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STATEMENT OF "THE ASSOCIATION OF FORTY"
IN THE U.N. - NOVEMBER 2000
The
Mixed Cities
The Arab inhabitants of the mixed cities undergo many housing difficulties
and crises. The hard housing conditions of the Arabs in these cities
are increasing, and this mirrors the official policy practised by
the government and by the Jewish municipalities towards these Arab
neighbourhoods, in order to oblige the Arabs to give in and abandon
their houses, and leave their residential areas. Over the past few
years, no positive change has been effected on the conditions of the
mixed cities; on the contrary, the government has kept up the siege
on the Arab citizens through demolishing and evicting additional houses;
at the end of 1999 two houses were demolished in Lod and over a month
ago three families were evicted from Haifa, allegedly because the
houses are about to fall apart, while offering no alternative.
In Wadi Nisnas and Halisa and in the downtown of Haifa, the houses
constitute a danger for the inhabitants, and many accidents have occurred
over the last few years as houses fell on the inhabitants. The municipality
of Haifa and the housing companies follow a policy of not contributing
towards reconstructing these houses; on the contrary, they deliberately
ignore this issue to exacerbate it so that the inhabitants find themselves
obliged to leave their homes.
This problem is getting more complicated day after day to a point
where it becomes very difficult for an Arab family to find an alternative
house in these circumstances, as well as a result of the latest Russian
immigration to Israel, either because of the high prices of houses
or for racist reasons, as many owners of houses refuse to either rent
or sell them to Arabs.
In the report of the housing companies in 1997, it was announced that
the Arabs in Haifa are in immediate need of 2,850 apartments as a
preliminary solution to their crisis, and that 600 houses in the Arab
neighbourhoods are closed down, allegedly because they are dangerous
or because they have cracks.
It is worth indicating that 67% of the houses inhabited by Arabs in
the mixed cities are owned by the government, after the ownership
was snatched from the hands of the Palestinian owners in 1948, who
have become sheltered tenants in their houses for what is known as
'key money', and according to this law the government owns what remains
of these houses and turns them into housing apartments for Jewish
immigrants.
Besides the appalling housing conditions, the Arab citizens in the
mixed cities suffer from boycott by the Jews over the last two months
as a result of the inciting policy of the government against the Arab
citizens, and as a result of treating them as enemies of the state.
Moreover, they suffer also from excessive unemployment, which in Lod
only reaches 12%.
The crisis of the Arabs in the mixed cities has led to huge deterioration
amongst the Arab youth socially and educationally, and the rate of
drug addicts and dropouts has increased over the last few years, especially
as there are no educational institutions or non-curricular educational
frameworks for raising their awareness.
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