Report Debunks Claims of Bennett Government Ceding Negev to Arab Party
A recent analysis refutes claims made by the Likud party and other right-wing politicians that the coalition government led by Naftali Bennett, which included the Arab party Ra'am, "legitimized crime" or harmed the rule of law. Instead, the report argues, the coalition's agreements with Ra'am actually advanced efforts to combat crime within the Arab community.
The "Electricity Law," an amendment to the planning and building law, is cited as an example. This law enabled approximately 9,000 homes in unrecognized and previously unrecognized Bedouin communities to be legally connected to the electricity grid, subject to planning and building regulations. The report emphasizes that connecting to infrastructure is not the same as granting a building permit and that this law did not address building permits or retroactively legalize illegal construction.
Furthermore, the article clarifies that the freeze on fines for illegal residential construction, a key point of contention, was initially approved in 2020 during Benjamin Netanyahu's previous premiership, not during Bennett's term. The coalition agreement with Ra'am extended this freeze but included specific exceptions, such as for construction on national infrastructure or public land.
The report also addresses claims that the Bennett government transferred tens of billions of shekels to Ra'am. It explains that a five-year inter-ministerial plan aimed at promoting the Arab community, with a total budget of 30 billion shekels, was established. However, only about half of this budget was actual new funding, and the funds were allocated to various government ministries, not directly to Ra'am. A significant portion of the plan, specifically 15 billion shekels, was dedicated to combating crime and violence in the Arab community. The report notes a slight decrease in homicides in the Arab sector during the one year this anti-crime program was implemented (2022), before it was largely abandoned by the current government, leading to a surge in crime.
In essence, the analysis contends that the accusations against the Bennett-Ra'am coalition are based on a misrepresentation and conflation of separate legislative and policy initiatives, ignoring the context and details of each. The report concludes that the Bennett government's actions did not compromise state authority in the Negev but rather attempted to address long-standing issues of neglect and crime within the Arab community.
