Israeli Arabs protest house demolitions

JERUSALEM: Arabs across Israel closed businesses and schools on Wednesday in a one-day strike to protest against the demolition of Arab homes built without the required, but hard-to-get, permits.

On Tuesday, authorities tore down 11 homes in the Arab town of Qalansuwa, in northern Israel.

Arab Israelis say discrimination by the Jewish state that makes it impossible for them to obtain planning permission to expand their communities.

The result is that many families resort to building homes without permission, leaving them liable to demolition. Mohammad Barakeh, the head of an Arab Israeli umbrella organisation and a former lawmaker, said observance of Wednesday’s strike “exceeded expectations.” “There was an excellent response in villages and towns,” he said.

The Joint List, a coalition of predominantly Arab parties, condemned Tuesday’s demolitions.

“The act of demolishing 11 houses, whose owners built on their private lands in Qalansuwa, is an unprecedented crime and a declaration of war against the residents of Qalansuwa and against the Arab community in Israel,” it said.

The Joint List is the third largest bloc in the Israeli parliament.

Arab Israelis make up some 17.5 per cent of the country’s population, and are descended from Palestinians who remained on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948.

Israeli public radio said the strike was widely observed in Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm. all Arab