An intervention by The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning (ACAP) has prompted the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) to cancel a tender for marketing plots of land for independent construction in the Givat Makosh neighborhood of Carmiel. The land, owned by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and managed by the ILA, was being marketed in a manner that targets Jews only. The two organizations called on the ILA to refrain from leasing or marketing land on the basis of the tender until a court decision is reached on their petition to the High Court of Justice. The petition, which challenges the discriminatory marketing of JNF land was submitted to the Court in 2004 and is still pending and undecided. Both the request to the ILA and the court petition were submitted by ACRI Atty. Auni Banna, on behalf of ACRI and ACAP.
After the petition against the ILA and the JNF was filed with the Court, the ILA announced that it would cancel all its tenders, both new and existing, for the marketing of JNF land in northern Israel and the Galilee region. The suspension of these tenders was to continue until the High Court`s deliberation of the petition (scheduled for late May, 2007). Despite their commitment, the ILA and the JNF recently published a new tender for the leasing of 13 plots for independent construction in Carmiel`s Givat Makosh neighborhood. Among the conditions noted in the tender was the following: “The land in question is owned by the Jewish National Fund and comes under the terms of the agreement between the state of Israel and the JNF…” This is a condition that designates the land for Jews only and prevents Arab citizens from participating in the tender. It should be noted that this is not the first tender for the Givat Makosh neighborhood that discriminates against the Arab population; an earlier tender was cancelled following an administrative petition filed by ACRI and ACAP.
In the pending petition before the High Court of Justice, the two organizations claim that the right to equality, guaranteed by law, prohibits the ILA from instituting a policy that designates land for Jews only. This policy, stresses Atty. Banna, constitutes discrimination on the basis of nationality, and it compounds the already harsh discrimination suffered by Arab citizens in the area of land and housing. This discrimination is expressed by the policy of expropriating land from its Arab owners and transferring it, in effect, for the collective use of Jews alone; by narrowing the jurisdictional borders of Arab towns; by the absence of government housing programs in Arab regions; and by the refusal of the state to recognize existing Bedouin villages at the same time as it establishes new communities and neighborhoods for Jewish citizens only.
Deliberation on the petition (HCJ 9010/04), and on two other petitions filed by Adalah and other organizations concerning the same issue, is scheduled for May 30, 2007.
last updated : 21/05/07
