Arabs claim land reform is racist

[Donald Ian Rankin]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3755831,00.html

The land reform bill has yet to be passed, but the Arab sector is already up in arms about it. A day before the Knesset vote that is expected to pass the bill into law, the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee sent a letter to the Knesset speaker and to the attorney general demanding that they block the bill, which they claim severely discriminates against the Arab population in Israel.

"The proffered alternative will rule that lands transferred to the Jewish National Fund will exclusively be to the benefit of the Jewish citizens of the State," the letter claimed.

According to the committee, which sent the letter with the help of Arab minority rights organization Adalah, passing the bill will lead to about 0.3 acres being confiscated from their Arab owners, never to be returned. In addition, the law will forbid the settlement of Arabs of lands transferred from the state to the Jewish National Fund as part of the reform.

According to the letter, the reform will result in transfer of ownership of all the lands confiscated from the Arab population since the establishment of state. The lands, which were never utilized for the purposes to which they were confiscated, are currently under the custodianship of absentee properties.

(More at link)

[FarrenH]

1. The comments are charming n/t