While the Israeli and world media focused on the Sharon government's defeat in the recent Knesset budget vote (69 to 43), another vote took place that same day, with significant long-term consequences, about the right of Jews to build communities for themselves in their historic homeland. Narrowly defeated by a vote of 40 to 38, the bill would have allowed the Israel Lands Authority (ILA) to establish a "small community of up to 500 families" for "one particular sector" of the population.
National Union Member of Knesset Tzvi Hendel submitted the bill, in response to two recent events that have cast doubt on the 130-year-old Zionist enterprise.
In October 2004, the Israel Lands Authority canceled a tender for leasing 26 lots in Karmiel's Givat Hamachosh Jewish neighborhood. The cancellation was in response to a petition submitted to the Haifa District Court in September against the ILA, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and the Karmiel Municipality, by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning. They claimed since the lots were being offered to Jews only, the tender adversely affected the country's Arab citizens. Rather than open the tender so that Arabs could lease land and move into the neighborhood also (which would have changed the status quo from a Jewish neighborhood into a mixed Jewish-Arab one), the ILA and JNF chose to withdraw the offer.
Let me point out here, the JNF collects monies worldwide - mostly from Jews - for the express purpose of reclaiming, through purchase, the Land of Israel, and resettling Jews in their ancient homeland.
An earlier court ruling in March 2000 determined that the agreement through which Israeli state lands (Jewish national lands) are transferred to the Jewish Agency, for the establishment of Jewish towns, was illegal. The court's decision came in response to a petition submitted by an Arab family wishing to buy property in the town of Katzir (they were turned down). This too would have changed the status quo.
Events like these have begun threatening the national affirmative action program Jews have implemented for the last century and a half to re-establish their homeland under their own control, reversing the effects of nearly 2,000 years of brutal occupation and exile, by the Romans, Arabs and others.
Hendel's bill sparked a wild debate in the Knesset, with left-wing MKs expectedly opposing it. Labor's MK Ophir Pines-Paz labeled the bill "racist and anti-constitutional," arguing it would not stand up in the Supreme Court. He also accused Hendel of trying to turn Israel into a racist state. Yahad-Meretz's MK Zahava Gal-On also called Hendel's bill racist and anti-democratic. Left-wing politicians have long ago abandoned the Jewish national enterprise and regularly ignore the overtly racist idea of a Judenrein (Jew-free) Palestinian State. But what was surprising, was that a majority of cabinet ministers in Sharon's Likud-led government decided a few weeks ago that they were opposed to the legislation and worked to ensure that it would not pass. So much for Likud's slogan, that it represents "the National Camp".
Beyond the express purpose of using Jewish money to redeem parts of the Jewish homeland, and to use the Jewish State's resources to build towns for Jews, why would Israeli Jews prefer to live in Jewish-only communities rather than mixed neighborhoods with Arabs?
Several of the larger cities in Israel have mixed Jewish-Arab populations (Jews and Arabs generally live in their own neighborhoods), but most of the smaller towns are either Jewish, Arab or Druze. Let's look at what's happening in Lod, a mixed Jewish-Arab town near Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Recently, the Lod Deputy Mayor Emil Haddad (Likud) called for the evacuation of the Jewish residents from the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood. In the last ten years, the neighborhood went from being completely Jewish to 70% Arab residents. Haddad claims he's "saving" the Jews living there, from constant harassment at the hands of their Arab neighbors. Haddad's plan involves convincing the Housing Ministry to buy out the Jews living in Ramat Eshkol, move them to a new neighborhood (yet to be built), and use the homes in Ramat Eshkol for Arab housing.
Wherever there's a problem with Arabs, a new "disengagement" plan?
Speaking with Israel National Radio, Rafi Kicheli, another of Lod's deputy mayors (from Yisrael Beiteinu - a component of Hendel's National Union Party) explained that, "The problem started 15 years ago when the government decided to bring Arab collaborators from Judea and Samaria to live in Lod. Each of the 80 families brought their entire clan with them, transforming the neighborhood into a place of drugs and crime. The neighborhood, though, still has synagogues and many Jewish families continue to live there."
Attacking Haddad's proposal, Kicheli said, "We would rather bring in new immigrants to Ramat Eshkol, perhaps open a religious education facility which would strengthen and build the community, rather than abandoning it." Kicheli accused Haddad of developing a disengagement plan to transfer Jews from Lod. "We are no longer talking about Gaza, but a place just three kilometers from the airport which was a completely Jewish neighborhood just ten years ago," Kicheli said.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman and National Union Party leader Avigdor Lieberman said the situation was "horrifying," and warned, "We understand that there is pressure from Arabs, and people are running away. That's how we ran away from Lebanon, that's how they want to run away from Gush Katif and now they want to run from Lod. This is a dangerous precedent with ramifications for other mixed cities like Ramle, Upper Nazareth and Jaffa [southern Tel-Aviv]."
In contrast to some Jews being encouraged to flee their towns, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released figures that prove that the Oslo War has not stopped Jews from moving into Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza. Jews continue to build up their homeland. New housing sales around the country, in the private sector, declined by 8% since January 1, 2004; according to the CBS, with the exception being in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) communities, registering an 11% increase. Also, the Jewish population of Yesha grew by 5.3% last year, in spite of the security situation, and now numbers 231,800, in contrast to Israel's overall growth rate, which has slowed in recent years (in 2000 it was 2.6%, in 2001 it was 2.2% and in 2002, it was 1.9%). So, regular harassment by Arabs hasn't stopped all Jews from carrying out their national mission.
[Part 1 of 2]
(c) 2004/5765 Pasko
National Union Member of Knesset Tzvi Hendel submitted the bill, in response to two recent events that have cast doubt on the 130-year-old Zionist enterprise.
In October 2004, the Israel Lands Authority canceled a tender for leasing 26 lots in Karmiel's Givat Hamachosh Jewish neighborhood. The cancellation was in response to a petition submitted to the Haifa District Court in September against the ILA, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and the Karmiel Municipality, by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning. They claimed since the lots were being offered to Jews only, the tender adversely affected the country's Arab citizens. Rather than open the tender so that Arabs could lease land and move into the neighborhood also (which would have changed the status quo from a Jewish neighborhood into a mixed Jewish-Arab one), the ILA and JNF chose to withdraw the offer.
Let me point out here, the JNF collects monies worldwide - mostly from Jews - for the express purpose of reclaiming, through purchase, the Land of Israel, and resettling Jews in their ancient homeland.
An earlier court ruling in March 2000 determined that the agreement through which Israeli state lands (Jewish national lands) are transferred to the Jewish Agency, for the establishment of Jewish towns, was illegal. The court's decision came in response to a petition submitted by an Arab family wishing to buy property in the town of Katzir (they were turned down). This too would have changed the status quo.
Events like these have begun threatening the national affirmative action program Jews have implemented for the last century and a half to re-establish their homeland under their own control, reversing the effects of nearly 2,000 years of brutal occupation and exile, by the Romans, Arabs and others.
Hendel's bill sparked a wild debate in the Knesset, with left-wing MKs expectedly opposing it. Labor's MK Ophir Pines-Paz labeled the bill "racist and anti-constitutional," arguing it would not stand up in the Supreme Court. He also accused Hendel of trying to turn Israel into a racist state. Yahad-Meretz's MK Zahava Gal-On also called Hendel's bill racist and anti-democratic. Left-wing politicians have long ago abandoned the Jewish national enterprise and regularly ignore the overtly racist idea of a Judenrein (Jew-free) Palestinian State. But what was surprising, was that a majority of cabinet ministers in Sharon's Likud-led government decided a few weeks ago that they were opposed to the legislation and worked to ensure that it would not pass. So much for Likud's slogan, that it represents "the National Camp".
Beyond the express purpose of using Jewish money to redeem parts of the Jewish homeland, and to use the Jewish State's resources to build towns for Jews, why would Israeli Jews prefer to live in Jewish-only communities rather than mixed neighborhoods with Arabs?
Several of the larger cities in Israel have mixed Jewish-Arab populations (Jews and Arabs generally live in their own neighborhoods), but most of the smaller towns are either Jewish, Arab or Druze. Let's look at what's happening in Lod, a mixed Jewish-Arab town near Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Recently, the Lod Deputy Mayor Emil Haddad (Likud) called for the evacuation of the Jewish residents from the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood. In the last ten years, the neighborhood went from being completely Jewish to 70% Arab residents. Haddad claims he's "saving" the Jews living there, from constant harassment at the hands of their Arab neighbors. Haddad's plan involves convincing the Housing Ministry to buy out the Jews living in Ramat Eshkol, move them to a new neighborhood (yet to be built), and use the homes in Ramat Eshkol for Arab housing.
Wherever there's a problem with Arabs, a new "disengagement" plan?
Speaking with Israel National Radio, Rafi Kicheli, another of Lod's deputy mayors (from Yisrael Beiteinu - a component of Hendel's National Union Party) explained that, "The problem started 15 years ago when the government decided to bring Arab collaborators from Judea and Samaria to live in Lod. Each of the 80 families brought their entire clan with them, transforming the neighborhood into a place of drugs and crime. The neighborhood, though, still has synagogues and many Jewish families continue to live there."
Attacking Haddad's proposal, Kicheli said, "We would rather bring in new immigrants to Ramat Eshkol, perhaps open a religious education facility which would strengthen and build the community, rather than abandoning it." Kicheli accused Haddad of developing a disengagement plan to transfer Jews from Lod. "We are no longer talking about Gaza, but a place just three kilometers from the airport which was a completely Jewish neighborhood just ten years ago," Kicheli said.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman and National Union Party leader Avigdor Lieberman said the situation was "horrifying," and warned, "We understand that there is pressure from Arabs, and people are running away. That's how we ran away from Lebanon, that's how they want to run away from Gush Katif and now they want to run from Lod. This is a dangerous precedent with ramifications for other mixed cities like Ramle, Upper Nazareth and Jaffa [southern Tel-Aviv]."
In contrast to some Jews being encouraged to flee their towns, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released figures that prove that the Oslo War has not stopped Jews from moving into Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza. Jews continue to build up their homeland. New housing sales around the country, in the private sector, declined by 8% since January 1, 2004; according to the CBS, with the exception being in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) communities, registering an 11% increase. Also, the Jewish population of Yesha grew by 5.3% last year, in spite of the security situation, and now numbers 231,800, in contrast to Israel's overall growth rate, which has slowed in recent years (in 2000 it was 2.6%, in 2001 it was 2.2% and in 2002, it was 1.9%). So, regular harassment by Arabs hasn't stopped all Jews from carrying out their national mission.
[Part 1 of 2]
(c) 2004/5765 Pasko