On January 22nd, the first ever “Planning for Growth” conference was held by the Planning Commission of the Ministry of Interior, bringing together government, civil society and private sector leaders to create solutions for housing and infrastructure shortages in Arab communities.
Housing and zoning issues are among the most serious problems faced by Israel’s Arab society. Though Arabs constitute nearly 21% of the population, many Arab localities do not have authorized zoning and development plans. Only around 3% of all private land in Israel is owned by Arab citizens and only 2-3% of all industrial areas in Israel are located in Arab localities. (See more in the Task Force Fact Sheets on Housing and Land and Planning.)
Lack of housing limits the mobility of young families and contributes to very high population densities in Arab localities. Shortage of commercial infrastructure is recognized as a major cause of revenue disparities between Arab and Jewish municipalities. A recent report by Israeli NGO’s Sikkuy and INJAZ, “From Deficits and Dependence to Balanced Budgets and Independence,” identifies this disparity as a direct consequence of state policy.
In Arab villages, most land is privately-owned and is traditionally passed down from father to son, not developed or sold to outsiders or for commercial purposes. Moreover, most Arab villages also lack proper zoning, making any construction process involving outside developers time-consuming and complicated.
At the conference, Planning Commission leadership asked what the government can do to encourage construction in Arab towns and encourage private landowners to develop their land. Responses focused on how to remove the various state, municipal and cutural barriers to advancing Master plans in Arab towns, Minister of Interior, Gilad Erdan, said that the ministry is open to discuss the existing boundaries of jurisdiction areas of Arab towns, which is considered a very charged issue between Arab society and the State. In addition, he said that the ministry is advancing a more equitable re-distribution of city tax received from industrial zones.
Among the conference presenters were the Minister of Interior, Gilad Erdan, the Ministry’s Director General, Dr. Shuki Amrani, Mayor of Sakhnin and head of the Arab Local Authorities Committee, Mr. Mazen Ganayem, Mayor of Sajour and head of the Druze Local Authorities Forum, Mr. Jaber Hamud, Head of the Authority for the Economic Development of the Minorities Sector, Mr. Aiman Saif and Director General of the Ministry of Construction, Mr. Ben Eliyahu and head of budgeting in the ministry of Finance, Mr. Amir Levi, and Dr. Binat Schwartz, Head of the Planning Commission.