September 11, 2007

On July 16th, residents of the unrecognized neighborhood of Ta'ayush in Lod awoke to see notices in Arabic glued to their homes advising them to remove their cars from the area in preparation for the court-ordered demolition of their houses. The announcement took residents by surprise. Two years ago, the Knesset had recommended that residents and the Lod municipality find a solution to the conflicting claims regarding to whom the land belongs and the legality of the structures.

The residents turned to a local lawyer and the Lod Al-Sabil Housing Forum (founded by SHATIL's Mixed Cities Project and now an independent entity) and with their help, obtained a stay of the demolition from the local court on July 21.

Arafat Ismail, a Forum member and former SHATIL coordinator of the Forum said: "Instead of solving the problem of the Arab population of Lod and proving that it is possible to live together and to be a living example of peace and co-existence, residents are threatened with demolition. This deepens the feelings of discrimination, deprivation and inequality of Israel's Arab citizens and does not contribute to solving the problem."