http://indymedia.org.il
Civil Disobedience & the Defence of Basic Human Rights
author: Yudit Ilany (yudit@melig.co.il)
To have roof above one's head is a basic human right. The regulations and permissions system operated by the ministry of the interior concerning the constructions of homes has been used for decennia to prevent Israel's Palestinian citizens from constructing or enlarging their homes, any homes.
Moreover, Arab villages and towns are unable to carry out civil, private and public developments, due to interventions by the ministry of the interior. At the same time Palestinian owned lands are being confiscated for so called "public purposes" and being transferred to moneymaking "other" hands. This is not a local tendency carried out by some "evil" municipal or regional administrators, but a long term offical policy, to prevent Israel's Palestinian population from developing and realizing their basic human rights: having a roof and ownership of legally acquired lands and houses.
The policy also prevents the organised development of construction for public purposes in many villages and towns, many of which have no regcognized development plan: burocracy as a means of oppression.
The policy is nation wide, from villages in the north, through neighborhoods in Ramle, Lod and Yafo to the so-called "illegal" Bedouin settlements in the Negev area.
Having a roof above one's head is a basic human right, and fighting for this right by peaceful means such as the reconstruction of demolished houses, seems to me one of the few possible just reactions.
Civil disobedience is a moral duty, when basic human rights are being trampled on by burocratic and other means.
When the Shabak is used to "warn" activists, would that be a sign that perhaps action is having an effect or are we seeing further indications of the errosion of democracy?