Bar: Optimistic about Arab city
Photo: Niv Lillian
Proposal for new Arab city in the works
Interior ministry representatives say hundreds of acres in Galilee region could be approved as location for new Arab city
The regional building council in Israel's north is scheduled to hold a meeting Tuesday, to determine how to develop several hundred acres of land in the region, located adjacent to the Arab village of Judeida-Makr. One of the proposals? The establishment of an Arab city in the north.
"The place we're talking about is one option for the location of such a city," the Interior Ministry's Director-General, Aryeh Bar, confirmed to Ynet.
He noted that such a plan was only one option of many, but other senior officials in the Interior Ministry told Ynet that "it appears that the new Arab city will be established adjacent to Judeida-Makr."
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The land in question, four km south of the Arab village was frozen in 1991 with the intention of serving as land for the expansion of the city of Akko, which is also in the region. Since plans for the enlargement of the city did not get off the ground, the government needed to decide what to do with the acreage.
Six months ago, the cabinet approved an urban planning decision that involved the establishment of an Arab city in the Galilee region in Israel's north. Pursuant to the decision, the government established a joint-ministerial committee to advance the project.
Since the committee was supposed to submit its recommendation by the end of 2008, many people worried that the plan was all talk. But according to members of the Interior Ministry, the plan is finally taking shape.
Bar himself express confidence that plans for the new city would soon get off the ground. Based on the existing plan, some 2,000 living units would be built on the land. If approved, the community could house around 25,000 people.
"It's possible that they will decide to establish a completely residential area or a combined residential and industrial area," Bar said. "Additionally, the committee will decide whether to the new city will constitute its own municipality or whether it will fall under the jurisdiction of an existing municipality."
'Delay hopefully not based on fear'
Meanwhile, at the ninth annual Herzliya Conference, hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center, one of the topics of discussion was "multi-ethnic areas and cities in Israel," led by the Abraham Fund, which promotes coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Israel.Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, the fund's co-executive director in Israel, stated that in recent years, two mixed cities (Nazareth-Elite and Maalot) had joined the ranks of Israel's five traditional mixed cities (Jaffa, Haifa, Akko, Ramleh and Lod), a trend that he believes will lead to heightened inter-ethnic mixing in all of Israel.
"We don't get the impression that the project is advancing," Be'eri-Sulitzeanu said of the new Arab city. "I hope that the reason such a city is not being built is not because of panic regarding the expansion of Arab communities in the north and the desire to entrench the separation between Arabs and Jews."
