menu
Monday, February 10, 2025
histadrut
Created by rgb media Powered by Salamandra
© Davar- All rights reserved
News

Development Budgets for Druze, Circassian Communities Chronically Underutilized

Chair of the Forum of Druze and Circassian Authorities: “I shouldn’t have to chase ministries and beg. The bureaucracy is designed to prevent us from implementing programs”

הפגנת דרוזים וצ'רקסים לשוויון זכויות מול בית ראש הממשלה, יוני 2024 (צילום: יונתן זינדל/פלאש90)
Druze and Circassian protest for equal rights outside the prime minister’s residence, June 2024. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
By Yaniv Sharon

Development budgets allocated to Israel’s Druze and Circassian communities are underused, leading to overcrowding and neglect of the minority groups, leaders from those communities said earlier this month at a Knesset committee meeting on development in the Negev and the Galilee. Representatives from the relevant ministries cited various barriers to using the budgets they had received, prompting visible frustration from local authority heads as well as Committee Chair Michael Biton.

About 150,000 members of the Druze minority live in Israel, as do around 5,000 Circassians. Unlike other non-Jewish minority groups in Israel, both Druze and Circassian men are conscripted into the military. Both groups are concentrated mostly in northern Israel, with nearly all Circassians living in the two villages of Kfar Kama and Rehaniya.

Both groups have faced significant state discrimination over the years. A particular point of contention for the minority groups is the 2018 Nation-State Law, a basic law that defines Israel as the state of the Jewish people, effectively relegating non-Jewish minorities to second-class status.

“The situation in the villages is unbearable,” Anwar Amer of the Druze town of Hurfeish said in the committee meeting. “We haven’t received any government attention. Schools haven’t operated for three to four months. There are no playgrounds or soccer fields. Do you know what we produce here? Soldiers and officers.”

Yasser Gadban, chair of the Forum of Druze and Circassian Authorities, said that the priorities of the communities were the connection of all homes, including those built illegally, to electricity infrastructure, the repeal of the Nation-State Law, and the repeal of the Kaminitz Law.

Passed in 2017, the Kaminitz Law gives the government increased power to demolish illegally constructed homes. Non-Jewish minority groups in Israel say that they have been placed in a double bind where they are not granted permits to build homes and then treated punitively with home demolitions and fines when they build illegally.

Instead of addressing these priorities, Gadban said, lawmaker Avichai Boaron introduced a plan to establish a new city for the Druze in the West Bank.

“The ministries are abusing us,” Gadban said. He noted that new residential plots for the community are stuck in limbo. Since 2021, he said, no budget has been allocated for building Druze and Circassian religious institutions, with funds stuck in the Ministry of the Interior. He also said that educational welfare budgets were returned to the Ministry of Finance because they were not used.

“I shouldn’t have to chase ministries and beg. The bureaucracy is designed to prevent us from implementing programs,” he said.

Mikhal Mahmali, a representative of the Ministry of the Interior, responded stating that the funds would be transferred by the end of December. Amin Khaya, head of the Minorities Department at the Ministry of Housing, said that the problem with the residential plots lies with the Israel Land Authority, which does not approve the marketing of 100% of plots to local residents.

Sif Mashlab, head of the Abu Snan local council, said that his village does not have enough land for its 15,000 or so residents, with new plots not allowed since 2004.

Salman Mula, head of the Yarka local council, said that some 450 young members of his community have nowhere to live as a result of government inaction and he has to prevent them from building illegally. “Some 1,500 homes were built on private land without permits,” he said. “Power lines have collapsed due to cable overloads.”

Eyal Badr, a representative of the National Student Council from the town of Maghar also participated in the discussion. “We serve the state, but the state must invest in our future,” he said.

Data presented at the meeting showed that the Ministry of Finance had transferred 75%-100% of the allocated budgets for Druze and Circassian communities, but the relevant ministries failed to fully utilize the funds. Only 30% of funds directed to the Ministry of Culture were used, as well as only 43% of those directed to the Ministry of Science and only 50% of those directed to the ministry of Environmental Protection. Only around 70% of funds for the Ministries of Welfare, Economy, and Transportation were used.

Hassan Abu Rish, a representative of the Ministry of Welfare, attributed low implementation rates in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams, site of deadly Hezbollah rocket strike earlier this year, to the lack of a designated welfare office building. MK Tatiana Mazarsky noted that there was a plan to build a welfare office in the village, but the ministry failed to utilize the allocated budget for its construction. MK Biton reprimanded the representatives for not using existing structures, such as schools, for welfare programs.

Husam Hussein, head of the Authority for Economic and Social Development in Druze and Circassian Communities, presented the government’s plans for the coming year. He announced that a budget proposal for a new five-year plan for these communities would be submitted by December and that a regional planning committee with a budget of 200 million shekels ($56 million) would be established. This new plan aims to resolve housing issues, improve education systems, and expand employment opportunities.

This article was translated from Hebrew by Ronen Cohen.

Acceptance constitutes acceptance of the Website Terms of Use