Druze leaders warn order to raze homes could spark violence

Israeli Druze leaders have warned the government that carrying out demolition orders against illegally built structures in the minority community could be met with violent resistance.

Since November, some 20 families in the northern Druze villages of Maghar, Yarka and Isfiya have received demolition orders, the Haaretz daily reported on Monday.

Five of those orders were reportedly sent to families of fallen Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

The orders issued for homes in the Druze villages come amid a wave of government-ordered home demolitions in Bedouin and other Arab towns at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sought to crack down on illegal construction in Arab communities.

Arab Israelis counter that official discrimination makes receiving building permits nearly impossible and the illegal construction is the result of natural growth.

Last week, home demolitions in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev sparked violent clashes and a suspected car-ramming that killed a policeman. The driver, a local resident, was shot by police and killed.

In the days that followed, thousands of Arab Israelis took to the streets to protest the policy, claiming state-sanctioned racism and excessive police force against Arabs led to the deadly incident.

The demolitions in Umm al-Hiran followed Netanyahu’s instructions in December to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to step up enforcement measures against illegal construction among Israeli Arabs.

The prime minister’s call to crack down on such construction came as authorities prepared to demolish Amona, an illegal West Bank outpost, by a February 8 deadline.

In a Facebook video in Hebrew addressed to Amona’s residents, Netanyahu vowed that home demolitions “must be egalitarian.

“The same law that necessitates the evacuation of Amona, necessitates the evacuation of illegal construction elsewhere in our country,” he said.