The Heart of the Galilee - Background The Heart of the Galilee is populated today by approximately 210,000 Arabs and close to 55,000 Jews. Almost all of the residents are segregated within separate jurisdictions. The Arabs live in the Netufa area, which includes Sachnin, Arrabe, Dir Hannah and Kfar Mandah, and the Beit Hakerem area that comprises Magd El Kurum, Deir El Assad, Rameh, Nahaf and M'rar. Jews live in the city of Karmiel (with close to 50,000 residents) and in the Misgav region of thirt-one community villages of up to 2000 residents each (a total of approximately 11,000 residents). This simplification ignores the Bedouin villages within the jurisdiction of Misgav and the few Arabs living in Karmiel. The total land at the disposal of these communities is about 90,000 acres. Projections show that by 2020 the number of residents in the region will increase to more that 400,000 Arabs and 120,000 Jews. It should be noted that within each region are sub-populations. In the Arab sector these include Christians, Druze, and Moslems, including Bedouins. The Jewish sector includes Israeli-born Jews as well as new immigrants from Ethiopia and the F.S.U., traditional (including Ultra-Orthodox) and secular residents.  The Heart of the Galilee Region The Arabs live in towns and villages that existed before the establishment of the State of Israel, while the Jewish towns and villages in this region were established by the State in the past thirty years. This simple distinction explains many of the planning challenges that we face. The Jewish communities, created to absorb new immigrants and residents of the crowded center of the country and as part of a national policy to establish and maintain a Jewish presence in the Galilee, function according to approved governmental plans. The Arab communities that neighbor them, however, lack such planning, and often develop in an improvised, somewhat chaotic manner, dictated by demographic factors and without regard to economic, social and environmental needs. Many of the Arab villages, for example, due to their large growth in population, have in effect turned into towns or cities, but they lack the infrastructure required to become true urban centers. These distinctions contribute to the formation of many misunderstandings and conflicts. Many of the residents of the Jewish settlements view the region as a green rural area (albeit with the city of Karmiel at its center), and see the Arab towns growing and building irresponsibly and without permit, thus threatening this green quality. The demand for more lands by Arab residents and local leadership is often presented and perceived as stemming from nationalistic motives, rather than from actual housing or public needs. On the other hand, many residents of the Arab towns view the Jewish settlements as responsible for preventing their necessary expansion, if not as actually sitting on lands belonging to them. These settlements are seen by them as aspiring to a quality of life that seems luxurious compared to the difficult problems their cities and villages face. Some of these disparities have, together with many other factors, led to violent clashes in our region, such as those that resulted in Land Day (protesting government expropriation of Arab-owned land) in 1976. More recently, in October 2000 there were violent demonstrations in the Arab towns in the region, in which six Arab youths were killed, out of the thirteen casualties of police gunfire. Jewish residents nearby were asked to remain in their homes. The formation of Neighbors for Joint Development in the Galilee began shortly after these difficult events. Despite this conflict-ridden background, relations between Jews and Arabs in the region are multifaceted, and include, in addition to daily commercial and work-related encounters, meetings of Jewish and Arab soccer fans of the Bnei Sachnin team, a bilingual and bicultural school and summer camp, and spoken Arabic lessons for Jewish adults from the region. Though many of these activities are attended by people who are already ideologically committed to coexistence, their existence proves that there is potential for normal neighborly relations in our region. The message of Neighbors is that though there is great value in all of these interactions, there is an urgent need to move beyond them to systematic work on planning that will ensure the future growth of all the communities here, based on values of equality and respect. By focusing on practical and concrete issues that affect everyone, such as efficient allocation of land for construction while preserving a maximum area of green open space, we believe that we can create dialogue between residents that will appeal to the good sense and creative thinking of the moderate mainstream of residents of the region and enable them, guided by the work of our professional planners, to reach "win-win" solutions. Thus it will be possible to foster the understanding among the wider Jewish and Arab public, and not just the ideological few, that greater equality in the distribution of resources is in everyone's interest. |
P.O.B
61, Sah'nin, 20167. Tel. 04-6744898 info@neighbors.org.il