Arab Israelis stage general strike over housing crisis

Arab Israelis have undergone a general strike on Tuesday amid the housing shortage and house demolitions in Arab communities in the country.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, a representative body of the Arab Israelis, Arab citizens who constitute 20 percent of Israel's population, announced it wants to send a clear message to Israeli authorities that it would not back off from demanding what Arab civilians deserve.

The strike included schools, higher education institutions, public institutions, banks and many shops across Arab towns, mostly situated in northern Israel.

According to data published by the Ha'aretz daily recently, most Arab towns, which are at the lowest bracket of the socio-economic index in Israel, lack land for construction and master plans permitting legal constructions in those towns.

It also reported that over the next decade, some 18,000 houses would be needed each year to accommodate the Arabs' natural growth.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee said in a statement this week that there are 60,000 pending demolition orders against illegal construction in Arab towns.

They demand to legalize retroactively some private construction and charges the government should expand the municipal borders of those towns.

Organizers of the protests also mentioned "growing racism" as part of their incentive to conduct the strike. They will also conduct a march and a rally at Tel Aviv later on the day.

"This strike is a response to the increased action by Israeli Authorities demolishing Arab homes and the harsh policy of incitement to hatred against Arabs which was launched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the elections," the committee said in its statement.

On the day of the March 17 elections, Netanyahu tried to urge right-wing voters to head to the ballots by warning them that Arab Israelis are being "bussed in droves" by left-wing organizations in order to topple his regime.

His statement drew harsh criticism in Israel, in the international community and specifically from the White House administration.

Arab Israelis are Palestinians who stayed on their land rather than flee in the 1948 establishment of the state. There are about 1.7 million Arabs living as citizens in Israel, a fifth of its population.

Samah Salaime, an Arab Israeli social worker working in Lod in central Israel, explained in a column to the 927 alternative news blog his take on the strike and its causes.

"The average Israeli does not understand the dramatic changes taking place in its own back yard in Arab society," he wrote.

"For Jewish Israelis, if something is going on with 'the neighbors' (Arabs), the automatic reaction will come on the streets. But most importantly, nobody will care, neither the government nor the media."

He explained, however, that due to the establishment of the Joint Arab List, which won 15 seats in the latest elections and took part in the staging of Tuesday's rally, there is a "sense Arab citizens are riding on a different wave" and Arab citizens "want to integrate on all levels and in all areas of life." Endit