The Association of the Forty

Residents of several unrecognized villages established the Association in Ein Hod in 1988 in order to confront the recommendations of the official Israeli Markovitch Commission report, particularly the demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes on the pretext of unlicensed construction. The Association aims to obtain official Israeli recognition of the unrecognized communities, to improve living conditions in them, and to obtain full rights and equality for the Palestinian citizens of the Israeli state.

The Association provides legal advice and assistance to residents threatened by land confiscation and house demolition, initiates and supports community initiatives aimed at providing alternative public services (i.e. road paving, water and electricity connections, kindergartens and health clinics, extra-curricular educational activities), and organizes local and international public awarenessraising activities about the plight of the unrecognized communities. One of the Association's major projects and challenges is the preparation of an alternative master plan for the unrecognized communities in the northern and Haifa region, the central region, and the southern (Naqab) region. This plan was completed in two parts in 1989 and in 1995, and the Association has since been lobbying among Knesset members and parties to obtain its adoption. The solutions laid out be the alternative master plan include: a) recognition of some communities as independent villages; b) the incorporation of others into the jurisdictional area of adjacent Palestinian villages and towns; c) negotiated solutions between individual home owners and the government, under the condition that any solution will not lead to the forceful eviction of the inhabitants.

The Association's professional and lobbying efforts have so far resulted in official Israeli recognition of eight Palestinian villages, with the case of a ninth village still pending. Promises by the Israeli authorities to integrate parts of the Association's recommendations in the revised National Master Plan and to prepare a housing solution for 1,200 Bedouin families in the Naqab still require clarification. In the meantime, several unrecognized Palestinian communities have been connected, for the first time since 1948, to the Israeli water grid, and four mother and the Israeli Ministry of Health has adopted child clinics, originally opened by the Association. According to Muhammad Abu al-Heija, the Association of the Forty is committed to professional work, making use of the fact that many of the areas, sites of unrecognized communities, do not have detailed and sophisticated Israeli planning maps. This provides a chance for professionals to develop proposals. In the words of Muhammad Abu al-Heija, "we use another language, not the political language of Oslo or return. But the fact remains, that the recognition of another Palestinian village is equal to the return of a part of the Palestinian land."

Contact: Association of the Forty
Muhammad Abu al-Heija, director
Tel. 04-8362382/1; fax: 04-8362379; email:[email protected]
Ein Hod, M.P. Hof Hacarmel 30808, Israel