Dahmash Demolished – Not!

January 16, 2007

Six families in the unrecognized neighborhood of Dahmash felt an enormous sense of relief when the large police contingent bent on supervising the demolition of their homes last Wednesday was forced by a last minute court order to pack up their heavy machinery and leave the homes intact – more or less intact, that is, since the would-be 'demolishers' had already managed to rip out some doors and windows.

Credit is due to those who worked around the clock to prepare the court appeal against the demolitions – to Arafat Ismaeel, SHATIL-Mixed Cities Lod Field Coordinator, and Nidal Abed El Gafer, NIF Law Fellow and legal advisor to Mixed Cities, along with the Karameh organization and lawyers Durgham Saif and Omer Hamaissi who represented the residents in court and obtained the injunction.

The story, however, neither begins nor ends there. The next day, following Ismaeel's lobbying, MK Yoram Marciano persuaded the Knesset Committee for the Interior and Environment to hold an emergency discussion on the demolition issue. Residents, SHATIL-Mixed Cities staff, representatives of Karameh and the Center for Jewish Pluralism attended the session, along with public planning officials and Lod Valley Council members. The Knesset Committee decided that within one week, the district planner must meet with residents' representatives to study the detailed plans that the residents have prepared with support from SHATIL. Within two weeks, the relevant authorities must report back to the committee regarding: the progress of alternative plans for the neighborhood; the freezing of demolition orders; and the establishment of an Interior Ministry approved committee that will clarify the neighborhood's boundary issues. In the meantime, the Knesset Committee promised to immediately recommend to the Interior Minister that he order a freeze on all such demolition orders for the entire neighborhood.

Just a few days earlier, the residents had received the demolition orders, not only for their homes but also for their beloved playground, erected a few months ago in a Mixed Cities volunteer workday. Before the Mixed Cities project began, such a situation would have left them desperate and resigned to fate. Today, the residents of Dahmash have hope – and faith in their ability to bring about change. They know that from the protest tent they set up together with Mixed Cities staff the distance to the law courts and to the Knesset is not so far. They are making their voice heard in the democratic process, and they are actively participating in planning the future of their neighborhood. And that, in a nutshell, is the raison d’être of the Mixed Cities project.

Dahmash lies on the border between Ramle and Lod. It is home to some 800 residents. Its unrecognized status means that it is deprived of basic infrastructure and normal municipal services such as refuse collection.