Jewish town won't let Arab build home on his own land

[ProgressiveMuslim]

By Jack Khoury
Tags: Israel Land Administration

Aadel Suad first came to the planning and construction committee of the Misgav Local Council in 1997. Suad, an educator, was seeking a construction permit to build a home on a plot of land he owns in the community of Mitzpeh Kamon. The reply he got, from a senior official on the committee, was a memorable one.

"Don't waste your time," he reportedly told Suad. "We'll keep you waiting for 30 years."

For Suad it's now been 12 years of fighting the committee's red tape to build a home on his own land. The reason, as far as he and his family are concerned, is singular: The local council doesn't want Arabs, with or without the legal amendments legalizing such objection that passed preliminary reading in the Knesset this week.
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"We didn't invade the plot and we didn't take over the land," Suad says. "My grandfather has been here since the Turks. We have a land registry document proving ownership of three acres."

Suad's plot is on the northern edge of the hilltop community, founded in 1979. In 1984, Suad's land, along with others, was redefined as a development area rather than agricultural land. The land was divided into two plots. Suad and his family, who have been living in shacks on the site, were not informed.

"In 1990 we got a notice to pay capital gains taxes on the land, and they only told us about the changes when we asked for an explanation," he says.

The plots were split between the family and the Israel Land Administration. Only one plot was owned by the family - half an acre, minus half a square meter owned by the ILA.

Having paid the tax, Suad asked for a written confirmation of the change. "This usually takes a couple of days," he says. "They dragged it on for 8 months." While repeatedly refusing to sell the land or swap it for a plot outside Kamon, Suad was told that his plot is jointly owned by the ILA, because of the 50 square centimeters...

read on..
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1134898.html

[stray cat]

1. Like zoning laws prevent people in the US from doing what they want with their property?

[azurnoir]

2. Like building a home?

only if its zoned for industrial use or is considered hazardous
but thanks so much for pointing that out guess that makes it OK right?

[LeftishBrit]

3. Nightmarish bureaucracy, and institutionally-racist application of rules, happen everywhere; but

that doesn't make such things right.

I hope Mr. Suad finally wins.

[Ken Burch]

4. Zoning laws are never just applied to people of one ethnicity.

If the man wasn't Arab, he'd have been allowed to build.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. I can't believe anyone at DU would try to defend the racism in the OP n/t

[Ken Burch]

6. I hope you weren't saying I was defending it.

n/t.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Of course not...

It was the person you were responding to that was coming across like they were defending it. What you said was pretty much what I'd have said if you hadn't beaten me to it...

[Ken Burch]

8. Thanks for the clarification

I didn't think so, but just wanted to make sure.

[Crunchy Frog]

12. I can.

:(

[Crunchy Frog]

11. If they belong to a particular race. Yes.

[varelse]

9. Justice delayed is justice denied

How is this not a land grab by the Israeli government, by the way?

Suad's plot is on the northern edge of the hilltop community, founded in 1979. In 1984, Suad's land, along with others, was redefined as a development area rather than agricultural land. The land was divided into two plots. Suad and his family, who have been living in shacks on the site, were not informed.

The plots were split between the family and the Israel Land Administration. Only one plot was owned by the family - half an acre, minus half a square meter owned by the ILA.

[Scurrilous]

10. Arab filmmaker wins film award, Israel airline security nabs it

<snip>

"Thirty-five days after returning from Barcelona on a Sun D'Or flight, items belonging to documentary film director Sahera Dirbas, which Israeli security people had removed from her luggage and sent separately, were returned to her. Among them was a bronze figurine she had won at the International Euro-Arab Amal Film Festival in Spain for best documentary - awarded for her film "Stranger in My Home."

The figurine was found and returned on Tuesday, six days after Haaretz requested a response from Sun D'Or regarding its whereabouts. Haaretz was informed that the prize had been found before the company alerted Dirbas.

The award-winning film directed by Dirbas, who was born in Haifa and lives in Jerusalem, has been screened at Israeli cinematheques and abroad. It was among eight films shown at the annual festival, which was held at the end of October. "Stranger in My Home" tells the story of five Jerusalemites, refugees from the 1948 war, who lost their homes in West Jerusalem, and a refugee from 1967 who was evacuated from his home in the Old City's Mughrabi neighborhood.

On November 5, Dirbas made her way home from Spain via Barcelona. After answering questions from Israeli security employees regarding her work and the film festivals in which she had taken part, she was asked to enter a separate room for continued questioning, where a female security guard demanded she remove all her clothing. All of her belongings were taken out of her suitcase, and she was told that four items would be taken for additional examination and sent separately: two chargers for hard disks she had with her, a hair straightener and the bronze figurine. The examination took more than two hours.

When she arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport, she could not find the box with the separate items and filed the standard form for lost luggage. Four weeks later, on December 3, after her telephone inquiries went unanswered, Dirbas' lawyer Reem Alhatib, submitted an official complaint to El Al (to which the security company was said to be connected) and a demand for compensation. In the letter of complaint, Alhatib linked the loss of the prize to a "discriminatory attitude and misuse of the security check to abuse, humiliate and hurt an Arab passenger."

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