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<\/a>\u2018They are building on top of us,\u2019 says Salah Sawaid. \u2018Are we invisible to them?\u2019 Photo: Jonathan Cook<\/p><\/div>\n
Eviction dressed as gentrification<\/b><\/p>\n
Palestinian activists have noted a wider pattern of recent evictions enforced against Palestinian citizens still living in close proximity to Jews.<\/p>\n
In the half-dozen so-called \u201cmixed cities\u201d in Israel \u2013 rare communities where residence is not segregated based on ethnicity \u2013 Palestinian citizens are being forced out under cover of gentrification programmes, said Bishara.<\/p>\n
The homes of some 30 Palestinian families living in al-Mahatta, a neighbourhood of Haifa whose population has been declining for decades under pressure from official bodies, are to be demolished<\/a> so the city\u2019s port can be expanded. The last families in the nearby historic Wadi al-Siyah area are also facing eviction<\/a>.<\/p>\n Similar stories are emerging in the cities of Acre and Jaffa.<\/p>\n Documents leaked to the Israeli media in December showed plans<\/a> by the World Zionist Organisation \u2013 an international umbrella organisation of Zionist groups \u2013 to step up the Judaisation programme in the Galilee. The aim is to bring in 100,000 Jews over the next few years in what WZO officials termed \u201cpreserving our hold\u201d on the region and creating a \u201cdemographic balance\u201d \u2013 code, said Bishara, for trying to enforce a Jewish majority.<\/p>\n The Israeli Haaretz newspaper objected<\/a>: \u201cA state that encourages members of one people to settle in any region, while at the same time imposing harsh restrictions on the growth of the other, is acting in a racist manner.\u201d<\/p>\n Secret expropriation of land<\/b><\/p>\n Ramya\u2019s land was secretly confiscated in 1976, when the government of the day, led by Rabin, ordered the expropriation of much of the remaining agricultural land held by Palestinian communities in the Galilee.<\/p>\n Large protests led to Rabin sending in the army, which shot dead six unarmed demonstrators, an event still commemorated by Palestinians around the world each year as Land Day .<\/p>\n Although the general confiscation order was eventually rescinded, Wakim said the secret expropriation of Ramya\u2019s lands remained in place.<\/p>\n Sawaid said the villagers first learnt that there was an eviction order against them 15 years later, in the 1990s, when the late Ariel Sharon, who was then housing minister, wanted to rapidly expand Karmiel.<\/p>\n He had decided to launch another wave of \u201cJudaising the Galilee\u201d, using Karmiel to house some of the hundreds of thousands of Jews migrating to Israel following the fall of the Soviet Union. The residents of Ramya were ordered to leave<\/a> to make room for the new arrivals.<\/p>\n At the time, Adi Eldar, the city\u2019s mayor since 1989, dismissed the villagers\u2019 claims, suggesting that, even though they had settled in Ramya decades ago, they were still nomads at heart. They were, he said<\/a>, \u201cused to wandering. They are here today and there tomorrow\u201d.<\/p>\n Fearmongering<\/b><\/p>\n Leviah Shalev, a spokeswoman for the municipality, said neither Karmiel nor Eldar were responsible for the government\u2019s Judaisation policy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe official policy was to bring Jews to the Galilee. But we do not take a view about who lives in our city. Jew or Arab can buy a home here,\u201d she said. According to the municipality, about three per cent of residents are \u201cArab\u201d.<\/p>\n Koller, however, said Karmiel\u2019s claim of treating Jewish and Palestinian residents equally was a lie. \u201cIf that is true, where are the Arabic-language schools, where are the traffic signs in Arabic, why is there no mosque here?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is that Karmiel officials cannot legally stop Arab families from buying a home here. But they do everything possible both to make sure they feel unwelcome and to prevent Jews from selling to them.\u201d<\/p>\n In a sign of the growing opposition in Karmiel to Palestinian citizens buying homes, the issue took centre stage in recent local elections, with the main candidates raising fears<\/a> of an Arab \u201ctakeover\u201d of the city.<\/p>\n In 2010, Eldar\u2019s deputy, Oren Milstein, set up an email \u201chotline\u201d on which residents could inform on Jewish neighbours who were intending to sell to a Palestinian family. Milstein claimed he had managed to stop<\/a> 30 such sales.<\/p>\n In the same year, Milstein also established a group of 150 volunteers called \u201cthe City Guard\u201d, supported by the local police, that was authorised to demand that anyone entering Karmiel present their ID. Leftwing activists described<\/a> the group as a \u201cracist militia\u201d trying to keep Palestinian citizens out.<\/p>\n \u2018Distortion of the truth\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n Shalev, Karmiel\u2019s spokeswoman, added that the Bedouin of Ramya had been offered a solution in 1995, when land was set aside for them in a special area near Karmiel. \u201cThe problem is not caused by us but by disagreements between themselves about how much land each family owns.\u201d<\/p>\n Wakim said the municipality\u2019s claims were a \u201cdistortion of the truth\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe offer was not implemented at the time and is now totally unsuitable for the community\u2019s needs. Twenty years on, there is another generation of villagers and they need a housing solution too. Where are they supposed to live?<\/p>\n \u201cThe real problem is that Karmiel won\u2019t let them live where they already are, as a recognised neighbourhood of the city and with the chance to build proper homes without the threat of demolition.\u201d<\/p>\n Koller said that Karmiel had tried to create what he called a \u201cghetto\u201d for the families. \u201cIt is described as \u2018a special neighbourhood for minorities\u2019. No Jewish families in Karmiel would agree to live in those conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n The Israel Lands Administration, the government agency responsible for managing state lands, was unavailable for comment for this report.<\/p>\n ______________________________________<\/p>\n Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, since 2001. He is the author of: <\/i>Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish State (2006); <\/i>Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (2008); and <\/i>Disappearing Palestine: Israel\u2019s Experiments in Human Despair (2008). In 2011 he was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize<\/a> for Journalism.<\/i> The same year, Project Censored<\/a> voted one of Jonathan\u2019s reports, \u201cIsrael brings Gaza entry restrictions to West Bank\u201d, the ninth most important story censored in 2009-10.<\/i><\/p>\n