🚨 Under the banner of “build back better” after Iranian attacks, Israel is advancing a plan that could force citizens to sell their homes to the state if they reject urban renewal plans.
Missile damage is being used as cover for a land grab.
Here’s what’s really happening 🧵
📷: Kan11 News
Missile damage is being used as cover for a land grab.
Here’s what’s really happening 🧵
📷: Kan11 News
2/
Finance Minister Smotrich and Interior Minister Arbel have unveiled an inter-ministerial task force to lead “urban renewal” in missile-hit areas.
The language is hopeful. The agenda is not.
Source: timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…
Finance Minister Smotrich and Interior Minister Arbel have unveiled an inter-ministerial task force to lead “urban renewal” in missile-hit areas.
The language is hopeful. The agenda is not.
Source: timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…
3/
The task force includes the Ministries of Finance, Housing, Justice, Interior, Tax Authority, and the Israel Lands Authority.
Source: gov.il/en/pages/sa160…
The task force includes the Ministries of Finance, Housing, Justice, Interior, Tax Authority, and the Israel Lands Authority.
Source: gov.il/en/pages/sa160…
4/
Officials openly speak of turning “destruction into opportunity.”
The director of the Tax Authority, Shai Aharonovitch, supports a policy of preferring urban renewal over rebuilding the buildings destroyed by Iranian missiles. Aharonovitch is willing to relax the rules of the property tax fund and increase its expenses in order to enable the construction of new towers, instead of restoring old and low-rise buildings.
Officials openly speak of turning “destruction into opportunity.”
The director of the Tax Authority, Shai Aharonovitch, supports a policy of preferring urban renewal over rebuilding the buildings destroyed by Iranian missiles. Aharonovitch is willing to relax the rules of the property tax fund and increase its expenses in order to enable the construction of new towers, instead of restoring old and low-rise buildings.
5/
Aharonovitch does not hide that one of the reasons he supports urban renewal is to save money for the government.
But for residents, that means pressure to give up their homes so the state can redesign entire neighborhoods from above.
This is not voluntary. It’s managed, centralised planning.
Aharonovitch does not hide that one of the reasons he supports urban renewal is to save money for the government.
But for residents, that means pressure to give up their homes so the state can redesign entire neighborhoods from above.
This is not voluntary. It’s managed, centralised planning.
6/
“…There’s a preference for the demolition of damaged buildings.. in order to build new towers in their place, rather than trying to renovate the old and low-rise buildings.
The argument of the proponents is that it makes no sense to renovate the damaged buildings, which do not have protection against earthquakes or safe rooms, and it certainly does not make sense to build new buildings of several floors, instead of dozens of floors.”
Source: bit.ly/4nzrTy2
“…There’s a preference for the demolition of damaged buildings.. in order to build new towers in their place, rather than trying to renovate the old and low-rise buildings.
The argument of the proponents is that it makes no sense to renovate the damaged buildings, which do not have protection against earthquakes or safe rooms, and it certainly does not make sense to build new buildings of several floors, instead of dozens of floors.”
Source: bit.ly/4nzrTy2
7/
As of today, 9,900 claims have been filed for missile-related damage.
That’s nearly 10,000 Israeli families potentially facing state-led redevelopment, rezoning, and “offers” they may not be able to refuse.
Source: gov.il/en/pages/sa160…
As of today, 9,900 claims have been filed for missile-related damage.
That’s nearly 10,000 Israeli families potentially facing state-led redevelopment, rezoning, and “offers” they may not be able to refuse.
Source: gov.il/en/pages/sa160…
8/
We’ve seen this before.
Under the banner of “improved infrastructure” and “public good,” entire communities are coerced into selling, relocating, or being zoned out of existence.
Disaster becomes a development tool.
Evacuees are real. The suffering is real. But the government’s solution isn’t relief—“We will build a better Israel,” they say.
Better for whom?
We’ve seen this before.
Under the banner of “improved infrastructure” and “public good,” entire communities are coerced into selling, relocating, or being zoned out of existence.
Disaster becomes a development tool.
Evacuees are real. The suffering is real. But the government’s solution isn’t relief—“We will build a better Israel,” they say.
Better for whom?
9/
This is how “build back better” works in practice:
– Declare an emergency
– Centralize control
– Redesign what exists
– Force compliance
– Reward insiders
And once the land is gone—it’s not coming back.
Residents won’t return to what they had—they’ll return to what the state decides they should have.
This is how “build back better” works in practice:
– Declare an emergency
– Centralize control
– Redesign what exists
– Force compliance
– Reward insiders
And once the land is gone—it’s not coming back.
Residents won’t return to what they had—they’ll return to what the state decides they should have.
10/
A war-time tragedy is being used to expand the reach of the state into private property and local life.
Don’t let slogans like “urban renewal” and “resilience” distract from what this really is.
🧵/end
A war-time tragedy is being used to expand the reach of the state into private property and local life.
Don’t let slogans like “urban renewal” and “resilience” distract from what this really is.
🧵/end
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