The Israel Lands Administration has changed its tactics with regard to illegal houses built by Arab villagers in Galilee on State-owned land without obtaining government permits. Instead of bulldozing them, it is leasing the land to the Arabs who readily admit they are getting “a real bargain.”
A case in point is the village of Iskal in lower Galilee, with a population of 5000. Over the years the local residents built some 300 houses without permits leading to repeated conflicts with the Lands Administration. In three instances, the government sent in bulldozers to raze the houses. But that only increased the bitterness. Recently, the Lands Administration reached an agreement with the village council. It legalized the buildings retroactively and leased the land to the villagers at 1970 rates which are relatively cheap.
Ahmad Abdul Rahman Assad, a building contractor, will have to pay the Lands Administration about IL 50,000 for the land on which he built his house 13 years ago. Assad is pleased with the deal. “When I built this place I knew it was illegal. Now I am paying for it, “he said. He will also receive permits to build additional houses on the leased land for his children.
The Mayor of Iskal, a known sympathizer with the Rakah Communist Party, feels the villagers have won a victory. “What we did was actually on illegal settlement,” he said. “We simply forced the government into the agreement.” The Land Administration has leased about 25 percent of the lend to the village council for public purposes. A new mosque is under construction and a new road is being built at government expense amounting to IL 1.2 million.
News of the “bargain” traveled fast in Galilee. Yaacov Vaknin, director of the Lands Administration, will meet this weekend with representatives of other Arab and Druze villages in Galilee to work out similar deals. The government’s generosity is limited by one major condition: the total cessation of illegal buildings. There are estimated to be some 5000 illegal dwellings in Galilee. Arab families live in single family home. In contrast, most of the Jewish population in Galilee lives in apartment buildings.
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