Protests in Israel are increasing these days, but some are passing under the media radar. One of them is that of the residents of the Druze village of Beit Jann, who were happy about the issuance of demolition orders by the planning authorities for agricultural buildings built by the landowners as agricultural warehouses. The question arises, is the current protest added to a sequence of events from recent years, such as the Nationality Law or the Kaminitz Law, which undermine the mutual trust between the Druze and the state?

The protest of the villagers did not begin this week, but in 1997, when the administration and the Nature and Parks Authority and the planning and building authorities prevented them from cultivating some of the agricultural land and building agricultural buildings on it. The conflict then ended in dozens of wounded and severely protested by the Druze, and as a result they reached an agreement with the state that they could continue to cultivate their lands. In 2017, some farmers built agricultural warehouses on their lands; Land they inherited from their families and cultivators for generations, however the state has decided to take action against illegal construction.

It began with the distribution of demolition orders by Nature Authority inspectors, which agitated the villagers and caused a severe confrontation. The police, surprisingly, did not exactly intervene this time, and did not use force even when the protesters overturned a vehicle and vented their anger, but a buffer between the angry mob and the inspectors.

It is not clear why and why precisely now, while the country, like the rest of the world, is preoccupied and engaged in the fight against the corona plague, the one who decided it is urgent to issue demolition orders in Beit Jann (and also to demolish a ballroom in Tira). The events took place far from the media dramas surrounding the independence protests and demonstrations in front of the Prime Minister's House. Who has a head for the protest of those who are fighting for the house?

True, there is a problem in Arab society, which includes the Druze community, and that is the problem of illegal construction, which was not born a year ago or a decade ago. It was born with the establishment of the state, whose governments, in their chronic lack of care in planning and construction, have brought about the brink of anarchy. Some who build without a permit do so out of lack of choice, and some do so as a result of a lack of governance, a lack of planning and a lack of answers and answers to citizens.

In any case, both situations - violent confrontations and lack of solution - must not continue. A state should do good with its citizens, first and foremost by providing an adequate, reasonable, roofing option, and allow citizens to plan and build according to their needs. The Kaminitz Act, which is primarily intended to enforce a building ban without a permit selectively, is fundamentally bad. What is needed is one comprehensive solution, and not extinguishing fires, because the problem of illegal construction is burdensome for all Arab localities. Even in the largest Arab city, Nazareth, there are thousands of buildings without a permit, a sign that this is a problem of depth, and not a sectoral tendency to disobey the law.