Report: 136 Towns And Villages In 1948 Palestine Face Racist Policies

Al-Quds, 20 Jumadil Akhir 1437/30 March 2016 (MINA) – The Adalah Center listed in a report on Wednesday, prepared on the occasion of Land Day, the Israeli government tenders issued by the so-called Israel Land Authority and the Ministry of Construction and Housing in 2015.

The report showed that the continuation and escalation of the Israeli racist policies directly result in worsening the land and housing crisis in the Palestinian villages and cities within 1948 occupied Palestine, The Palestinian Information Center (PIC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

According to the report prepared by lawyer Mohammed Bassam, “the examination of the government tenders confirms that the vast majority of tenders of marketing land and efforts to reduce housing prices are allocated for Jewish or mixed communities, while no efforts are made to solve the housing crisis in 136 Arab villages and cities in which lives 91% of the Palestinian community in the occupied territories of 1948.”

Data published by Adalah in its report show that only 4.6% of the settlement units which the Israel Land Authority marketed in 2015, was dedicated to Arab communities which population is about 20% of the total population, while the authority marketed 38,095 housing units in the Jewish and mixed communities, but marketed only 1,835 housing units in Arab towns and villages.

Adalah report mentioned the rural towns listed in the “national preference” list which includes towns deserving a government subsidy of 20% to 70% of the budget of the development of new buildings. The list contains only 30 Arab villages out of 558 villages (i.e. the proportion is only 5%), while in practice, not all the towns listed get this support. In 2015, 363 rural towns got this support, only three of which are Arab villages, which constitutes 0.8% only.

The Adalah report stressed that the housing crisis in the Arab towns and villages is the result of a systematic policy which sees, since the establishment of Israel until today, the Arab society as an outsider and hostile society that contrasts fundamentally with the Zionist ideology of the Judaization of land.

The report suggests that, “Solutions to the housing crisis in the Palestinian community within the occupied territories in 1948 cannot be fair or effective without amending the continuing historical injustice against the Palestinian people.”(T/P008/R07)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)