Israel’s ‘Jews only’ ministerial budget sees Palestinian towns denied compensation  

Towns with a majority Palestinian population have been refused compensation by Israel for damage caused during the 2021 May riots while Jewish towns have been paid millions of dollars in reparation, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has uncovered, highlighting the entrenched racism of the state of Israel against its non-Jewish citizens.

The riots, which were triggered by a series of Israeli provocations including the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, followed by a 11-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip-which killed  at least 254 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women – led to extensive damages to shops and properties across several towns.

During the riots the ugly scenes shocked and alarmed many. “Pogrom” was trending on social media at the time along with “apartheid” as Israeli lynch mobs dragged a Palestinian man out of his car and began beating him almost to death. Shops within Palestinian neighbourhoods were vandalised, and the mobs broke into homes, terrifying those inside.

Synagogues were also set ablaze during intercommunal violence that critics at the time said challenged the Zionists’ claims of peaceful coexistence with their “Arab” neighbours.

Though several Israel towns were impacted, the Apartheid State however is said to have only agreed to compensate mainly Jewish ones. Requests for compensation submitted by the municipalities of Lod, Ramle and Acre were all accepted. The three towns have a high Jewish population: Lod 69.4 per cent are Jewish, Ramle  80 per cent are Jewish while Acre some 70 per cent of the residents are Jewish.

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Israel paid 3.8 million shekels ($1.1. million) to Acre and an advance of 300,000 shekels ($86,800) to Ramle. It also pledged an additional 900,000 shekels ($260,500) to Ramle (per the municipality’s estimate) for work completed and receipts submitted. Lod is still negotiating with the Tax Authority over the amount of compensation, reported Haaretz.

In contrast, the Tax Authority rejected damage compensation requests from towns with a majority Palestinian population: Umm Al-Fahm, Rahat, Tira and the local councils of Nahaf, Rayna and Deir Hanna. The Tax Authority’s refusal in Umm Al-Fahm was based on the claim that the damage had nothing to do with the Jewish-Arab conflict, and that the residents were to blame.

This claim has been rejected as it has been discovered that the explanation given for the refusal to compensate Arab municipalities is identical to the one given to the Umm Al-Fahm municipality. When the decision was appealed by Umm Al-Fahm, which requested data on the amount of compensation received by Arab, Jewish and mixed local authorities for damage caused during the riots, the Tax Authority refused the request due to what it called reasons of confidentiality.

“This is further evidence of the government’s discriminatory policy against the Arab public,” Attorney Mudar Yunas, chairman of the National Committee for Arab Local Authority Heads, is reported saying. “After designating some ministerial budgets for Jews only, and after the Interior Ministry has spearheaded an effort to weaken Arab local authorities – now Arab local authority heads are discovering that the public property in their communities is invisible to government institutions, and that the Arab local authorities are being blatantly discriminated against.”