In Abu Snan, northern Israel, inspectors from the Enforcement Authority for Land Affairs recently posted demolition orders on five Druze families’ homes, each to be razed within seven days. The case has sparked outrage because every affected family has at least one son serving now in reserve duty or regular service. On Wednesday, MK Ayman Odeh voiced their anger from the Knesset, saying, "It is shocking. The state sends the sons to fight on the front, and with the other hand, while they are fighting, it destroys their home."
A day earlier, Abu Snan council member Shadi Kays led a protest with hundreds of residents against a master plan they say was imposed on them. Kays said, "130 houses have been marked for demolition in the village," adding that the plan was deposited without public participation, involved land expropriations, and has already torn families apart. He said planning authorities were harsh during the objections process and called it unacceptable to issue demolition orders to reservists and soldiers on active duty.
Residents are battling Vatal plan TML 1100, which would create a new northern neighborhood on about 1,165 dunams and include roughly 4,900 housing units, plus tourism and commercial space. The public committee backing the fight, representing private landowners, has also won support from Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the local council chair and several lawmakers. Opponents say the project ignores local realities, would radically change the village, and especially object to moving the "Tefen line," an industrial sewage pipeline, through the planned residential area.
The committee says the pipeline poses a serious health and sanitation risk, and that landowners and discharged soldiers are being held hostage by being told they can receive plots only if they accept the sewage line crossing the homes’ yards. They also oppose building density above 8 units per dunam and high-rise construction, saying it would hurt the village’s open landscape and community life. More broadly, they say the plan expropriates large portions of private land for public uses and roads, while residents who waited seven years for planning solutions ended up building without permits and are now facing demolition.
The Enforcement Authority said it is acting under the government decision behind the Vatal plan and recently identified three new structures that undermine planning, issuing administrative demolition orders against the buildings, not against the builders. It said it does not know who built them, but reservists can contact the authority if they were the builders. Vatal said enforcement and planning proceed together in such zones, and that local authorities must do everything possible to prevent new illegal construction because it could derail the plan; it added that this approach is coordinated with the Justice Ministry.
