Some 50,000 Palestinian homes in Israel are under threat of demolition. The Israeli government is not addressing the serious housing crisis among the Arab population, activists and politicians say.
Photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org
Several thousand Palestinian citizens of Israel held a demonstration in the center of Tel Aviv Tuesday evening, demanding an end to home demolitions that overwhelmingly target Arab citizens.
The demonstration coincided with a one-day general strike among the Palestinian population in Israel, called for by the Higher Monitoring Committee, a group that historically mobilizes the community politically.
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Higher Monitoring Committee representative Jarayis Matar accused the government of failing to find solutions to the acute housing crisis in Arab locales, instead escalating home demolitions.
“Take for example that in 2014 the Israel Land Administration issued tenders for 38,261 housing units in Jewish municipalities compared to only 1,844 units in Arab cities,” noted Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh.
Only 41 out of 139 Arab municipalities have updated master plans, Odeh added, “700 Jewish towns have been built since 1948 and in the Center and the North not one Arab city.”
“There are 50,000 Arab homes under the threat of demolition as a result of this policy that forces people to build without permits,” Odeh said.
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