Before You Demolish Homes — Build Hope!

By: Warda Sa'ada

The home demolitions in our Arab towns are not a “violation of the law”… but the result of a policy that prevents us, from the outset, from ever being able to receive the law.

Every time we hear about a home demolished in Arab society, we are told that the reason is “unlicensed construction.”But the truth is simple: you cannot punish us for building permits we were never given the possibility to obtain.

The planning and building crisis in our communities is not accidental. It is the result of a long-standing policy:

• Years-long, deliberate delays in issuing building permits.• No expansion of municipal jurisdiction for our towns and villages, unlike Jewish localities.• A complete absence of newly established Arab towns since the founding of the state.• Planning committees that include no real Arab representation and do not recognize the needs of our young and growing society.• A total lack of available land for legal construction, compared with the continuous and rapid expansion of settlements and Jewish cities.

We are facing an entire generation of young people who want to build a home legally, who want to live with dignity and legal security — yet the state does not provide them even the minimum conditions to do so.

That is why we say clearly:

Before you demolish homes — build hope.

Before you bring in bulldozers — open the door to legal permits.And before you speak of “law” — create a just policy that allows us to be equal partners in this country.

Demolition is not a solution.The solution is fair planning, expanding our localities, establishing new Arab towns, and empowering our youth to build their future with dignity.