THE FABRICATION OF ISRAEL
About the Usurpation and Destruction of Palestine through Zionist Spatial Planning
A Unique Planning Issue
Viktoria Waltz - Herausgeberin - Dortmund 2010 Eigenverlag
Die hier in loser Folge zu veröffentlichenden vorliegenden Texte geben einen detaillierten Einblick in die Vorgänge, die zum Konstrukt Israel geführt haben und lassen keinen geringen Zweifel mehr daran, dass es unter den bestehenden zionistischen Rahmenbedingungen um nichts geringeres als das Ganze geht, um ein jüdisches Israel ohne Palästinenser und mit keinem Impuls für zwei Staaten, die nebeneinander leben könnten und auch nicht um eine Integration Israels in den Nahen Osten, sondern die Fortsetzung des aggressiven, zerstörerischen Kurses bis hin zu weiteren Kriegen. (wöchentlich wittwochs online)
III
Kassem Egbaria
2. Two Spatial Systems for one Land: Spatial Inequality in the Development of Palestinian Communities and the Actual Need for Equity
Conclusion from last part 3 (look at Blog Archiv Oct/Nov 2010)
At the end of the sixties, approximately 800 rural colonies and 30 New Cities had built a network of Jewish majority all over Israel as planned. The infrastructure from electricity, communication or water was established through all modes of international help, big part of it through the German compensation program (Wiedergutmachung) (Lewan 1984). Within less than 20 years Palestine in the 48 borders was turned into ‘Israeli (Jewish) Territory’. A new map was fabricated, what was former Palestinian was turned upside down into new Jewish reality.
However, the colonisation planning and policy fabricating a new, mostly Jewish space could not hinder a growing Palestinian presence. The Palestinian communities - though under military command - increased too, still forming majorities in three main areas: the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev. Consequently, from Israeli point of view the fight for an exclusive ‘Jewish homeland’ on the land of Palestine was not yet finished. Israel had not yet achieved to be pure Jewish and had not yet achieved the 'promised land' of Lord Balfour ‘from the coast to the river’. Consequently Israel started a war to reach new borders. And also in Israel expropriation and destruction policy did not come to a halt in the Palestinian areas and continues to be so today.
However, for the Palestinians the usurpation policy had already a crucial effect in Israel: until 1967 the Palestinian space was sharply reduced to less than 10 percent of the land, the living areas were neglected in all plans. The Galilee was divided into 30 sub- zones. These were executed ‘residence’ borders. No Palestinian could leave or move to other zones without permission of the military governor. The Bedouins of the Negev were allowed to move only within the boundaries of Beersheba (Bir Saba). They had to live in reservation camps, which prevented them more and more from their main bases of life, the pasture land and livestock. Moreover, in later programs they were forced to settle in special Bedouin villages - their freedom of movement had been anyway limited to nearly zero (see next chapters).
To conclude, under Israeli Zionist rule the Palestinian land was turned into Jewish/Israeli to an utmost level. The Palestinian communities suffered from restriction of mobility, spatial, social, cultural and economic development. Military governance was not lifted before 1966, just before a new war. Discrimination and racist plans in the Israeli leadership still followed the same aims of restricting living conditions, expulsion and expropriation (Koenig’s Report 1976). These policies prevented the Palestinians in Israel until today from equity in a 'democratic system' and equal development chances as Egbaria will show as a special ethnocratic system in the following chapters.
III
Kassem Egbaria
2. Two Spatial Systems for one Land: Spatial Inequality in the Development of Palestinian Communities and the Actual Need for Equity
The national spatial planning system in Israel, which is the main vehicle of space development, allocates land areas within which local, regional and national authorities can develop socio-economic and environmental projects, as well as open spaces. The term spatial planning in the state of Israel refers to the allocation, management and use of land in planning processes. The Israeli spatial planning system, which guides the process of allocating land for urban and rural development, operates under a centralised framework (top-down approach), i.e., the higher tier, the National Commission, obligates the lower ones, the District and Local Commissions, (Sharkansky, 1997; Fenster, 1996). Without such plans, no buildings can be approved, and no state services such as water, electricity and telephone are provided.
According to Alterman (1994) and Yiftachel (1995), the Israeli spatial planning system is divided into two principal branches: developmental/initiative and procedural/regulative. The main goal of the former is to develop and promote sustainable patterns of land use, roads, open spaces and forests across the country. However, the procedural/regulative system (i.e., zoning plans of various scales) functions according to the Planning and Building Law of 1965. It mainly operates under the auspices of the Israeli Ministry of Interior to develop national, regional and local, spatial master/outline plans. This branch is characterised by a hierarchical and centralised structure, with virtually no input from the communities who need and are affected by the plans. Khamaisi (2004) argues that Jewish citizens experience both branches of spatial planning, while Palestinian residents in Israel primarily experience the procedural branch of planning. (Even though they are Palestinians for the use of official Israeli statistics we have to use the official Israeli term, Arabs. Otherwise, we will use the term Palestinians). ...
Full text, Volltext look at: http://www.palaestina-portal.eu/Waltz/4engIplanningsystem_s_64-82.pdf
