Though no one expects the recently approved 2009 budget to take effect without major changes - both because "that's how it generally works," and also because a new government is expected to take office in the coming months - some of its clauses are particularly noteworthy. For instance: the closure of the police unit overseeing the destruction of illegal housing.
Though it is widely accepted that the problem of illegal housing is a national plague, the police unit charged with enforcing illegal housing demolitions appears to be simply incapable of doing the job.
The unit commands a 26-million shekel annual budget, but it has succeeded in taking down only a fraction of the illegal structures built - mainly by Arabs - across the country. Some 2,100 such structures stand in Jerusalem, in addition to approximately 40,000 illegal Arab houses in eastern Jerusalem - many of them on land owned by the Jewish National Fund.
In addition, nearly 50,000 illegal houses are reported in the Negev, where illegal Bedouin construction is rampant, as well as over 14,000 in northern Israel, more than 18,000 in central Israel, and 600 in Tel Aviv. Of these, demolition orders have been served on only 1,100 of them - and many of these have not been carried out.
New Authority Under Consideration
The Finance and Interior Ministries are currently considering a proposal to establish a National Illegal Housing Authority to deal with the problem.