Last update - 01:19 15/08/2003
A war of bricks and mortar fire
Beside the single mothers, the Bedouin have set up a tent in Jerusalem to protest demolitions of their homes, which they see as the first stage of Sharon's transfer plan
By Yair Ettinger
Far away in the peripheries, the government has been waging an uncompromising war against many hundreds of its citizens. "This is the 11th hour," warned Construction Minister Effi Eitam, referring to what he calls Israeli Arabs' "construction Jihad." Recently, on the orders of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, officials from the government and the local authorities, equipped with bulldozers and accompanied by hundreds of policemen, have been going out to areas of predominantly Arab communities. On Monday, seven homes in Bedouin settlements in the Negev were demolished, taking the number of homes razed in the Negev to 117 since the start of 2003. This compares to 113 in the whole of 2002. Dozens more Arab-owned homes have been demolished in other areas, particularly the mixed Jewish-Arab towns of Ramle, Jaffa and Lod.
In the aftermath of October 2000, the government refrained from demolishing homes, fearing a violent backlash. In the run-up to the 2003 elections, the authorities began to demolish homes again, and now sources close to Sharon are speaking of an all-out war. "Our campaign to demolish illegal edifices is gaining momentum," they say with satisfaction. "The prime minister is following developments personally. Unfortunately, house demolition is not being carried out to the extent we would like, because of legal restrictions, so the war is currently focusing on deterrence, to try and limit the phenomenon."
It is far from clear whether the enemy in this war is being deterred. On the day the Negev homes were demolished, their occupants vowed that they would be rebuilt, and said that the groundwork had already begun. Hundreds of Bedouin promised to demonstrate, which they did, with the help of the local welfare committees and various voluntary political organizations, such as Taayush. But, unlike the past, Sharon's current campaign against illegal construction is being interpreted by leaders of the Arab public not just as a discriminatory policy, but as the first stage of a transfer plan. The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee called this week for their struggle to be intensified, in light of "the start of the implementation of Sharon's colonialist plan for the Judaization of the Negev and the Galilee."
So far, the Arab citizens whose homes have been demolished take up just one tent at the protest camp in the government complex in Jerusalem. Last month, they set up the Headquarters for the Campaign for Bedouin Rights, marched from their homes to the capital and set up camp next to the protesting single mothers. On the sidewalk, opposite the Prime Minister's Office, Vicki Knafo's tent still attracts the occasional television camera or reporter. The Bedouin protestors are convinced that their tent, with posters reading "Down with discrimination, down with racism," will attract its fair share of attention. Last week, a group of Arab citizens from Lod, Ramle and the Triangle made a solidarity visit, and two days ago there was a mass demonstration of Arab citizens against house demolitions.
"It's hardest for the Bedouin," says Salama al-Atrash, head of the campaign. "People still live with the feeling that they live under a military regime, and they are afraid to come out and protest."
In an interview last week with Ma'ariv, Eitam vowed to deal with the "anarchy," which he said includes 60,000 illegal homes in the Negev and another 40,000 in the Galilee, all of which he said were constructed for "nationalistic" motives. Al-Atrash, a reservist captain whose home was demolished several months ago, read every word with concern. Two days after publication of the interview, Al-Atrash was surprised to see Eitam's ministerial car pull up outside his protest tent.
"He came into the tent and asked `Didn't you serve under me in the army?'" says Al-Atrash. "I told him I did, and spoke for a while about the time we spent together in Lebanon. After that, he started to ask about our protest tent, and, when I told him that my home had been demolished, he said `It is not acceptable that the state demolished houses and does not provide an alternative solution.' He asked if the homes of currently-serving Bedouin scouts are also demolished, and asked me to write to him, spelling out our problems. He said that he wants to meet with us. I told him irrespective of army service, the state has a duty to look after its citizens, and he agreed."
Illegal houses are being built in every Arab settlement in the country. Given the fact that Arabs make up 18 percent of the population, but only own 3.5 percent of the privately owned land, that there is no overall construction plan for Arab towns and that no building permits are being issued, many Israeli Arab leaders are convinced the only solution is to break the law.
"If anybody has an interest that the buildings are legal, it is us," says Maha a-Naqib, an activist with Shatil, whose family rebuilt its Lod home after it was demolished five years ago. "Some people believe that the Arabs in Lod or the Negev build illegal housing because it is financially rewarding. No one can begin to imagine what it feels like to sleep in a house that is under a demolition order. Anyone with a little intelligence can see that it is preferable to pay NIS 60,000 or NIS 70,000 to get a proper permit, rather than spend every night worrying. It takes all the joy out of life."
For the unrecognized Bedouin settlements in the Negev, the problem is even more complex: The state sees the 65,000 residents as trespassers, does not allow any permanent construction and has not connected them to the water or electricity grids. Instead, Israel is planning to promote a controversial program to establish several permanent new towns in the Negev and to encourage scores of Bedouin to move there. As part of the plan, which has a budget of NIS 1.1 billion, police and prosecution forces have been beefed up in the Negev. Since the start of 2003, 933 charges have been brought against Bedouin for planning violations - almost three times the total number of charges in 2002.
Last week, Al-Atrash and his colleagues met with Trade and Industry Minister Ehud Olmert, who is responsible for implementing the Bedouin development plan. They left the meeting disappointed. "We tried to tell him that we cannot build legally, since there is no appropriate planning," says Al-Atrash, "but he told us we should be grateful that just 110 homes have been razed, that we should accept Sharon's plan and that the prime minister himself is pushing for more demolitions. He also said he is aware of the fact that there could be violent protests over house demolitions, but that the Bedouin would be the losers in any such confrontation."
Liat Gur, a member of the Mixed Towns Projects, tells of one Lod family - 10 people, parents and children - who were "simply thrown out into the street. No one took responsibility for them or considered the fact that the kids do not have school. They were at home to watch the bulldozers destroying their home. What are children like this supposed to feel towards the state?"
In an open field in Ramle, close to Ma'asiyahu Prison, a new neighborhood, Park Aviv, is under construction. The houses in the new neighborhood will be adjacent to a handful of houses on Lachish Street, whose residents are Arabs. At the edge of a field, in a ramshackle dwelling, Nasser al-Wahidi lives with his family. Opposite their home is a large lot, with heaps of dirt and twisted iron - all that remains of what was once the family's home.
"One day I was awoken by a knock on the door," says Al-Wahidi, "There were three police officers at the door, who said they had come to demolish my home. My oldest son was at work and my three grandchildren had already left for school. So they pulled my wife, my daughter-in-law and my younger son out of the house. Outside, police had already conquered the whole place, with dozens, if not hundreds, of officers. There was a helicopter hovering overhead. We were told to sit in chairs far from the house."
"We started to empty the house," he went on. "I told them that we had money stashed inside that we had to get out, but they wouldn't let us. When they refused to let my son's daughter go back in to get her money, she started screaming, so some policewomen took her and handcuffed her to a chair. After they had demolished the house, my grandchildren came home from school and saw what had happened to their home. They cried so much that some of the policewomen were also moved to tears."
In the neighboring town of Lod, house demolitions are closely monitored by the prime minister, who personally ordered a rescue plan for the city some 10 months ago, including land allocation for building, the construction of a community center and a college, balancing the municipal budget and "enforcing construction and planning laws." In the office of the PM, who last week met with Lod mayor Benny Regev, and plans to visit the town soon, they say that implementation of the plan is dependent on how quickly illegal construction is torn down.
The Lod Municipality vowed this week that Regev will stick with his policy of evenhandedly uprooting every illegal building in the city, whether it is owned by Jews or Arabs." One Lod spokesman confirmed that "it is true that to a certain extent the Arab sector does not have alternative dwellings, but that does not mean that citizens can do whatever they feel like doing."
