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Israel's Arabs
to mark Land Day
Israel's Arab population plans to mark the 30th annual Land Day on
Thursday. Marches and ceremonies will take place in Arab villages, towns, and
cities around the country. The central ceremony will take place in Lod at
3:30PM. Land Day is an annual protest by Arab citizens against institutional
discriminatory government policies. These policies were described by the Orr
Commission in its report, and have been acknowledged and adopted by the
government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Land Day is also a commemoration of the bloody confrontations with state
security forces that took place on this day in 1976. Six unarmed Arab citizens
were killed and some 100 injured, when they protested the confiscation of
thousands of dunams of their land by the government. During the central ceremony in Lod, the city's Arab residents will
demonstrate against the recent demolition of homes in a number of
neighborhoods. Often, Arab Israelis build without government permission, which
they say they have trouble receiving. "It's the first time we are commemorating Land Day in a mixed
[Jewish-Arab] city," said Abed Anabtawi, spokesperson of the Higher
Follow-Up Committee of the Arab Citizens of Israel. "It's a symbol of the
suffering of the Arab citizens in mixed cities, especially regarding demolition
of Arab homes. In our opinion [these house demolitions] are a systematic
policy, whose goal is to cleanse Lod of her Palestinian citizens.' Land Day demonstrations go back to events thirty years ago today when
the Israeli government took a decision to confiscate 20,000 dunams of farmland
belonging to Arab Israeli citizens. The land was said to be used for
"security purposes," but was actually used to build new Jewish
settlements and also a military training camp. The decision, taken in March 1976, included a curfew imposed on the
villages of Sakhnin, Arabeh, Der-Hannah, Turhan, Tamra, and Kabul - all in the
lower Galilee - which was to be effective from 5 p.m. on March 29, 1976. The next morning, the Arab citizens organized a general strike as wells
as marches through the Arab towns, from the Galilee to the Negev. The
government sent in the army and police with tanks and heavy artillery who shot
and killed six unarmed citizens. Dozens more were wounded. Today, security forces are on alert but do not interfere in the annual protests.
High-ranking government officials have acknowledged the government's
discrimination of its Arab citizens. In the early 1990s, former prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin expressed his "shame" at the state's treatment of its
Palestinian minority and increased budgets to their communities. Chief of
former prime minister Ehud Barak's staff, Yossi Cucik, apologized in a recent
conference "for the discrimination against them over the years." He
described their living conditions as "disgraceful." Representation of the Arab minority in government jobs is low relative
to their presence in the general population. Between the years 2000-2004, the
government passed bills and made cabinet decisions to improve the situation.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also passed a cabinet decision to raise the number
of Arab members of boards of directors of government companies. Earlier this year, the High Council of Justice told the government that
its long-standing policy of national priority zones, which allocates higher
budgets to communities in the north and south of the country, is discriminatory
and must end or be changed within one year. Out of 500 communities receiving
benefits, only four were Arab, although Arabs have the highest rate of poverty
in the country. A report published in 2000 by Sikkuy - the Association for the
Advancement of Civic Equality - stated that between 1948-1995 the density of
the Arab population living inside Arab communities increased 11-fold. The
constructed areas inside the Arab municipalities have increased 16-fold. Yet
the municipal zones have shrunk 64% in comparison to what was defined the
villages' lands before the establishment of the state." Sikkuy recommended
in 2004 that Israel prepare and implement a 10-year plan to close the discrimination
gaps, specifically in issues of land use to achieve "just land
allocation," according to the Orr Commission's recommendation. "Israel's institutional discrimination against the Arab citizens of
Israel is practically in all walks of life," said Shuli Dichter,
co-Director of Sikkuy. "However, the land issue is particularly acute. The
government must change its attitude and see the Arab citizens as fully equal
citizens of the state who deserve the same as the Jewish citizens. This article can
also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1143498766991&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Copyright 1995-2006 The
Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/ |
