17.6.09

Plan for a new Haredic city in Wadi Ara threatens the Arab villages Dar ElHanoun and Um ElQutuf

Lately there has been an alarming accelerations in the plans for a new Haredic (Jewish ultra-orthodox) city in Wadi Ara (Israel) between the settlements Harish and Katzir. These two settlements were defined already in the 1990s as part of the "Star Plan" of then minister of planning construction, Ariel Sharon. The explicit aim of that plan was to prevent the development of local Arab township using new Jewish settlements that would separate between them. In the area between Katzir and Harish, there are now not less than 30,000 new apartments being planned, for Jews only.

The new city would border the Arab villages of Dar ElHanoun and Un ElQutuf. Dar ElHanoun exists since the 1920s, but is not recognized by the State of Israel, which uses the pretext that its area has "scenic qualities". Now the Israeli government is planning a big city, 200 meters only from the land of the Arab village. This is while the houses of the old village are threatened by demolition orders, due to so-called "illegal construction". Also a large part of the land of the Arab village Um ElQutuf will be confiscated for the new Jewish city, and the bearby big Arab township Kafr Qari will lose much of its land for a new industrial zone that will serve the new Jewish city.

In parallel - the Israeli supreme court has recently rejected the appeal of the Society for Preservation of the Nature in Israel against the new settlement of Mitzpe Ilan, which has been illegaly populated near Dar ElHanoun. The approval of this Jewish settlement marked the escalation in the discrimination against the old Arab village of Dar ElHanoun.

The approcal of the new Jewish city is expected to worsen the land shortage among the Arab localities in Wadi Ara, while perpetuating the discrimination between Arab and Jewish towns and villages. The ICDH demands to stop the implementation of all these measures, which are expected to worsen the relations between Jews and Arabs in Wadi Ara, and to bring the discrimination against Dar ElHanoun and the other Arab residents in the area to new peeks.

Detailed map of the city plan - the red points are Dar ElHanoun and Um ElQutuf:


back to Dar ElHanoun's webpage