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ADALAH PRESS RELEASE
4 November 2010
In the wake of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee's approval of the Admissions Committees Law:
Adalah: There are now 695 communities in Israel where
Arab citizens of the state are forbidden to live
On 27 October 2010, the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved the second and third readings of the proposed Admissions Committees Law - 2010, which would permit state-owned communities to form admission boards to vet new residents. During the coming weeks, the proposed law will be debated in the Knesset plenum, and if approved, it will be the first law in Israel to institute an apartheid-like regime in housing.
This law applies to 695 communities (647 agricultural communities (kibbutzes and moshavs) and 48 community towns). These communities together comprise 68.3% of all of the communities in the State of Israel and 84.7% of the rural communities.
Table 1: Agricultural communities and community towns subject to the proposed law, by district and population size
Agricultural communities
Community towns
Total number of communities subject to
Decision 1015Population size (1000s)
Total
647
48
695
396
Jerusalem
49
1
50
26.5
North
221
38
259
136.6
Haifa
45
1
46
27.5
Center
156
3
159
119.7
Tel Aviv
1
--
1
0.3
South
175
5
180
85.3
These communities are grouped in 52 regional councils throughout the state. These councils control about 81% of the state's territory and include 840 localities most of which – 695 communities (83%) – are agricultural and communal towns. The following table presents the distribution of the regional councils by district, and the number of communities and population size of these councils.
Number of regional councils
Number of communities in the council
Population size (1000s)
Total in Israel
52
840
567.9
Jerusalem
1
63
37.4
North
16
306
192.3
Haifa
5
65
51.6
Center
12
197
168.8
Tel Aviv
1
--
--
South
17
209
117.8
The practical result is that most of the land owned by the State of Israel – which is defined as "Israel lands" in the Basic Law: Israel Lands and is managed by the Israel Land Administration – is not available to the Arab citizens of the state and is allotted only to candidates who have passed a selection process and possess "a suitable personality."
Adalah is challenging the Israel Land Administration's policy and use of Admissions Committees in allocating land for housing before the Israeli Supreme Court (See HCJ 8036/07, Fatina Ebriq Zubeidat, et al. v. The Israel Land Administration, et al.)
See:
Jack Khoury and Jonathan Lis, “Knesset panel okays bill letting small communities bar Arabs,” Haaretz English Edition, 28.10.2010, at:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/knesset-panel-okays-bill-letting-small-communities-bar-arabs-1.321497
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