Planning policy in the north of Israel, as in the rest of the country, is characterized by discrimination against Israel’s Palestinian citizens. Since the establishment of the state, lands originally owned by Palestinians were appropriated through the Absentee Property Law, and later through additional expropriations of land belonging to those not defined as “absentees.” This enabled the expansion of Jewish localities while reducing the living areas available to Israel’s Palestinian citizens.
Over the years, planning has served as a major tool for implementing this discrimination. As a result, many localities suffer from severe shortages of land and housing, as well as a lack of public spaces, services, and employment zones.
Although numerous outline and detailed plans have been prepared for towns and villages inhabited by Israel’s Palestinian citizens, they have often failed to meet the real needs of residents or local authorities. Even after the year 2000, when the state committed to improving this situation, the plans advanced did not adequately address the full range of planning and development challenges. These plans remain limited in both area and building rights, and therefore continue to hinder the growth of localities, directly affecting the living conditions and opportunities available to the Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Only in the past decade have several government decisions and large-scale funding programs been introduced to improve planning and other key areas affecting Palestinian communities in Israel. Implementation of these decisions, however, has faced significant obstacles, and state authorities have not succeeded, except in a few limited cases, in bringing about substantial improvements in planning and development in these localities.
Unlicensed construction is widespread in nearly all these localities, due to the lack of planning solutions for housing and employment. In recent years, and especially since the 2017 approval of Amendment 116 to the Planning and Building Law (which increased enforcement against unlicensed building), enforcement against unlicensed construction has intensified without providing adequate avenues for legalizing existing buildings. As a result, the threat of home demolitions has become immediate and severe in many towns and villages, as well as in unrecognized communities of Palestinian citizens in northern Israel.
