Adalah: "Not connecting Akbara to the sewage system is an excuse used by the municipality for not issuing building permits for new housing units in the only Arab neighborhood in the city."
On 26 October 2008, Adalah filed a petition to the District Court in Nazareth, demanding that it compel the Municipality of Safad (Sfat) to connect the Akbara neighborhood to the central sewage network in the town. Akbara is the only Arab area in Safad, and the only neighborhood in the city that it not connected to the sewage system. Not connecting Akbara to the sewage system and exposing its residents to health hazards caused by the flooding of wastewater onto the streets violates the residents' rights to health, safety and dignity, argued Adalah. The petition was filed by Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara on behalf of 32 Arab residents of Akbara and the Galilee Society – The Arab National Society for Health Research and Services.
In the petition, Adalah argued that the lack of sewage infrastructure in Akbara causes sewage water to flood onto the streets and into a nearby valley, where it creates swamps of stagnant, fetid water. These swamps then release foul odors that disturb the people living in the neighborhood and pose a hazard to their health due to their constant inhalation of polluted fumes. The swamps also provide a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes; some residents of Akbara are unable to sleep because of the large numbers of mosquitoes or have developed allergic reactions to their bites.
Attorney Bishara further contended that forcing the families living in Akbara to dig cesspits rather than connecting them to the sewerage system exposes the groundwater in the area to the danger of contamination, particularly given that this groundwater has provided an additional source of drinking water for many years. It is unreasonable for the authorities to tolerate a threat to a high quality and greatly important source of drinking water, argued the petitioners.
The Municipality of Safad has claimed that the cost of connecting Akbara to the sewage system would be in excess NIS 1,000,000 (over US $260,000), a sum that it is unable to pay. The Ministry of Constructing and Housing has claimed that finding a solution to the problem is not their responsibility. The municipality has asked homeowners in the neighborhood, particularly those seeking building licenses, to place reinforced tanks besides their houses for the collection of sewage, at a cost of NIS 19,000 (US $5,000) per house, at their own private expense.
The Israel Land Administration (ILA) also refuses to market any plot of land in the Akbara neighborhood on the pretext that the Safad Municipality will not grant building permits for new houses so long as the neighborhood is not connected to the central sewage system, creating an acute shortage of land for construction in the area.
The residents of Akabara are internally displaced Palestinians whose original villages were destroyed in 1948. They were then relocated to the village of Akbara by Israeli military order. However, Israel did not recognize the village, and as a result its inhabitants receive not state services, including education, health and refuse collection services. After a long battle, Israel was eventually compelled to grant recognition to the village and then joined it to Safad in 1982. At the time an agreement was reached between the authorities and the residents of Akabara that the Municipality of Safad and the ILA would allocate a plot of land for building to each family and provide the neighborhood with services and infrastructure.
A.P. 169/08, Hajeb Salah v. The Municipality of Safad, et al. (Nazareth District Court)