Mechanisms that exclude Arabs from Access to Property in Israel. A case study on the dialogue village Nes Ammim d Title: Mechanisms that exclude Arabs from access to property – A case study on the dialogue village Nes Ammim. Master Thesis: Law 80433 Wageningen University & Research Centre International Development Studies August 2017 Supervisor: dr. Elisabet Rasch Second reader: dr. Dik Roth Student: Sarah Marohn Student number: 880114544010 1.Cover picture: Border fence between Israel and Gaza. Picture retrieved from: http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.633922!/image/2538173710.jpg_gen/derivatives/headline_609x343/2538 173710.jpg 2. Cover picture: Fence that surrounds Nes Ammim, build in 2017. Picture taken by Sascha Steinhauer i Abstract This case study describes and explains how Arabs in Israel experience systematic exclusion from land, illustrated at the example of the housing project of Nes Ammim (Western Galilee). This housing project was meant to be a bilingual and mixed village but turned out to be almost entirely Jewish. This research uses the concept of ethnocracy to argue that one can detect a general exclusion of Arabs in Israel based on rooted discriminatory dynamics in the Israeli society. Those dynamics can also be found in the housing project of Nes Ammim. This study uses the theory of access to analyse how access to certain means and mechanism have excluded Arabs from the housing project in Nes Ammim. It found that some actors with access to certain means, in particular relations, financial assets and language/cultural skills, used this access to constrain Arabs from buying a house in Nes Ammim. Keywords: Nes Ammim, mixed village, Arabs in Israel, land rights, theory of access, ethnocracy ii Table of Contents ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................................. II TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................. III MAP OF THE GALILEE ........................................................................................................................................... VII MAPS OF NES AMMIM ......................................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF ACTORS AND RELEVANT NAMES .............................................................................................................. IX LIST OF PLACES ..................................................................................................................................................... XI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ XII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT .............................................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS ..................................................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 2: CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................. 8 2.1 ETHNOCRACY .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 THEORY OF ACCESS ................................................................................................................................................ 13 2.3 ANALYSING ACCESS IN NEW NES AMMIM ................................................................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS ...................................................................................................... 20 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................................................................................. 20 3.2 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................................................. 21 3.3 SELECTING RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS ........................................................................................................................... 21 iii 3.4 CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE ............................................................................................................................... 24 3.5 JUSTIFICATION AND LIMITATIONS .............................................................................................................................. 26 CHAPTER 4: SITUATION OF ARABS IN ISRAEL AND THE HISTORY OF NES AMMIM ............................................... 28 4.1 ARABS IN ISRAEL .................................................................................................................................................... 28 4.2 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NES AMMIM ............................................................................................................. 32 4.3 ORGANIZATION OF NES AMMIM AND THE HOUSING PROJECT .......................................................................................... 36 4.3.1 Actors in the housing project ..................................................................................................................... 36 4.3.2 Legal structure of Nes Ammim .................................................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER 5. NES AMMIM AND THE HOUSING PROJECT ....................................................................................... 43 5.1 FIRST IDEAS ON THE HOUSING PROJECT ....................................................................................................................... 43 5.2 FIRST ORGANIZATIONAL STEPS .................................................................................................................................. 47 5.3 CLASHING INTEREST BETWEEN INVOLVED PARTIES ......................................................................................................... 52 5.4 NEGATIVE PUBLICITY ............................................................................................................................................... 55 5.5 CONCLUSION TO THE CHAPTER .................................................................................................................................. 56 CHAPTER 6: MOTIVES AND ADVANTAGES ............................................................................................................ 58 6.1 OVERVIEW OF COLLECTED DATA ................................................................................................................................ 59 6.2 MAIN MOTIVES AND ADVANTAGES............................................................................................................................. 61 6.2.1 First motive: New Nes Ammim as a mixed village .................................................................................... 63 6.2.2 Second motive: Nes Ammim as a new neighbourhood within an old community .................................... 69 6.2.3 Third motive: New Nes Ammim as a rural community within the Mateh Asher region ............................ 77 6.3 CONCLUSION TO THE CHAPTER .................................................................................................................................. 79 CHAPTER 7: MECHANISMS OF ACCESS CONTROL TO PROPERTY IN NEW NES AMMIM ........................................ 82 7.1 CHANNELS OF ACCESS ............................................................................................................................................. 82 7.2 FACILITATORS OF ACCESS ......................................................................................................................................... 83 7.2.1 Nes Ammim Organization ......................................................................................................................... 83 iv 7.2.2 Meyer Group ............................................................................................................................................. 86 7.2.3 Amina ........................................................................................................................................................ 97 7.2.4 Admission Committee ............................................................................................................................. 100 7.3 CONCLUSION TO THE CHAPTER ................................................................................................................................ 106 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................... 109 8.1 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS ..................................................................................................................................