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Haaretz
original article
Sun., January 03, 2010 Tevet 17, 5770 | Israel Time: 20:51 (EST+7)
Last update - 18:41 03/01/2010
Israel rejects bill allocating equal land to Jews and Arabs
By Jonathan Liss
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday rejected a bill proposed
by MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) proposing that the state enforce equal
allocation of land to Jews and Arabs.
"Yet again, the Israeli government has proven that it is avoiding the
principle of civil equality," Tibi said in response to the ruling. "The same
government which approved the selection bill of [Jewish] MKs David Rotem and
Israel Hasson, ignores Arabs' rights, and hasn't approved the building of a
new Arab village since 1948. The government failed at the challenge I placed
before it, and that saddens me."
The bill's authors stressed the importance of it in an explanation to the
committee.
"Since the foundation of the state,
62 years of stealing the private property of Palestinians and doling it out
only to foreign Jews should be enough.
the Israel Lands Administration is solely used as Jewish land
administration. The director of the Israel Lands Administration has used all
the tactics, with the help of the Jewish Agency, to allocate state land only
to Jews. Despite the bitter attempt over the
decades, not even one Arab town has been established since the
state's foundation. Therefore a bill must be passed which stipulates that
the Israel Lands Administration will serve all the state's citizens without
discrimination on religion or nationality, and will promise an equal
allocation of land to better the Arab population of Israel."
Tibi's proposal was intended to counter a bill passed two weeks ago which
states that reception committees of Israeli communities can decide who will
reside in their towns. One consequence of that bill is that Israeli Arabs
would not be able to live in those towns if the reception committees decide
so.
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