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social & economic justice Ramla. Lod. Haifa. Jaffa. Akko. In Israel’s five “mixed cities,” where Jews and Arabs live
At the same time, and not coincidentally, the plight of Arab residents within the mixed cities gained momentum on the public agenda.
Also in Lod, SHATIL and the Lod Housing Forum rallied the community and succeeded in stopping the threatened demolition of houses in the city’s Ta’yush neighborhood. For 50 days and nights, seven families maintained a vigil in protest tents, defying the police and municipal demolition orders. The movement gained momentum as one organization after another joined the struggle, until Knesset members and government officials threw their support into finding an equitable solution. As a result, the Knesset’s Interior Committee has ordered a stop to home demolitions until a new committee can find a solution that takes residents’ rights into account. And, Lod’s first joint Jewish-Arab neighborhood committee is planning local events and advocating for improved services.
In Lod, Arabs must navigate busy train tracks to enter their neighborhoods. There is no crosswalk and no underpass, and 13 residents have died on the tracks. SHATIL’s Mixed Cities Project brought media attention — and thus the attention of government officials — to the situation and became the engine for change on an inter-ministerial committee for transportation and safety standards. SHATIL arranged for a civil engineer to prepare a plan that would eliminate the need for pedestrians to cross the tracks. A city committee approved NIS 100,000 to cover construction costs, and negotiations with the local municipality to implement the plan are underway.
In Ramla, one of the country’s most dismal housing areas, the city’s 13,000 Arab residents live in overcrowded and substandard housing but they have reached a turning point. For the first time, residents from all the city’s Arab neighborhoods are working together on longterm planning solutions through the Ramla Housing Forum, which is gathering data that will evolve into recommendations. Several NIF grantees, including the Arab Center for Alternative Planning, a Galilee-based NGO that represents the interests of Arab citizens on issues of planning, land, housing and development, are working with the group to develop alternative plans.
in adjoining neighborhoods, Jewish neighborhoods take their services, infrastructure and choice of housing options for granted, while Arab neighborhoods struggle with a shortage of housing, deteriorating schools, substandard services or no services at all.
SHATIL’s Mixed Cities Project is making a difference. By educating Arab residents of the “mixed cities” about their rights as citizens, specifically in the area of housing and municipal infrastructure, the project is mobilizing communities to act and change their futures. In the fall of 2004, SHATIL took a unique and vibrant approach to raising awareness of the rights and housing issues facing Arab residents of the mixed cities: a concert tour starring an eclectic roster of Israel’s leading Jewish and Arab Israeli musical artists. SHATIL enlisted Tamer Nafar, who grew up in Lod and is now Israel’s leading Arab rap artist, to assemble the performers. A few of the names — like David Broza — are familiar to international audiences; other performers read like a virtual who’s who of the latest in Israeli music. The concerts took place in a variety of downhome venues — in Lod’s shuk [marketplace], at the Ramle city pool and, in Haifa, after security concerns forced cancellation of the official concert, on a concrete platform where performers gave an ad hoc performance without amplification or lights but with full heart and soul.
They drew diverse crowds — Jews and Arabs, young and old, all enthusiastic. And they produced their own momentum, culminating in the final concert at Tel Aviv’s port, where more than one thousand people — hip urban teens, Bedouin youth from the Negev, Arab families from Lod, Ramla, and Jaffa — celebrated together.
NEW ISRAEL FUND
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