Arab community leaders in Israel are warning of "catastrophe" and an "explosion due to a loss of faith in the legitimate political system."
The warning comes amid figures published earlier this week, ahead of the approval of the 2004 state budget, which show the extent of the plight of the Arab community.
A report by the Mossawa Center, (the Advocacy Center
for Arab Palestinian Citizens of Israel), recently presented to the Israeli parliament and media, bring forth official figures which clearly demonstrate the growing plight of the Arab community in Israel.
For instance, the Bedouins of the Negev, located in southern Israel, is at the bottom of every civilian area of life, including infant mortality rates which are on a par with the Third World (17 out of every 1,000 births). Figures from the National Insurance Institute show that 60 percent of Arab children will be poor in the year 2004.
The report, presented by the organization together with the head of the Arab Local Authorities Shwaki Khatib and MP Mohammed Barakeh, reviewed government policy toward the Arab population and display, once again, that there are enormous discrepancies in the figures presented by the Prime Minister's Bureau to ministers and the media and official figures which paint a far bleaker picture.
In August, for example, the ministerial committee on the non-Jewish population, was presented with figures showing that the program for developing the Arab towns (known as the "4 billion plan") was implemented in the years 2001-2002 at a level of 91 percent.
The Mossawa report, which is based on figures from the Finance Ministry, finds that in 2002, the plan was only 61 percent implements, while in 2003, only 50 percent of the monies meant to be transferred under the plan were actually
received. "This is a huge program of lies set up by the state," Khatib said.
The Arab local authorities, which have a collective debt of over NIS 1 billion, are worried about what will happen next year.
Mossawa believes that the development plan will be completely "erased" next year since there is no way that the government will meet the NIS 997 million target for next year.
Many of the Arab local authorities have come to a complete standstill, not paying salaries or bills, and Khatib has discovered that the water supply to some 25 towns and villages has been cut off for a period of weeks.
"There has been a total collapse of the municipal services to the Arab sector," said Khatib. "Apart from talk and declarations, the ministerial committee has done nothing."
For its part, the Prime Minister's Bureau said in response that they had not had a chance to review the Mossawa report.
Deputy director-general, Alex Goldengoren, said that "even if these are official figures, they are partial and
incomplete. The development program has been extended to 2006, so that all the projects can be implemented. The cutbacks affect all of us, but we have ensured that the Arab sector will be hurt less than the Jewish sector." (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
