A new study conducted by ACAP shows that during 2005-2010, the Arab citizens in Israel were in need of 67,000 housing units to meet their accommodation needs, as opposed to 262,000 housing units in the Jewish community. In this period of time, the Israel Land Administration provided only 21% of this need to the Arab community as opposed to 59% of the same need to the Jewish citizens.

 

 

The Israel Land Administration, Minhal, releases bids to market construction land in Israel, and ACAP monitors these bids in order to closely analyze them and their details. There are two different ways to market the construction land; the first of which is informing the general public about the relevant pieces of land through public bids whose pre-set conditions are determined by the Minhal, and the second one is designating certain pieces of land for relevant entities without publishing a public bid, through ad hoc Committees, especially in the public Jewish villages and settlements.

 

The information at the disposal of ACAP pertains to the first way of marketing; the public bids, since the Minhal doesn’t release sufficient information about the second way.

 

 

The public bids of marketing construction pieces of land usually contain the following basic information and details: the town, the type of construction permitted in the relevant pieces of land (accommodation, commerce, industry…ect.), the nature of the housing buildings ( self-construction, low or high resolution construction..etc.), number of the marketed pieces of land and their sizes, number of the housing units permitted within each marketed piece of land, in addition to the conditions that the applicants must meet.

 

The following is a summary of the bids that the Minhal released in Israel in general and in the Arab localities in particular during 2005-2010 and some important notes about them.

 

 

 

 

Diagram 1 describes the portion of land designated for housing for the Arab community from the Israel Land Administration.

 

Diagram1 :
 

 

Diagram 1 describes the small quantity of the housing units marketed to the Arab citizens in the country. It is worth mentioning that in 2006 a rise in the number of the housing units marketed in Israel in general was noted, yet with no change in the Arab community. The reason is ascribed to the “Disengagement” plan from Gaza which entailed evacuating the settlers from their settlements and populating them within the green line border.

 

 

Diagram 2 compares between the Arab citizens in Israel and the percentage of the housing units land designated for them:

 

Diagram 2:

 

 

Although the Arab citizens constitute almost 19% of the total population in Israel, the percentage of housing units designated for them from the Israel Land Administration did not exceed 5% in 2004-2006. This percentage rose to 13% and 12% in 2007 and 2008 respectively, to decline again to 7% in 2009, and 10% in 2010.

 

Diagram 3 describes and compares the distribution of the housing units between the Arab security forces and the rest of the Arab citizens.

 

Diagram 3 :

 

 

The study also revealed that during this period the Minhal designated 35% of the pieces of land marketed in the Arab community for the Arab security forces consumers; a percentage that exceeds their own percentage in the Arab community itself.

 

Diagram 4 describes the distribution of the land designated for the Arab community according to their purpose; housing, industry, commerce and tourism.

 

Diagram 4:

 

 

The study has shown that that the Israel Land Administration designates a minor percentage of its bids for industry, commerce and tourism in the Arab community. This fact indicates that these interests are at the bottom of the priority scale of the authority when it comes to the Arab community in Israel.