Adalah’s News
30 March 2022
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46TH ANNIVERSARY OF LAND DAY:
PERSISTENT POLICIES OF SEGREGATION
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Land Day march, 2010. Image by: Makbula Nassar
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Palestinians commemorate 46 years for Land Day on 30 March 2022, marking Israel’s massive confiscation of lands owned by Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) in 1976 and the ensuing protests, which resulted in the killing of six Palestinian Arab citizens, and the wounding and arrest of hundreds more by police forces.
In 2022, Israel continues to engage in land grabs and tries to dispossess and displace Palestinians and other Arab groups from their lands within the Green Line, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Golan Heights. This newsletter highlights these practices of spatial segregation, domination and control.
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Umm al-Fahem, one of the largest Palestinian Arab cities in Israel. photo by: Moataz1997
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In response to a call by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Adalah submitted a detailed report on "Spatial Segregation in Israel”. The report details numerous laws, policies and practices used by the State to maintain segregation, such as the 2011 Admissions’ Committee Law, and the use of the quasi-governmental Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency to establish and maintain Jewish-only towns throughout the state and to otherwise limit the land-space area of Arab towns.
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FORCED DISPLACEMENT IN THE NAQAB
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Bedouin village of Abu Tlul in the Naqab
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Adalah’s report also highlighted state practices to maintain segregation between the Bedouin and Israeli Jewish citizens in the Naqab. Authorities use forced evictions – such as in the cases of Umm al-Hiran and Ras Jrabah - demolition of homes, the establishment of roads and railways, man-made forests via the Jewish National Fund, and other major infrastructure plans, discriminatory planning and land allocation, and forced urbanization practices against residents of Bedouin villages.
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UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON
ADEQUATE HOUSING
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In his report, the UN Special Rapporteur expressed grave concern about “the persistent systemic discrimination and segregation in gaining access to the right to housing … by particularly … Palestinian citizens/residents in Israel and the West Bank”. He also emphasized that in Israel, “judicial interventions have contributed substantially to the creation and maintenance of discrimination”, citing submissions made by Adalah, among other organizations. Read more about the SR’s report.
In March 2022, Adalah addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council during a meeting with the UN SR on the systemic segregation and discrimination faced by Palestinians in Israel and in the OPT. Adalah requested that the UN SR undertake a country visit and investigate Israel’s international obligations on the right to adequate housing for all Palestinians under Israel’s jurisdiction.
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Damascus Gate, East Jerusalem. Photo by: amanderson2
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Israel’s attempts to displace and dispossess Palestinians in East Jerusalem – and in particular in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and other neighborhoods - regularly feature at the top of the news, due to the unprecedented international mobilization. However, there are also other land planning and land registration policies at work that will also have devastating impacts on the quality of life and land rights of Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Adalah, together with the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem and on behalf of 322 residents, submitted a detailed objection against a Master Plan for the City Center in East Jerusalem. This plan, the first of its kind, would impose long-term restrictions on Palestinians’ development in all areas of their lives, from housing, the economy, employment and trade, to education, culture and transportation. Read Adalah’s position paper about the illegality of the plan.
Another significant process underway concerns land registration. Adalah sent a letter to the Land Registry Officer, the Minister of Justice, and Attorney General, demanding the termination of the process of land rights regulation in East Jerusalem. In Adalah’s view, these processes will lead to extensive expropriation of Palestinian land, as a large segment of the Palestinian population is even prevented from taking part in the process to protect their land rights, namely Palestinians living in the West Bank or Gaza and refugees living outside of the Israeli OPT. Read Adalah’s position paper on Land Registration. |
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The occupied Syrian town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights
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Israeli land grabs extend to the Occupied Golan Heights. Earlier this year, in January 2022, Adalah, together with Al-Marsad, demanded the cancellation of a government plan to promote Jewish Israeli "demographic growth" in the Occupied Golan. Israeli settlements already control 95% of the land of the Golan Heights, and the plan is expected to seize even more private lands of Syrian residents and refugees expelled in 1967, and to limit the Arab residents’ access to natural resources, and result in further land shortage. |
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