NOVANEWS
Haaretz
Police are investigating the painting of an alleged hate slogan on a house under constuction in the cooperative village of Rakefet, in the Misgav region of the Galilee, on Friday night. The house belongs to Fatina and Ahmed Zabeidat, whose fight to live in the community brought them to public attention.
The slogan “No loyalty, no citizenship,” was painted on the outer wall of the building, alongside stars of David. The graffiti was discovered by local residents who filed a complaint with the police.
Fatina and Ahmed Zabeidat, architects from the Galilee Arab town of Sakhnin, came to prominence in 2006, when they launched a judicial struggle to obtain a lot for building their home in Rakefet, one of the oldest communities in the Misgav Regional Council. The case was first reported in Haaretz. The couple filed a petition with the Supreme Court, after the Rakefet community committee rejected their application to live in the village on the grounds that they were not compatible with the community.
In 2007, the court issued an order that a lot be secured for the Zabeidats, which remained in effect until it ruled in favor of their petition in September 2011. The couple was represented by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Even before the 2011 ruling, the Israel Lands Administration (now called the Israel Lands Authority) accepted the couple’s appeal and notified the court that it had decided to provide Fatina and Ahmed Zabeidat with a lot in Rakefet. In the wake of the couple’s petition, the Misgav regional council began to draft a new set of regulations that would emphasize the Zionist and Jewish character of the communities within its jurisdiction. The affair sparked a public debate that ultimately led to the passing of the Admissions Committee Law by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
Last year, just before Israel Independence Day, the couple found an Israeli flag hanging on the fence separating their lot from that of one of their neighbors. The Zubeidats decided to take down the flag, fold it and to bring it to the secretariat of Rakefet. “We asked that the flag be returned to whoever had hung it, whether it was a neighbor or someone else,” they explained. “Whoever hung that flag committed the offense of trespassing by entering our lot and hanging the flag there. The purpose of this offense was to gain political capital, to present us as oppositionists and as racists and to ignite the atmosphere. We will not be a party to such activities.”
A police spokesman said that the incident was being investigated and that no suspects had been arrested. Fatina and Ahmed Zabeidat chose not to comment.
