On Tue, 7 Feb 2006, Nathan Newman wrote:
> It's hard to sort through all the counter-information, but here is a page
> from a civil rights group within Israel, which makes it clear that, while
> in practice lots of discrimination occurs, Arab Israelis have the right to
> and have leased state-owned land.
> http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/list.asp?topic=17
Actually, no. The example cited here, of the Kaadan family (Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent) trying to get into Katzir (a Jewish settlement) is the exception that proves the rule: they still aren't in. They've been trying since 1995, and the Israeli Supreme court keeps ruling in their favor -- often ringingly, as in this case -- and then new roadblocks are thrown up. And no matter how ringing their decisions, the Supreme Court never goes beyond saying "they must be allowed." It never order Katzir to issue a lease. The press release you cite here is from September 2004, celebrating another supreme court victory. But attached below is a BBC story from three months later, showing it's the same old story.
If you google Katzir arab land (don't do Kaadan, there's 80 ways to spell it) you'll get a whole series of these articles -- news of court victory followed by news of them still not moved in -- going back to the year 2000. But I still can't find one that says they've moved in -- which I can only assume would have to be considered huge news. If you can find one, I'm all eyes.
So the reason the Kaadan/Katzir case proves the rule is (1) they're the only one trying this, (2) it's basically quixotic and (3) it still hasn't worked.
So no matter what it says on paper, the de facto situation is still that no Palestinian-Israelis have been allowed to lease the 93% of land that is owned by the Jewish Agency.
Michael
===============
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4111915.stm
Last Updated: Thursday, 23 December, 2004, 09:33 GMT
Battling against Israeli 'apartheid'
By Lucy Ash
BBC news, northern Israel
Adel Kaadan is standing by the side of a potholed road surrounded
by puddles of sewage. "Can you smell it now?" he asks. "My children
have to pass this way every day on their way to their classes.
The new security fence runs directly through Baqa al Gharbiyah
"When I took my eldest daughter for her first day at school I saw
that the roof was stuffed with asbestos."
We are walking around Baqa al-Gharbiyah, an Arab town in northern
Israel about an hour's drive from Tel Aviv.
As head nurse at a nearby hospital Mr Kaadan is well aware of the
health risks in his hometown. But it is not just the rubbish, the
asbestos and the sewage - the whole place reeks of neglect.
In one neighbourhood the streets end abruptly with a wall of
concrete and barbed wire - Baqa is sliced in half by Israel's new
security fence.
"There's nothing to do here - no cinemas, no swimming pool, hardly
any sports facilities. So most young people either turn to Islamic
fundamentalism or start taking drugs," says Mr Kaadan.
It is not the kind of place he wants to raise his four daughters,
aged four to 15, so for almost a decade he has been fighting for
the right to move to a Jewish community a few miles away on heavily
subsidised, state-owned land.
His long battle is a protest against what he calls "Israel's
apartheid".
Cosmopolitan suburb
Katzir is a gated suburban paradise, perched on a hilltop. It was
set up in 1982 by the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency as a bulwark
against the surrounding Israeli Arab villages in the valley below.
Adel Kaadan, an Israeli Arab nurse who has been trying to move to a
Jewish neighbourhood for 10 years.
Not everyone in the village is against me. It's the people in power
who are acting like racists
Adel Kaadan
Resident Gila Levy takes me on a tour of the tidy streets and
immaculate gardens filled with brightly coloured flowers.
She boasts that Katzir is a cosmopolitan place and shows me dozens
of new houses built by families from as far afield as Argentina and
the former Soviet Union.
Then she takes me to a spot with breathtaking views.
"On a clear day you can see the Mediterranean and at night you can
see the green lights and hear the calls to prayer from all the
mosques down there," she says.
"I like that. It gives this place a very special atmosphere".
But although Gila is happy to live next to Arabs, she doesn't want
them to share her community. She says many other residents feel the
same way.
'Slap in the face'
Adel Kaadan first heard about Katzir in 1995 after a Hebrew
language newspaper advertised for new residents.
"I went up there to find out more and at first people were friendly
because they knew me from the hospital in Hadera - they were
ex-patients of mine," he says.
"But when they found out that I wanted to buy a plot of land, their
behaviour changed. Some of them became very hostile. It felt like a
slap in the face".
At first the Katzir council simply dismissed Mr Kaadan as "socially
unsuitable".
The Jewish agency in Jerusalem which allocates Jewish land
When pressed on his reasons for opposing the application, Mayor
Yacoov Armor says he doesn't believe that Mr Kaadan or his family
really want to integrate with Jews.
"Why would a Muslim want to observe Jewish holidays or send his
children to our schools? He just wants to destroy our community by
destroying our rules," he says.
Mr Kaadan, a secular Muslim, insists he doesn't mind if his
children observe Jewish customs and holidays so long as they get a
decent education.
At the moment his eldest daughter, Aya, spends three hours a day on
a bus travelling to classes in the coastal city of Haifa.
'Discrimination'
Dana Alexander of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel is
backing Mr Kaadan's case.
She says his battle to move to Katzir is a result of the collective
discrimination that has been going on for decades against Arab
municipalities and villages.
Israeli Arabs lag behind Jews in everything from land allocation to
education and employment prospects.
Baqa al-Gharbiyah The streets of Baqa al-Gharbiyah are strewn with
rubbish
But in 2000 the Supreme Court ruled that the Israeli Land
Authority, which leased land to the Jewish Agency to establish
Katzir as a Jewish-only community, had acted illegally.
The authority did nothing hoping Mr Kaadan would just go away but
after he filed for contempt of court, it finally caved in. This May
it granted him his plot of land at 1995 prices - about $15,000
rather than $100,000.
Dana Alexander calls this "a landmark ruling which proves that all
citizens should enjoy equal rights in a democratic Jewish state".
Foot dragging
But the battle is not over. Earlier this month some members of the
Knesset tried to introduce a new bill which would circumvent the
Supreme Court verdict and once again allow for exclusively Jewish
communities on state land.
The bill was narrowly defeated and the former Justice Minister
Tommy Lapid said he opposed it because "it smelled of apartheid".
So on paper Mr Kaadan remains the winner. In practice though
bureaucrats are dragging their feet. There is still no lease and he
hasn't started building his house.
He is now negotiating with Katzir's economic co-operation council
on an additional development tax - that sounds like yet another
delaying tactic.
So does Mr Kaadan really want to take his family to a place where
it seems they aren't welcome?
"Not everyone in the village is against me," he says. "It's the
people in power who are acting like racists. I will move there and
my house will be open to both Jews and Arabs. It will be a model of
co-existence.
"Who knows? One day I might even become the mayor."