Background The deterioration in the security situation and the slumping economy in Israel in 2002 underlined yet further the need to build a stronger civil society in which the social organizations - each in its own way - have a positive particular bearing. Within this significant civil society fabric, last year Bimkom expanded its activities to new communities, while unempowered communities and professionals continued to be the main target population, along with the general public. During the year, we received many inquiries from communities and residents of Israel whose planning rights had been infringed. We helped them by giving consultancy services, providing professional opinions, submitting objections, and developing a professional-community dialogue. At the same time, we saw the over-centralization of planning in the hands of the authorities. Not only does centralization exclude the public from the planning process, it also leads to results and consequences that are motivated by non-professional considerations. In an effort to deal with these trends, Bimkom worked both by assisting communities to preserve their rights and through consciousness-raising and efforts to change policy. Bimkom continued to encourage critical discourse among planning professionals and recruited many of them to join in its activities. All the activities described below (planning and community activities, education and workshops, and public activities) were conducted by teams of volunteers - Bimkom's activists and members of the board - in cooperation with the paid staff. Our Planning and Community Activities The Eastern Ring Road, Jerusalem: Together with residents of east Jerusalem, we submitted an objection to the detailed plans for the eastern ring road, which crosses their land. We recommended planning solutions that leave the proposed road intact but reduce the damage and hindrances to the resident population. The objection has not yet been discussed. The Argazim Neighbourhood of Tel Aviv: Residents of the Argazim neighbourhood asked for our help with an evacuation and rebuilding plan for the neighbourhood. We met with the residents and their representatives, examined the plans, and provided the residents with planning information and explanations. The Al-Oqabi Tribe (Negev Patrol 2): Following a request from members of the Al-Oqabi tribe and the Clinic for Law and Society at the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, we appended a planning opinion to the objection submitted by members of the tribe of Negev Bedouin to a government decision to change plans for a locality that had been intended for Bedouin residents to be for Jewish residents instead. Section 17 of the Trans-Israel Highway: In cooperation with Sikkuy, we drafted an opinion and a presentation on Section 17 of the Trans-Israel Highway, which limits the scope for development for residents of Baqa-Jatt. The opinion and presentation were presented to local residents and decision-makers. The "Border" Fence: Following a request from residents of A-Russ, Kafr Zur, and Faron, we submitted an opinion for a petition to the High Court of Justice regarding the expropriation of land belonging to those localities for the purpose of building a buffer zone that would cut residents off from their land. Together with B'tselem, we are now drafting a position paper on the planning aspects of building a border fence. Observation Tower in East Talpiot, Jerusalem: We helped residents of East Talpiot to submit a request for the right to appeal against the district planning committee's rejection of their objections to the tower. The residents' request was turned down, but the appeal by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel is still pending and the proceedings have not been completed. The Gazelle Valley, Jerusalem: We have broadened our activities with the Action Committee (a group of organizations and residents heading the campaign) to save the Gazelle Valley. After the objection to building on the site was successful, we moved ahead with an alternative proposal for planning the valley on behalf of local residents. We are currently running a workshop to include residents of the neighbourhoods adjoining the valley (the Katamonim, Givat Mordechai, Rasco, and others) in planning the area as a public green area. Ein Rafa and Ein Naquba: Residents of Ein Rafa and Ein Naquba asked us to consider how a district outline plan currently being drafted would impact on the development of their villages. We are in the final stages of drafting our opinion, which has been given to the residents of the villages. Jabel Mukhaber: Along with the residents of Jabel Mukhaber and their lawyers, we took action against the plans to build a Jewish quarter at the heart of this Arab neighbourhood. We claim that it is illegal to construct a dividing fence inside the neighbourhood. We gave our opinion to the residents and their representatives so they could begin legal proceedings and, on a number of occasions, we wrote to the City Engineer, the head of the local planning committee, and other municipal officers. We published a fact sheet in Arabic describing the plans and gave it to neighbourhood residents. Following our action and legal proceedings, construction of the fence was halted. However, steps have been taken to apply for a building permit. Battir: After residents of Battir contacted us through Tayush, we met with them and are now examining plans to improve the railway track in the area. Since Israel Railways is working on the site, we are examining whether the approval went through the correct legal procedures and are acting as intermediaries between the residents and the authorities in giving information and explanations. Gush Allonim: We are drafting a planning opinion to be appended to an objection submitted by Adalah for the residents who farm at Shefaram, Basmot Tivon, Kabiya and other localities in the area, to a local outline plan that changes the zoning of the agricultural land they farm, zoning it instead a national park and nature reserve to be called Gush Allonim. National Outline Plan 35: We are working on our response to National Outline Plan 35 and to the social aspects of the plan. To this end, we are examining the plans, appendices, and other material and have invited the architect of the plan, Shammai Assif, to our offices to present the plans and the goals. The Vision for the Negev: Bimkom is initiating a project the goal of which is to set in motion a process by which residents of the Beersheba municipal area will develop a joint Jewish-Bedouin vision as the basis for combined long-term planning and development of the area. In order to establish what will be included in the project, we are currently examining the spatial distribution of the Jewish and Bedouin residents of the Beersheba metropolitan area and relations between them as reflected in national and district planning policy, and are holding meetings with organizations and other entities in the southern region and on a national level to develop a network of joint activities for the project. Planning Rights Report: We are in the process of writing a Planning Rights Report examining the planning situation of local authorities in Israel, comparing development towns, Arab localities, and other localities in a statistical survey and through test cases examining the situation in the different localities. Urban planners Esther Levinson and Alex Alexander and advocate Mona Yazbek began writing the report in March 2002 and expect to finish the project in the summer of 2003. Education Bimkom's Annual Conference on Ethics and Planning: The conference was held in July 2002. It was successful, generated interest, and attracted a large number of participants. Prof. Adi Ophir gave a lecture entitled "The Role of Morality." At a panel session, some of Bimkom's projects - the Planning Rights Workshop at Qasr-el-Ser, mediation at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, and action to change the authorities' policy on evacuation and construction - were presented, and professionals responded to various issues. Over 200 people participated at the conference and expressed great interest. Planning Rights Workshops for Residents of the Unrecognized Villages in the Negev: We conducted five sessions of the workshop as part of the community empowerment project of the Local Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, in partnership with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Approximately 30 male activists representing six unrecognized villages took part in the workshops and there were two parallel groups of women from Bir Hadaj. Bimkom focussed on formulating planning principles and giving the background to local planning and to planning in general. Planning Rights Workshop at Qasr-el-Ser: The Planning Rights Workshop for the Bedouin village Qasr-el-Ser was held in the village in May and June 2002. The workshop was organized by Bimkom in partnership with the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev and the Jewish-Arab Centre for Economic Cooperation. At the end of the workshop, a short film was produced and we are now about to print a booklet describing the proceedings of the workshop. Planning Rights Workshop at Abu-Ghosh: In December 2002, we began a planning rights workshop at Abu-Ghosh in partnership with the School for Peace at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. Some twenty men and women from Abu-Ghosh have been participating in the workshop. The workshop will comprise eight sessions and we expect it to be completed in April 2003. One-day Workshops for Community-Action Organizations: Bimkom and SHATIL collaborated in organizing the first workshop for social-action and environmental organizations in November 2002. The workshop is an opportunity to introduce representatives of these organizations to the world of planning and for them to become acquainted with its concepts and learn how to exercise planning rights. In light of the success of the workshop, we expect to conduct another one in 2003. There was also a one-day seminar for Bedouin activists working for AJEEC the Arab-Jewish Centre for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation through the Negev Institute for Peace and Development Strategies. The twenty-one participants comprised representatives of Bedouin nonprofit associations and representatives of local government. The workshop included the following elements: Introduction to planning processes in Israel and those relevant to the Bedouin population and community participation in planning activities. "Cinemakom" - Human Rights, Planning, and Space in Film: The project was held during Civil Rights Week in December and comprised four sessions, held at the Sederot, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem cinematheques. The goals were: To demonstrate the relationship between planning and civil rights; to familiarize the general public with Bimkom's agenda; and to show how relevant planning is in our daily lives and what a significant impact it has. The project was a great success and it is estimated that around 1,000 people attended the events. Production of Fact Sheets: We are working on fact sheets aimed at the general public. To date, two such sheets have been drafted and they are now being edited. One is entitled "What is planning?" and includes general information such as the planning environment, the planning process, the level of planning, and how to affect it. The second deals with building permits and demolition orders. Building a Model for Community Workshops: The Education Committee has begun to build a prototype model for Planning Rights Workshops for communities. The model is based on the experience Bimkom has acquired in initiating and running workshops on planning rights for diverse communities in Israel. Public Activities on Different Levels Participation in Seminars and Conferences · We were invited to be members of the steering committee of the local Agenda 21 Project run by the Heschell Centre and Tzippori Centre, and to participate and present our position at a workshop of experts on the subject of urban scripts in Agenda 21. These were presented in the forums by architect and urban planner Eli Ilan. · In March 2002, we participated in a discussion on discrimination in planning and construction in the city of Lod at a seminar organized by SHATIL on the situation for Arab citizens of Israel in mixed cities (Jaffa, Lod, and Ramle). Architect Shmuel Groag presented the planning aspects examined by Bimkom when drafting a report on the city of Lod. · Architect Eli Ilan represented Bimkom at a discussion on the contribution of professionals to the community and the involvement of the public in planning at a conference of the Interdisciplinary Forum for Community Development in January 2002. · In June 2002, at the Communities Plan for Themselves conference organized by the Geography Department of Tel Aviv University and SHATIL, Bimkom's chairperson, Dr. Tovi Fenster, presented the organization's position on involving the public in planning and our activities on the subject. · We participated in meetings of the brainstorming forum on planning issues and municipal administration of the Jewish-Arab Centre for Economic Development. · In August 2002, at a conference on the hardships experienced by Bedouin in the Negev organized by Tel Aviv University, Dr. Tovi Fenster lectured on "Local Knowledge and Professional Knowledge in Planning" and spoke about our activities at the Planning Rights Workshop at Qasr-el-Ser. · Architect Shmuel Groag lectured at a conference organized by a group of creative artists against the occupation on "Planning and Non-planning as a Tool for Space Appropriation" in November 2002. · We organized a number of lectures about Bimkom and our activities for various organizations: · For Yedid, a lecture by architect Yoav Weinberg; · For Shil (the Citizens' Advice Bureau under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs), a lecture by the Education Coordinator Anat Barkay at a seminar for directors of the CAB centres; · For Mahapach - in cooperation with the Mahapach community in Sederot - a lecture by architect Yoav Weinberg. Following this encounter, Mahapach sought planning consultancy from Bimkom; and · For Ta'ayush, a lecture by architect Yael Padan and urban planner Nili Baruch on the Jerusalem eastern ring road. Publications · We published a brochure about Bimkom (the association's "calling card"), which describes our activities and various aspects of planning rights: equality, impact, and information. The brochure is intended for professionals, decision-makers, and the public at large. It will be published in Hebrew and English in 2003. · Two booklets were published documenting conferences organized by Bimkom. The first is on Planning and Human Rights and the second on Ethics in Planning. These booklets join the series of publications produced by Bimkom on different aspects of planning rights. The Media · Articles about Bimkom in the press: "Learning the Language of the Establishment," (Hebrew) a review of Bimkom's activities and the ideology behind them (Esther Sandberg, Ha'aretz, December 23, 2001); "About Bimkom," (information sheet on sustainable planning published by the Heschell {Shell?} Centre, August 2001); "Shaking up the Shuk," front page article about Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market and the subject of public involvement in planning (Lauren Gelfond, In Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Post, June 14, 2002); "The District Planning Committee Made a Mistake in Determining that We Have no Status to Submit a Plan to Preserve the Area" (Hebrew) (Alissa Odenheimer, Ha'aretz Real Estate Supplement, April 15, 2002), about the appeal by Bimkom and the Ein Karem Committee on residents' rights to planning); "Morality in Planning" (Hebrew), an article by Esther Sandberg following publication of the booklet on the first conference, the expansion of Bimkom's activities, and in advance of the Ethics in Planning conference, Ha'aretz Section B, June 16, 2002; "Tightening the Ring" (Hebrew), Bat-El Efrati, Kol Ha'ir, November 8, 2002 - after the objection to the Jerusalem eastern ring road plan was submitted, an article was published reviewing Bimkom's activities and the main arguments in the objection. "Association's Report: Development Towns Overcrowded Eight Times Over" (Hebrew) - in Human Rights Week, Bimkom published the findings of its Planning Rights Report (Ruthi Sinai, Ha'aretz, December 11, 2002); "Not in My Back Yard" (Hebrew) (Merav Sarig, Ha'aretz supplement, December 27, 2002), etc. · Information about Bimkom and its activities also appeared in the electronic media: Dr. Tovi Fenster was interviewed on Radio One on March 5, 2002 in a programme about involving residents in planning; Bimkom's director, Esther Sivan, was interviewed for Radio PNR (a public radio station in the United States) on the opinion submitted by Bimkom regarding the construction of a fence and buffer zone running through rural land; Esther Sivan appeared on the human rights section on Radio Two's afternoon diary program after the Ethics in Planning conference and spoke on transparency of information to citizens (July 5, 2002); Tovi Fenster was on Radio Two's Cultural Matters program after the morning diary program, on Monday, March 8, 2002; architect Yoav Weinberg spoke about Bimkom and its activities and about the ethics of planners on Social Hour on July 10, 2002; Shuli Hartman and architect Shmuel Groag spoke about Bimkom and its activities on Social Hour on December 11, 2002, during Human Rights Week. · We signed announcements on human rights and planning rights and published advertisements about Bimkom's conference (on June 28, 2002) and the Cinemakom (September 6, 2002). Media publicity resulted in various enquiries from individuals and institutions and generated interest in our activities as well as bringing us new activists. Legislative Activities and Participation in Knesset Sessions · We participated in meetings of the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee and the Social Lobby that discussed the evacuation and construction in the Argazim neighbourhood; in discussions of the Finance Committee on the bill to establish a national infrastructures committee and the Economic Arrangements Law (on imposing a levy on objections), and at a number of meetings with the Commissioner of Future Generations at the Knesset. · We were invited to present our position to the inter-ministerial team formulating a new planning and construction bill. For this, we formulated a document of guiding principles for the new law including issues such as: enshrining in law the process of involving the public in planning and evaluating the public impact of planning, examining the composition of planning authorities, and the powers of the planning committees. The document was submitted and presented to the committee along with a document by the Coalition for Public Involvement in Planning, which we were also involved in formulating. · In July 2002, we published a petition by professionals (practising and academics) affirming that the planning of the State of Israel and the allocation of its lands are important to them in protest against the proposed law to zone state lands for Jews only. The petition was signed by many people and generated repercussions before and after it was published. · At the request of the Forum for Public Housing, we wrote an opinion on the Stabilization of Apartment Buildings Bill and presented it to the forum. The bill proposes building apartments on the ground floor of public housing buildings on stilts. Cooperation with Other Organizations and Activities in Coalitions · We continued to work through coalition of organizations working for housing rights and the land in Israel law. Activities of the forum focussed on attempting to prevent the passing of a law enshrining the rights of farmers to the land and activities before and after the petition to the High Court of Justice on the subject. · We participated in the activities of the coalition of organizations for the involvement of the public in planning. Most of the activities focussed on the proposals to change the Planning and Construction Law, stressing the need for the public to be involved in planning and construction processes and in activities against the Economic Arrangements Law. In the coalition's struggle against the government's intention to set up a national infrastructures committee, to reduce and weaken the public involvement in the planning of national projects, etc., we approached the Knesset Finance Committee and participated in its meetings in an effort prevent this legislation. · We are members of the coalition of organizations established to promote the establishment of a human rights commission in Israel. · We are partners in the meetings of representatives of Jewish and Arab organizations organized by SHATIL. · We continued to participate in meetings of the Sustainable Jerusalem coalition. · We are members of the Urban Forum - a new forum that involves government ministries and social and environmental organizations for consultancy, transfer of information, and discussion of plans and issues pertaining to Jerusalem. In this context, we are formulating a position paper on the outline plan being drafted for the city. · Relationships with new organizations (as far as we are concerned) with an eye to future cooperation: The organization of Ethiopian Jews in Israel; a Mahapach community - women from the Florentine quarter in Tel Aviv; Lemitnadev, a nonprofit association in Bet-Shemesh; Collot in the Negev; Ir-Shalem, a nonprofit association; the Forum for Coexistence in the Negev; the Unit for Democracy; participation at the Tzippori Centre; Emtza Haderech (a group of residents from Sederot); the International Centre for Cooperation and Peace; the School for Peace (Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam); Ta'ayush; the Citizens Advice Bureau, and others. · We have continued to cooperate with organizations that we worked with in the past, for example: the Association for Civil Rights; Sikkuy; Adalah; the Democratic Mizrahi Rainbow; the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel; the Heschell Centre; the Council for Unrecognized Villages; SHATIL, and others.