Follow-up and examination by the Arab Center for Alternative Planning (ACAP) has revealed that the Misgav Regional Council has added 300 dunams to its jurisdictional area through a request made to the Ministry of Interior.  This request was approved despite the jurisdictional area of Misgav’s Regional Council being several times larger than the jurisdictional area of the Arab towns in the area, which are surrounded by the jurisdictional area of Misgav.

The aforementioned area is located to the north of the jurisdictional area of Misgav’s Regional Council, to the east of the city of Karmiel and to the south of the village of Rami.

ACAP sees that this area should have been added to the jurisdictional area of the nearby village of Rami, which like other Arabic townships suffer from a lack of jurisdictional areas. ACAP has based its assessment on the principle of “fair dividing.”  Rami has a population of 7,600 people and a jurisdictional area of 6,497 dunams, while the jurisdictional area of Misgav’s Regional Council is 164,640 dunams with a population of 22,000.

ACAP sees this as a typical case of double discrimination against the Arab local authorities.  Arabs comprise 20% of the total Israeli population, but the jurisdictional areas of Arab towns are only 3.5% of the land.  Furthermore, the changes that were made to the jurisdictional areas doubles this discrimination by dividing the land unfairly, marginalizing the Arab local authorities, and not including them in the decision making process.

ACAP has always urged the Arab local authorities to make use of all the areas near them which are not associated with another local authority, and to ask the Ministry of Interior to add these areas to their jurisdictional area, since adding such areas is relatively easier, and faces less bureaucratic obstacles compared to adding an area that belongs to another local authority.

Submission of Detailed Plans to the Segev Forest Plan:

ACAP has notified the local authorities and people of Sakhnin, Tamra, Kabu, and Sha’ab regarding the submission of a detailed plan (15452\G) for the Segev Forest by the regional committee for planning and building.
ACAP has alerted these local authorities and the people about the possibility of filing legal objections to this plan by 28.7.2010.