Israeli Policy of Ethnic Cleansing: Veteran Arab Village to Make Way for New Haredi City in Wadi Ara

Mustafa Abu Halaal and Yuad Winter, Haokets

August 19, 2009

Recently plans have been greatly accelerated to establish a Haredi (Jewish ultra-orthodox) city in Wadi Ara, between Harish and Katzir. These latter two cities were already included in the 1990s in the "star plan" of Ariel Sharon, the stated goal of which was to separate Arab cities and to prevent their development through the establishment of new towns for Jews only between them. Now the Ministry of Housing is planning to establish, in the area between Harish and Katzir, no less than 20,000 housing units for Haredis. "We must stop the Arab expansion in Wadi Ara," said Israel’s Minister of Construction and Housing, Ariel Atias.



The area for the planned city borders on the Arab villages of Bartaa, Kufr Qara, Dar Alhanoun and Um Alkatif. The Arab village Dar Alhanoun, which has been in existence the 1920s, is not recognized by the State of Israel with the excuse that this is an area with "scenery characteristics." Now the Ministry of Housing is planning to establish a big city, only 200 meters from the village, while demolition orders have been issued against the existing village homes due to "illegal construction." A large portion of the land of the recognized villages of Um Alkatif and Barta will be confiscated to establish the new Haredi city. In the entrance to Kufr Qara an industrial zone is planned to meet the needs of the Haredi city.

Even before residents of the area had an opportunity to digest the news about the planned big city near the entrance to their homes, new threats are already coming in. On 6 August 2009, inspectors from the Ministry of Interior arrived to Dar Alhanoun accompanied by tens of police officers. The inspectors distributed letters of "invitation" to interrogation to all landowners in the village. In the letters, the Ministry of Interior notifies the residents that they are suspected of violating the law of planning and construction. The police officers and inspectors appeared during the daytime, when the men of the village were at work, and their patrol through the area terrified the women and children in the village.

It appears their goal is to encourage the residents to abandon their village even before final approval by the Ministry of Construction for establishment of the Haredi city. These threats serve only to emphasize the blunt discrimination by the Israeli government. While new cities for Jews-only are being established in the area all the time, the Ministry of Interior is attempting to dispossess the area’s Arab residents from their lands in order to clear the area for a new city only for Jews.

When will this dispossession end? Who will stop the discrimination?