“The Arab-Jewish Planning Forum,” which includes professionals from the fields of building and architecture, sent an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. The letter opposes the building policies set forth by most Israeli governments since the country’s founding, which the forum sees as consistently discriminatory. So far, the letter has managed to collect the signatures of over 280 building planners.
Specifically, the “Building Planners’ Letter,” as it has been dubbed, describes a lack of issuing building permits for Arab communities, while simultaneously going ahead with the demolition of illegally built structures within those communities.
“We, Jewish and Arab planners, citizens of Israel, object to the ongoing discrimination against the Arab population in Israel in the area of housing and planning,” the letter opens. “After years of discriminatory planning policies, which reached new heights with recent demolitions in the town of Qalansawe and the village of Umm al-Hiran—we can no longer remain silent.” The Building Planners’ Letter stresses that the lack of building permits—which would have allowed the Arab population to legally build more structures—brought on illegal building within those communities in an effort to meet the basic needs of this growing demographic. “Natural growth on the one hand, and lack of planning on the other, has forced the Arab population to build without permits on a massive scale. The demolition of these homes, constructed out of distress in the absence of equitable planning, violates morality and basic civil rights.
The letter ends by saying that “as planners and human beings, we aim to create hope. We are convinced that planning solutions are within reach and believe that equitable planning is the basis for a just, democratic society that serves the public good.”
The Arab-Jewish Planning Forum was founded several weeks ago and is comprised of planners, architects and engineers who wish to combine their professional work with creating social change.
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