For almost two decades, the Jewish rural settlement in the Negev and the Galilee has suffered severe restrictions, resulting from the consequences of the national outline plan - NAP 35.
The Minister of the Interior, Ayelet Shaked, internalized the seriousness of the situation, and in her appeal for the formulation of a practical action plan, she wrote on her Facebook page: "I received a painful token. To change the restrictions.
As expected, in an editorial (6.12.2021), the Haaretz newspaper attacked Shaked's program, entitled "The Minister of Discrimination."
But a look at the basic data will show that the opposite is true: Shaked came to correct government discrimination, which systematically froze Jewish settlement in the rural area.
The discrimination against Jewish settlement is evident in three dimensions.
In the first, Table 2 of the national outline plan set a final quota for all Jewish localities in the rural area - about 400 households on average.
A locality that has exhausted the planning quota is blocked for expansion.
This is, for example, the situation of Yodfat in the Central Galilee.
In non-Jewish localities, however, no quota was ever imposed.
In the second dimension, an installation for restricting admissions committees is activated.
Jewish localities in the Negev and the Galilee are interested in preserving their unique community character, and for this purpose depend on the law authorizing the selection of candidates through an admissions committee.
But this permission is limited to up to 400 households.
This is the situation in the locality of Hoshaya, which concerns the quota, and an engine for recording waiting families, in the majority of the residents of the locality.
The third dimension concerns price discrimination.
This is largely due to the limitation of the size of the locality, which causes an increase in prices due to the demand, which is greater than the supply.
In the locality of Lotem, for example, adjacent to Gush Misgav to the Bedouin village of Selma, the price per lot allocated by the Israel Land Authority is ten times higher than the price in the Bedouin village.
As a result of the restrictions, it is almost impossible for the next generation to find their home in the locality where they grew up.
Birth rates are falling, kindergartens are closing and communities are getting older.
Advocate Ron Rogin, who has been dealing with the issue for decades, points in his research to a steep decline in the number of children as a direct result of restricting the joining of young families. It is difficult for Jewish citizens in Israel to recognize the disadvantaged sector. Gates in the Jezreel Valley Not a single plot of land has been allocated for construction.
In response to Haaretz's claims, it is worth asking in which Arab village can a Jew build his house?
Who knows that in the style of the Israel Land Authority's tenders for plots in non-Jewish villages, it is explicitly emphasized that the tender is intended only for the villagers?
They really do not need admissions committees, it happens there traditionally and with the help of the State of Israel.
The process of approving and assimilating NAP 35 is an example of a revolutionary and subversive step. On the face of it, the plan was presented as an innocent step to preserve open spaces. The distortion is to be appreciated, and to the full support of the Jewish public. As a result of the restrictions, it is almost impossible for the next generation to find their home in the Jewish community where they grew up.
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