Roadmap Recommendations Summary_English

Roadmap for a
Shared Society

Summary of
Recommendations

March 2017

EU ‫מפת דרכים לחברה משותפת‬

Peacebuilding ‫خارطة طريق لمجتمع مشترك‬
Initiative Roadmap for a Shared Society

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of
Havatzelet Givat Haviva Cultural and Educational Institute of Hashomer Hazair and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

Contents

Governance - Background .................................................................................. 4
Governance – Recommendations........................................................................ 5
Restorative Processes and Cultural Representation - Background ....................... 8
Restorative Processes and Cultural Representation - Recommendations............ 11
Education - Background................................................................................... 13
Education - Recommendations ......................................................................... 15
Economic Development - Background .............................................................. 17
Economic Development – Recommendations .................................................... 19
Land Use - Background .................................................................................... 21
Land Use – Recommendations.......................................................................... 24

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Dear Friends,
Two years ago, at the Third Annual Givat Haviva Shared Society Conference, we presented a
joint Jewish-Arab vision for the future of Israel. In the conference’s keynote address,
President Ruby Rivlin first unveiled his vision for a shared society, the vision that he
presented a week later at the Herzliya conference, where it came to be known as “the Four
Tribes speech.” During the conference, a group of activists from civil society described the
vision they had worked to hammer out together for over two years.
In the wake of the conference, in response to our relationship with the President and the
feedback we received, we realized that conditions for adopting the vision for the future of
the State we presented were not yet ripe, and decided to table that vision and instead focus
on articulating concrete steps that will lead to the creation of a shared society based on the
broadest possible agreement.
Over the last year and a half, we have led an effort to create a “Roadmap for a Shared
Society,” with teams of experts including representatives from the public and private sectors
as well as civil society. The goal of this effort was to draft a set of policies that will lead to the
greatest equality and build partnerships to include the Arab citizens of Israel.
At the Givat Haviva Conference on March 20, the recommendations for the Roadmap for a
Shared Society of Jewish-Arab partnership in Israel will be presented in the five areas of
Economic Development, Education, Land Use, Governance, and Restorative
Processes/Cultural Representation. We invite you to be active partners of Givat Haviva and
our vision of equal partnership between Jews and Arabs in Israel and participate in the
conference and in the Public Engagement, towards bringing these recommendations to the
Knesset and the government.
Sincerely,
Yaniv Sagee
Givat Haviva Executive Director

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Governance - Background

Governance from a Shared Society Perspective

The representation in governance of the Arabs in Israel needs to undergo a perceptual shift
that will lead to full partnership in decision making at all levels, with consonant impact
regarding issues of critical national importance. This will require political representation and
representation in senior professional circles, if it is to persuade the Arab public that it is
preferable to participate in the life of the country and in its crucial decision processes rather
than close themselves off in a sectoral manner. The process must include fundamental parity
in the budgeting of resources, including affirmative action where required.
The governance group recommends new directions for increasing participation in the
political arena utilizing bottom-up strategies to forge a partnership between the third sector,
business, local government and civic actors. This partnership will have a powerful impact,
prompting the national government to join in the effort, in contrast to the current situation
and political climate in which the government has neither the will nor the wherewithal to
formulate a policy promoting a foundation and appropriate norms for a shared society.
There is a noteworthy tension between the old model, under which members of the
government lay out a policy and the bureaucracy of government agencies carry it out, and a
more innovative model under which additional payers enter the picture and bring influence
to bear on policy design. Potential partners should include senior civil service professionals,
civil society actors (nonprofit organizations and influential individuals from various sectors
including civil society, business, politics, etc.), the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel,
Arab and Jewish local governments, the business sector, professional organizations (the
Citizen’s Empowerment Center in Israel, the Histadrut, the Begin Center, JDC Israel, etc.),
and the central government.

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Governance – Recommendations

Recommendations:

1. Creating a shared state space supportive of new governance: Establishment of a
public state council for integration under joint Arab-Jewish leadership, with an
executive committee comprising knowledgeable and experienced people of stature
in the various spheres – the third sector, local and central government, and
business. The products expected of this council will include active citizenship,
partnerships between municipal governments and business/economic entities,
production of periodic reports, provision of relevant information, etc. This new body
will reinterpret the idea of what a democracy is, to feature a broad focus of decision
making and the inclusion of additional actors – apart from politicians – in building
coalitions of influence, cross-sectional coalitions that will serve as the basis for
assembling ad hoc coalitions addressing different subjects, such as legislation and
resource allocation. This will involve new working models based on a new lexicon
among key players, who will assume leadership and proactively influence the setting
of policy, and a civil society that takes an active part in planning the space it inhabits
and in implementing the developments it has initiated – bringing influence to bear
on, and propelling, governance and other processes.
This model is based on regional economic leveraging among local governments,
Arab and Jewish, and on a continuing connection between initiatives of the local
governments and those occurring in civil society. The products will include annual
work plans, and machinery that contributes to the economic basis of the local
government (municipal economic companies, economic projects to increase local
government income, etc.). This leveraging will lead to proper, professional and
effective administration in local government, optimal exploitation of the budgets
from government programs, local government initiatives for broad-scale economic
development through partnerships, and public participation in planning and decision
making processes, while providing the impetus for central government decisions and
processes.

2. Increased access for Arab developers to financial instruments at banks and other
financial institutions: Increasing the awareness among Arab developers of financing
at the national level, for funding projects in industry, agriculture, environmental
quality, etc.; increasing the access of Arab developers to financial instruments, for
promoting a proposed business initiative that creates the basis for public impact.
This will increase public awareness of existing obstacles confronting Arab
developers, promote the establishment of mechanisms for business mentoring of
projects, redefine the relationship between the banks and financial institutions and
existing businesses, and enable commercial companies owned by Arab developers to

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break into the national market, while promoting commercial partnerships between
Arab and Jewish developers.

3. Creation of platforms for cooperation between local government and the third
sector: This kind of cooperation can happen separately between Arab local
governments and the third sector, focusing on issues unique to them; and, in
addition, can happen with Jewish and Arab local governments together, with the
third sector, around shared regional issues. This will enable shared initiatives by
local governments and the third sector to improve the lives of residents and
formulate solutions to selected issues, laying the foundation for a leadership role for
local government together with civil society – the local government taking
responsibility for solutions to the issues of concern to its residents, and promoting
and influencing government processes for the good of the region in which it is
located. Suggested areas of focus: technologically oriented employment in high
tech; employment for academics and professionals; education for equality and
integration into Israeli society; regional education for peace and comradeship;
regional cooperation; an expanded struggle against the increasing violence in Arab
society; etc.

4. Encouragement (funding and implementation) for projects within the jurisdictions
of the local governments in partnership with developers (joint initiatives, Build
Operate Transfer, Private Finance Initiative): Business sector partnerships with local
Arab governments, or Arab and Jewish local governments together, has great
potential in light of the very sizeable buying power of the Arab population and its as
yet only partially tapped human resources. Initiating projects of this type will require
approaching the government to obtain incentives and the release of land for this
purpose. This will lead to the building of infrastructure for the project initiatives
within the jurisdiction of the Arab local governments, to the use of public assets for
economic growth in partnership with business developers, to advancement of the
regional economy in Arab jurisdictions, to the creation of jobs for Arab residents of
the region, to cooperation between Arab and Jewish local governments around
business initiatives, to the creation of a foundation for government intervention to
declare development zones, including the granting of incentives and tax and other
relief to the developers.

5. The integration of Arabs into courses of study aimed at government positions:
Setting a target of 20 percent Arab representation among students in Government
Studies programs that incorporate experiential segments in government agencies
(internships, etc.) and encouragement for Arab students to join these programs
(raising awareness and providing stipends, among other things). This will create an
academic infrastructure for the admission of Arabs to unique programs, thereby
integrating the government space, and to creating an organizational infrastructure in
government agencies that will better equip them to intake Arab professionals.

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6. Monitoring of the rate Arab employment in the public space: Along with
integration of Arabs in unique programs aimed at jobs in public service, there should
be monitoring of the rate of employment of Arabs in government companies under
the Law for Fair Representation. That will highlight the glaring lack of fair
representation for the government and the Knesset Committee for Law, Legislation
and Justice, so as to provoke a public discussion of the subject and encourage
actions by government institutions to employ Arabs. In the long term, this will lead
to mutual trust and joint efforts by Arabs and Jews in the public sector; will bring a
cadre of Arab professionals into key posts in the public sector; will introduce greater
synchronization of policy processes with the Arab target population; and will
promote optimal implementation of policies intended for the Arab population.

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Restorative Processes and Cultural Representation -
Background

Restorative Processes and Cultural Representation

Achieving a shared society is not a simple challenge. The approach presented here proposes
moving from a situation of “identities that clash” to one of “identities that include,” via three
layered circles of coping:

 a circle of empowerment of Jewish identity, while learning about and acknowledging the
multiplicity of identities within it.

 a circle of empowerment of Palestinian Arab identity, while learning about and
acknowledging the multiplicity of identities within it.

In addition to learning about oneself through attention to these two circles, attention must
also be directed to a mutual process of learning about the complex “identity of the other,”
until it is internalized as a secondary identity within the main identity of each side.

 The third circle, essentially civil in nature, will be devoted to formulating the practical
possibilities for a “shared life” in the “shared space” in relevant spheres, such as the
enhancement of the core democracy, legislation to enhance equality between societies
and communities within Israeli society as a whole, enhancement of “multi-culturalism”
(in the public space, in education, in culture, etc.), an egalitarian allocation of resources,
projects to narrow disparities including via affirmative action, a greater share for all in
the central government, the conferral of governing authority at the district and local
levels in consonance with the character of the place and the people living there, and so
forth.

A special place must be reserved for the cultural representations of both societies,
reflecting the foundations of each society’s literature and poetry, history and heritage,
ethos, and collective memories, and the fruit of contemporary creative endeavor of each of
the societies – Jewish and Palestinian Arab – in Israel. These can be of service in the
reciprocal learning processes that facilitate becoming acquainted with the other society
through its cultural foundations and components, and can be the building blocks in the
creation of a shared cultural space and the basis for a “symbolic discourse” and a
“restorative discourse” to bring the two societies closer.

The reciprocal foundational values that must be built as the basis for a shared society
include trust, recognition, equality, honesty and good will, alongside the creation of mutual
interfaces in ideational and cultural language. Meanwhile, the foundation of the shared
society depends on increasing mutual efforts to resolve the longstanding and ongoing
conflict between the two national entities. The history of violent friction between Israel and
the Palestinian people continues to nourish alienation, hatred, exclusion and discrimination
between Jewish society and Palestinian Arab society in Israel, and all this baggage must be
addressed in depth, unpacked, and treated. The longstanding national conflict in the Middle

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East has left its mark on broad publics in Israeli society, both Jewish and Arab. Both sides
have a need to express the pain, fear, and frustration, the mutual anger, and the suffering
both personal and national that both sides feel, and receive acknowledgment of their sense
of injury, without casting blame on the other society. Acknowledging and being
acknowledged, and taking responsibility, in an act real or symbolic, could provide a
response, partial or otherwise, to the needs created by these wounds, even in cases where
the outcomes are irreversible.

In a situation of woundedness, when the injuring party also harbors a sense of victimhood,
there are needs on both sides:

 A need for acknowledgment of the injury and the damage that was caused, and is still
being caused, to individuals, to families, to communities and to the individual and
collective identity by the other side.

 A need to stop the wounding and create a secure, fair, and beneficent life space in the
shared space: sustenance, learning, culture.

Responding to these needs offers a basis for mutual acknowledgment, generation of trust,
reinforcement of a shared cultural language, and the taking of personal and collective
responsibility for the nature and future of the shared society.

Below are the three fundamental planes of engagement, in layers:

1. Guiding values / ethos: mutual respect, acknowledgment of the other, honesty,
openness, tolerance, cooperation and responsibility.

2. Skills: Listening, emotional expression, inclusion, empathy, absence of judgment, an
ability to manage conflicts.

3. Processes: Parallel and shared cultural representations, symbolic discourse between
the two societies.

In the existing political reality, and given the ongoing national conflict, defining “a shared
society” as a goal is not a simple challenge. Our evaluation is that a “restorative discourse,”
relying on principles of “restorative justice,” should create the required basis of mutual
acknowledgment, and enable significant progress toward a shared society.

The transformative process includes the use of a restorative discourse to lead to
acknowledgment among both societies of the legitimate existence of the various collective
identities in Israeli society, and beyond that to advancing a shared society as a vision and an
ideational approach among the broadest possible public, and to the reciprocal inclusion of
the diversity of identities in both societies based on the principle of “awareness of… and
“acknowledgment of…”. All this requires a public discussion revolving around these
questions: “What would you like Jewish/Arab society to learn and acknowledge about your
collective identity?” (In every meeting, dialogue, radio/television program, interview, event
planning) – “What message do you want to convey?”, “What is important to you that they
know about you and about the society you belong to?” The public discourse will address the
imperatives of allowing the other’s presence, expanding, thickening, and enhancing the
ability for inclusion, through the cultural representations from the two collective identities,
while emphasizing and structuring existing shared representations.

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Restorative Processes and Cultural Representation -
Recommendations

Key phases:

 Phase 1: Defining “the shared society” as the meta-goal and the moral vision.
 Phase 2: Clarification of the “collective identity” of each of the societies.
 Phase 3: Laying the foundations for a “shared space.”
Recommendations:

1. Creating a Shared Society Forum (a shared Jewish-Arab forum): A shared forum will
be set up to realize the vision of a shared society via restorative processes in the
spirit of the restorative approach, to translate into actions the shared society vision
and disseminate the idea to all of Israeli society, Jewish and Arab. The forum will
operate permanently as a founding committee in the matter of the shared society
and in close connection with a Shared Cultural Representations Forum. The forum
will work to advance the shared space; to create symbolic shared spaces in the
public and civic planes (such as: shared secular holidays, marking the International
Day Against Racism, Democracy Day, etc.) and to advance shared activities for
furthering mutual interests – civic, economic, social, educational, community,
cultural, etc.

2. Establishment of an agreed-on shared forum for Jewish and Arab public figures in
the arts and sciences, for one or two years, to formulate “cultural representations”
that offer a canon of values and components for collective identities to move toward
mutual acknowledgment, in order to create a shared corpus – cultural, artistic,
literary and scholarly – that will give expression to independent and shared
creations by the two societies, Jewish and Arab, in Israel, so as to create a “shared
cultural language”; allowing the other’s presence, expanding, thickening, and
enhancing the ability for inclusion by the cultural representations from the two
collective identities and existing shared representations; developing a moral and
cultural foundation for dialogues on the various levels (from the local community
level through the institutional and political levels) and well as educational activities,
public activities, etc.; laying the moral and cultural foundation for creating a
restorative and inclusive discourse between the two societies, Jewish and Arab, as
both inflicting harm and suffering harm, around collective events and traumas.

3. “Living Room Memories” to preserve the memory of the Nakba (mirroring the use
of Living Room Memories for preservation of the memory of the Holocaust).
Adoption of the model of “Memories in the Living Room” that has been used in
Israel for a few years as a different and meaningful way of preserving the memory of
the tragedy and making it meaningful for the younger generations.

4. Online forums: Encounters for youth, schoolchildren and families, and teachers
from Jewish and Arab society in Internet forums, in cooperation with formal

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education matrices in areas like life stories, family stories, cultural traditions, food,
local folklore, etc.
5. “A different way”: A joint encounter based on parallel events that involved serious
injury and existential threat (murder, massacre, expulsion) in the spirit of restorative
dialogue, which does not assign guilt but rather seeks deep acknowledgment and
understanding, aiming to acknowledge the mutual injury and the other’s need to
preserve the memory and learn lessons, to work through the difficult feelings that
are aroused by these brutal events, and to think together about how to end them
absolutely.
6. “Pairs of doves”: Assembling an anthology of stories about mixed couples, about the
shared space they created together and the solutions they found for the challenges
posed by the encounter between different cultural, religious and national identities.
7. Volunteers for “cultural sensitivity”: Assembling a group of volunteers or university
students who will identify organizations and agencies that provide public
information, direction and aid (guidance for preventing road accidents, drug and
alcohol abuse, suicide hot lines, first aid, etc.), will encourage them to review their
work and introduce more cultural sensitivity to the needs of other cultural groups,
and will work with them to achieve this.

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Education - Background

Education for Life in a Shared Society

The existence of separate educational systems perpetuates the mutual ignorance and
alienation between the various tribes. In the present situation, the establishment of a
shared educational system is not a realistic goal. Even a more modest goal like opening up
cracks in the walls of alienation between the different tribes requires defining a clear policy
that views a shared life as a central value. Encounters between teachers and principals from
the different communities are rare, curricula that laud a shared life gather dust in filing
cabinets but rarely if ever appear in classrooms, and a great many schools close their doors
to “the other.” If the society in Israel seeks to be a multicultural society that offers a place to
all the tribes, if it wishes to move on from the phase of struggle to the phase of partnership,
then the entire education system, from kindergarten through the academy, must enable
continuous encounters, ongoing dialogue, and cultivation of a multicultural outlook, at the
foundations of which are tolerance and inclusion between members of the various tribes.
Personal acquaintance is the key to creating a person-to-person and human dialogue
between members of the different groups.

In the aspiration and the effort to set rules for shared action, two principles must be
emphasized and reinforced:

1. Increasing trust. There must be encouragement to acquire a deeper acquaintance
with the different cultures and to internalize the belief that the current clashes
between them can potentially be managed constructively and inclusively, and that
they do not threaten the existence of the other tribe.

2. The principle of equality. Increasing trust demands the creation of an egalitarian
social system in the country, and mainly the assurance of a fair allocation of
resources between all the schoolchildren in Israel, which would give expression to
the needs of each and every child.

The educational system must be the vanguard in leading the change. The women and men
working in education (teachers, principals, state supervisors) are the most significant change
agents, hence the focus must be on them. The goal of this document is to lead to
comprehensive change in the area of teacher training in education for a shared life.

In practice, the scope of training in the realm of a shared life is minimal, comprising less than
one percent of all training or continuing education for school system professionals. Apart
from the occasional course for Safe Dialogue leaders, civics teachers have not yet been
trained to run unique programs for managing that kind of dialogue – a program of
multicultural active listening and speaking – nor have teachers of other subjects yet been
trained for this.

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The country’s teacher training system must train teachers who understand the complexity of
the multi-tribal society as presented above, who believe in a shared life in this country, and
who have the ability to lead change in the educational system. In the proposed draft,
courses about a shared life would be part of the core training for teachers, and all graduates
of the teacher training system would be required to take those courses. In other words,
training for a shared life would be a precondition for receiving a teaching certificate, and
that training would focus not just on theory, but also on practice.

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Education - Recommendations

Recommendations:

 Requirements for receiving a teaching certificate in the teacher training colleges and in
the university schools of education would include a course of teacher training for a
shared life.

 In the draft to be formulated in the Professional Development Division, professional
training in educating for a shared life will be designated for the respective constituencies
of teachers, principals, education ministry supervisors and education department heads
in local and city councils.

 The Ministry of Education will budget hours in the system for training for a shared life,
the emphasis to be placed on encounters between all the tribes, without the option of
refusing to meet with this or that group.

 The Ministry of Education will at five-year intervals evaluate the scope of the meetings
between the various groups and their influence on teacher and student attitudes.

 Intersectional transfer of teachers (recommended by the President of Israel): Teachers
from all the sector will teach in schools with students from different sectors.

 Target population: Teaches in training, working teachers, principals, ministry supervisors
and heads of education departments in the local and city councils.

Recommendations for implementation:

1. A state commission will be established to formulate the contents of the curriculum
on a shared life. The commission will be named by the President in consultation with
the minister of education.

2. Implementation: The new draft for teacher training being formulated in the Council
on Higher Education and in the Ministry of Education will commence being
implemented in 2019 and will include the draft for teacher training for a shared life.

3. The training will be a required course with 4 yearly hours (alongside other required
courses in the teacher training draft). The curriculum for the draft will manifest the
vision of a shared life, will define the foundational principles of living in a
multicultural society, and will train teachers and principals to prepare students for
the encounters themselves, for conducting the encounters and afterwards to
address the outcomes of the encounters.

4. In 2019 the first cohort will begin under the new draft for teacher training. The draft
will define in detail the training process for each school grade. As soon as the
process has begun, there must be the assurance that teachers already in the
teacher training system will also be trained for a shared life, even if they have
already completed their core requirements. During the initial five years, all the
teachers in the system undergoing professional training, as a requirement for
receiving a teaching certificate, will receive this training in coping with the challenge
of a shared life.

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5. All the centers (59 of them) for teachers’ professional development (mercazei
pisgah) in Israel will offer courses on a shared life. Every year at least 20 percent of
teachers taking continuing professional education will do a course on education for
a shared life.

6. Each of the 59 centers offering courses on a shared life will receive special
additional compensation.

7. Training for principals: The key features, as part of the draft for principals’ training,
will include the subject of a shared life.

8. The local government will lead, for heads of the education departments at local
and city councils, training workshops in the subject of a shared life.

9. The existing Department for a Shared Life will be augmented, and will monitor and
guide the system’s assimilation of programs for a shared life.

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Economic Development - Background

Economic Development

Meaningful action to eliminate disparities vis-a-vis Arab society will require more than a few
policy changes in a variety of systems and some mechanism to synchronize the activities
involved: To create sustainable economic change demands that disparities be eliminated in
many fields, starting with employment, education, infrastructure, budget allocations to local
governments, social welfare, culture, access to higher education, and so forth. The non-
exploitation of the growth potential embodied in full integration of Israel’s Arab citizens into
the nation’s economy clouds the economic situation of the entire society, lowers the
collective standard of living, reduces tax income equal to some 30 percent of product,
increases the scope of transfer payments and muddies the debt-product ratio, thereby
harming the country’s economic stability.

The main factor hindering the government’s implementation of its decisions concerning
Arab society are the Jewish character of the state, which prioritizes the interests of the
Jewish majority over those of the Arab minority; the longstanding, entrenched attitude
toward the Arabs in Israel that views them as a security issue; a bureaucratic obstacle arising
from inadequate motivation to overcome the absence of the information or the ability
needed to move ahead with implementation; and the fragmentation of the political sphere,
whereby various parties that have become increasingly sectorial are promoting relatively
narrow interests espoused by different population groups. Meantime, a significant pitfall in
implementing development programs is related to the situation of local governments in the
Arab sector, many of which have problems of one kind or another in functioning effectively,
leading to reduced economic circumstances.

In general, employment levels for Arabs in Israel are lower than for the Jewish population of
the country. The disparity in employment rates among women is especially conspicuous:
some 26 percent of Arab women aged 15 and over are employed, compared with about 63
percent of Jewish women. The patterns of employment of minorities in the civil service are
of great importance. Most Arabs with higher education are employed in the public sector in
jobs dealing with the community or in education, and only a minority of Arab academics are
employed in advanced sectors like high tech or in management positions.

A change in outlook is required, essentially a transition from a dualistic economic approach
pursuant to which there is a “Jewish economy” alongside an “Arab economy,” to an
approach featuring a single “liberal Israeli economy”, one economy with many hues, but
with significantly moderated socioeconomic disparities relative to the situation existing
today. The motivating idea of these recommendations is to close the disparities via
encouraging a catch up effect for the socioeconomic periphery in Israel, which mostly
comprises the Arabs and the Haredim, aiming for equality over time with the level of the

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population in the center of the country. Momentum for growth will be based on and will
derive from the following actions:

1. Significant investment in municipal and inter-city infrastructure to facilitate
economic development.

2. A focus on increasing the employment of Arab women and diversifying the fields
open to Arab men.

3. Use of well-established and innovative technological and business infrastructures to
reduce the breadth and duration of the required investment. As per the
recommendations of the Or Commission, in 2008 an Authority for Minority
Economic Development was established, a government authority defined as
multidisciplinary, focusing on Arab society and working to plan and carry out the
required initiatives and processes, with integration and cooperation on the part of
local government, global and local business and representatives of the community. A
study of models already accepted in other countries and our accumulated
experience have led us to recommend reinforcing and improving the effectiveness
of the Authority’s work, and a redefinition and expansion of several aspects of its
authority and its professional capabilities, to enable it to carry out the mission for
which is was established:

 Setting an appropriate operating budget that will enable the Authority to carry out
structured, multi-stage work plans.

 Setting high standards for the profile of the professional staff working at the
Authority, meaning that it must be diversified and the multidisciplinary character of
its work must be expanded and improved in order for the Authority to accomplish its
mission.

 Creating a legal basis for the Authority to be involved in processes, centers and
activities on both the local and the national level that have an impact on majority-
minority relations.

 Creating an executive committee as a managerial counterpart to work with the
Economic Development Authority and the various government ministries to oversee
the allocations to be transferred to, or planned for, Arab society and to insure their
allocation as intended.

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Economic Development – Recommendations

Recommendations:

1. Development of a mechanism to scrutinize the investment in infrastructure as
dictated by the needs and the opportunities over five to ten years (e.g., energy
solutions like solar roofs for public buildings, a shared power station using biofuel,
management of municipal water systems, transportation solutions like Uber rather
than busses), which in the short run will lead to improved services for the Arab
population, greater income for Arab local governments, and new opportunities in
industry, and in the long term to parity in services and opportunities between the
Jewish and Arab local governments and the Jewish and Arab populations.

2. Encouragement of the development of commercial zones, services (lawyers,
accountants, printing shops, ad agencies, etc.) including tourism and technology in
addition to a dialogue about industrial zones. This kind of activity requires the
involvement of a professional planning team as part of the Authority for Minority
Economic Development, or else a dedicated unit working on the development of
commercial zones, services and offices in Arab communities within the Ministry of
the Interior, the Ministry of the Economy and industry, and the Ministry of
Infrastructures. The main role of such a unit is to facilitate the removal of obstacles
facing developers and to encourage private investors to invest in infrastructure, and
in the long term to expand business activity in Arab communities. Within this picture
we definitely identified the following needs:

 Bringing advanced industry (particularly IT) to the principal Arab towns, while
engaging Arab communities with the vision of a progressive economy, and the
establishment of five advanced industry centers in leading Arab towns, like Nazareth
and the beginnings of activity in Kafr Qasim (coding).

 Establishment of high tech employment centers in Arab towns. This will lead to
higher income from property taxes, and higher socioeconomic levels for the Arab
population, and in the long term to parity in the percentage employed in high tech.

 Converting and finding solutions for existing intra-community industrial areas that
have been frozen for years (for example, Shfaram and Umm el Fahm) by
encouraging the relocation of heavy industry outside the town and developing
infrastructure for tourism, trade and services in these areas. This will facilitate the
development of a local public discussion and, in the long term, significant growth of
jobs nearby, and the relocation of garages and “dirty industry” currently within
residential communities.

 Structuring independent income sources for Arab local governments and a more
equitable allocation of national resources, e.g.: reallocation of property taxes from
existing industrial and commercial zones on the boundary between Jewish and Arab
localities.

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3. Improving the existing mechanisms for enhancing the ability of businesses to
develop beyond the local community, and promoting the development of a
corporate regime alongside developing and promoting new sources of credit, via
encouragement through incentives to the leading financial service firms in Israel
(and abroad) to open branches that make specialized services more accessible to
Arab society, and development of a commercial lexicon and culture that makes it
easier for businesses to grow beyond the bounds of the locality, the district and the
country.

4. Expanding the high tech market open to Arabs, by structuring incentives for
computer service centers and development of software systems for government and
public entities, and recruitment of a fixed quota of Arab engineers along the lines of
“fair representation,” like the similar programs implemented for Haredim. Provision
of government support (tax breaks, employment grants) to Arab subcontractor
companies of high tech and software firms, to operate in Arab towns. This will
enable software firms to attract developers and QA testers from nearby geographic
areas as well as women with suitable education, and will make it easier for science
graduates to work near where they live.

5. Introducing the subject of employment and career development to the Arab high
schools and integrating this into the program of study, with an emphasis on
women’s employment, building a career and family income. The integration of this
content into the education system will influence individual life planning and the
quality of integration in the job market.

6. Increasing the percentage of minorities, particularly Arabs, who are integrated into
existing national government offices and units, with special emphasis on setting
targets and convening a committee to integrate Arab women into government
ministries and other jobs in public service, with greater training of and access for
Arab women to jobs in the government and public sector, including at management
and decision making levels in the country’s public administration. Similarly, action
should be taken to remove obstacles preventing women from working outside the
home, including childcare (day care and preschool), and investment in public
transportation solutions that will facilitate mobility and access from the periphery to
centers of employment, education and culture. It is important to emphasize that
building the infrastructure to enable the development of solutions like these
contributes, in and of itself, to the local economy and employment.

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Land Use - Background

Land-related initiatives and partnership for Arab communities

The question of land has become a key issue in the development of Arab communities and in
reordering the relations between Jews and Arabs. The shortage of land for development in
Arab localities, the structure of land ownership, the weakness of Arab local governments
plagued by scarce resources, and the difficulties in planning and in enforcing its
implementation – all these have led to a distressed situation concerning land use in Arab
communities, involving housing, public buildings, and centers of employment and industry.

The main idea proposed here is to create a nationwide government framework that will
operate to plan land-related programs and initiatives and oversee their implementation,
initially in five selected localities, and later on in 30. Implementation of these initiatives
alongside increased cooperation between Arab and Jewish local governments, inter alia in
land use issues – e.g., infrastructure, green areas, public buildings – will further the
integration of Arabs in Israeli society, benefiting all citizens of the country.

The principal obstacles to land development in Arab society and to land use cooperation
between Arab and Jewish local governments

1. A lack of local planning committees: In nearly all minority communities in Israel,
there is no local planning committee, a situation that damages the authority and
responsibility of mayors and atrophies the local government’s ability to initiate plans
and implement development.

2. Master plans: Some Arab towns still have no local master plan in effect. Where a
plan does exist, it does not adequately address commercial trade, employment, and
tourism, and the matter of private ownership is not taken into consideration.

3. Underrepresentation of Arabs in planning institutions: There are almost no Arab
professionals on the national or regional planning committees, which hinders the
provision of solutions that can meet the needs of Arab communities. There is no
national professional entity responsible for oversight regarding the existence and
progress of master plans in Arab towns, hence when budgets are actually allocated
and a master plan is in place, implementation is incomplete and detailed plans are
lacking.

4. Socioeconomic circumstances and an inability to fund development: Most of the
Arab local governments preside over communities with low socioeconomic rankings,
which makes it harder to bring in special expertise and hampers their ability to move
forward on housing issues. Without national government funding, and without
assistance in resolving obstacles, the local governments are unable to carry the
economic and managerial burden of detailed planning, and certainly not the costs of
development. The economic distress in the Arab local governments is also greater
due to the lack of funding for commercial and industrial areas.

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5. A shortage of land for development and for meta-infrastructure: There is a shortage
of state land within the jurisdictions of Arab localities, creating an obstacle to the
development of a housing market with state involvement. And even when there is
state land nearby, the Arab local governments are hampered by planning limitations,
because they are not included in the TAMA 35 national master plan, and by
municipal restrictions, because the land is beyond the jurisdictional boundaries of
the town. A lack of meta-infrastructure near Arab communities, including
transportation, water supply and sewage systems, inflates the cost of, or entirely
prevents, the implementation of the development required to build new residential
neighborhoods and commercial areas.

6. Inadequate land registration and tax indebtedness: The minimal registration of lands
in Arab localities damages commercial viability, increases transaction costs and
delays planning that accords with the reality on the ground. Moreover, completion
of the registration process is contingent on payment of all taxes, which in turn
involves reporting the entire transaction history of the parcel, hampering
cooperation on the part of residents.

7. Distrust of local and national government: There is a lack of trust among Arab
citizens, both toward local government and toward national authorities, concerning
(inter alia) their ability and their will to address the housing crisis in Arab
communities. Apart from national tensions, the distrust arises from ongoing
experience of the unequal investment in Arab communities and the history of
programs that are inappropriate to the character of these communities, in addition
to the expropriation of land for public needs in a way that does not reflect an equal
sharing of the burden of such expropriation among the various landowners.

8. Low commercial negotiability of land, and the housing culture itself: Arab society, in
part, presents a low level of negotiability regarding land, one reason for which is the
traditional approach whereby land is a resource to be preserved as economic
security and as a family asset that is bequeathed onward, and additionally there is a
strong cultural preference for low-density, single-story housing.

9. Difficulty in implementing a mechanism for merger and subdivision and building
without planning or permits: To merge or to subdivide land is difficult in Arab
communities due to the lack of trust already mentioned, an unwillingness to change
the location of one’s land within the planning area, and the disparity between land
ownership in practice, divided between various heirs and several owners, and the
formal registration. The lack of a planning horizon, scarcity of land and lack of trust
lead people to build without proper planning and without permits; this affects both
the quality of building and the local government’s ability to institute orderly land use
planning, collect taxes on buildings and use the income for public infrastructure.

10. Relations between Arab and Jewish local governments: Despite geographical
proximity, there is often no relationship between Arab and Jewish local
governments. Arab citizens and their local governments thus have a harder time
integrating into Israeli society and becoming full participants in the public space; the
situation contributes to unequal and inefficient budgeting of resources, exacerbates
scarcities in existing regional resources, and prevents realizing the potential value of

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active cooperation between Arabs and Jews, for the good of both societies in
general, and specifically with respect to land use.

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Land Use – Recommendations

The central goal of the proposed program is an improved quality of life for Arab citizens
through the physical development of land, and the promotion of and execution of building
plans in Arab society via the regularization of existing construction, with professional
oversight on the national level. The guiding principle is to formulate and promote planning
“initiatives” rather than simply planning “corrections” (hereinafter: a “pilot project for
planning initiatives for Arab communities”) –meaning, plans that change the norms for
residential construction and assure the emergence of a variety of public areas in an orderly
arrangement, alongside economic growth for Arab localities.

Another goal is to promote cooperation in land use matters between Arab and Jewish local
government, facilitating a more optimal fabric of life for all concerned. The general approach
here is that, for the people sharing a given space, a shared life facilitates acknowledgment
and acceptance of those from a different national group, shared enjoyment of cultural
assets, and better coping with cross-border issues. Cooperation in land use matters can
bring into play economies of scale, improved access to resources, less suspicion and hence
less sense of threat, less redundancy in administrative functioning, optimal management of
resources like water and public infrastructure, pooling of resources, optimal organization
and coordination for emergencies (fires, e.g.), and can help exploit the relative advantages
of one side or the other in, for example, capital, available land, etc.

Objectives of the pilot project for planning initiatives for Arab communities

1. Narrowing the building and construction disparities between Arab and Jewish
society within 5 years.

2. Bridging the gaps between the demands of modern planning and local tradition.
3. Launching of a pilot project for planning initiatives and their implementation, as

detailed below, which will create an effective model for initiating, and developing,
new building.
4. Strengthening the ability of Arab local governments to plan and carry out new
building and related programs.
5. Creating trust between Arab citizens and the planning authorities and local
governments, in relation to building issues.
6. Allocation of income-producing areas for Arab local governments.

Highlights of the pilot project for planning initiatives for Arab communities

The pilot project for planning initiatives will be implemented in five Arab communities, and
will include completing of master plans, progress on detailed plans and the provision of the
means required for oversight and implementation by the local governments, within a time
frame of 5 years at most. A national project committee will be created to apply what is

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learned with the initial five communities to the program’s expansion in 30 additional
communities during the coming decade.

Methods for the pilot project:

Budgeting state land for master plan initiatives: The state will budget state-owned lands for
the master plan project in the target communities, assuming parcelization, budgeting for
public areas, and the integration of detailed plans. The state will work to assure changes in
municipal boundaries so as to add, to the master plan area, adjoining state lands and/or land
privately owned by residents of that same community. In addition, the state will promote
increased budgeting of land adjacent to Arab cities, with the aim of constructing large
neighborhoods for tens of thousands of residents in Arab communities identified as
undergoing growth and urbanization and which will draw demand for housing from existing
communities. The construction of new Arab communities will be investigated, favoring a
small number of small-scale new Arab communities with the potential for future growth.

Merging and parcelizing areas under private ownership, and construction of infrastructure:
All land areas in the plan that do not feature contiguous building and are under private
ownership will undergo merger and parcelization and detailed plans will be prepared based
on the master plans. To assure feasibility and distributive justice, 30 percent of the parcels
will be budgeted for public needs, with a recommendation to promote planning at a density
of not less that 6 units per dunam (per quarter acre), and with maximum building heights of
at least 4 stories. An up-to-date registration process will facilitate statutory parcelization for
the “real” lots, and enable landowners who participate in the project to enjoy tax
abatements, including the forgiving of past debts for up to two years from the time the
program takes effect.

The merging and parcelization process will encompass outreach to and negotiation with
residents, but there will also be an option to enforce the process vis-à-vis landowners.

The local government will build infrastructure at an early stage of the project, to prevent
illegal building on areas budgeted for public needs, and to increase trust in the
implementation and enforcement of the program, with state subsidies and/or loans.
Commercial employment areas will be budgeted in the framework of the initiatives, and the
state will subsidize costs of infrastructure and assist with the managing and marketing of
these commercial areas.

A project committee will be created to oversee and administer the planning and
encourage local planning committees: A national project oversight committee will be
established to implement the initiatives in Arab communities and administer the planning.
Membership of this committee will include representatives of the relevant government
ministries, such as housing and finance. The committee will insure that there is interim
funding for the local governments and the local planning committees via a designated
budget to be defined as such. The committee will also have the authority to approve partial
or total tax abatements for participants in the program in accordance with a draft plan to be
approved in advance. The national committee will monitor the establishment and operation

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of local planning and building committees, will assist them with advice, encourage the local
land market, and help them with networking to state agencies.
Participation in income-yielding property: The Arab localities will have a share in the
income from regional employment zones, so that the allocation of income will accord with
clear criteria of equality. Allocation of income will apply to existing employment areas and
also to planned new ones, with preference to Arab communities in which employment is
particularly limited.
A comparison with living conditions in “mixed” cities: In cities with more than 3,000 Arab
residents, the local government will be required to provide land for ethnic-group use and
land for shared use. This will enable the building of culturally dependent institutions like
schools for the Arab population, and multicultural shared institutions for Jews and Arabs, in
accordance with their proportion in the district’s population.
It is proposed that the the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel be the national entity
designated to encourage and oversee the feasibility of pilot projects for land use
cooperation for purposes with high feasibility, high visibility and real influence on a broad
circle of stakeholders and which involve considerable shared interests.

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