 Mark Lincoln 05:15  |  Oetis 01/04/08   67.   #64 Slibovitz 06:08  |  Oetis 01/04/08   68.   M.LINCOLN.Ethnic cleansing .Encarta dictionary definition.-- 07:11  |  PETER SM 01/04/08   69.   Another case of Arab MKs needing to apply more pressure 08:14  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 01/04/08   70.   Mr.Wild(ers) how about to make a film about demolition of ... 08:58  |  Roxana from IRAN 01/04/08   71.   Mass removal of populations 09:18  |  lily 01/04/08   72.