Less than 5% of new flats built in Arab areas in Israel last year

Arab residents in Israel received only 4.6 per cent of the newly built apartments during 2015, a reported issued yesterday revealed.

The report, which was issued by the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel Adalah, said that it monitored government bidding for building new apartments in 2015 and found that Israel is adopting “racial” policies in this regard and it resulted in a “severe residential crisis” in Arab villages and cities in Israel.

According to the report, which was prepared by the Lawyer Mohamed Bassam from Adalah, the overwhelming majority of land and houses marketed during the year were specified for Jewish communities.

Statistics showed that the Arab residents in Israel only had 4.6 per cent of the marketed houses during 2015; however, Arabs make up 20 per cent of the Israeli population.

Only 2.5 per cent of the apartments marketed with discounted prices were available to Arabs.

Regarding the number of bids for industrial zones, the report showed that the Arab cities and villages received only two of 20, and five out of 42 bids to establish commercial zones.

Adalah warned in its report that a solution for the residential crisis of the Palestinian community in Israel will never be achieved unless Israel reforms the historical “deep racial” plans adopted against Arabs.