Housing Ministry plans to reduce cost of housing in Israeli Jewish towns only

On 1 March 2015, Adalah sent a letter appealing to the Minister of Housing (MOH), the Director of the Israel Lands Authority (ILA) and the Attorney General to reconsider the "Target Price" housing program, which will reduce the cost of residential construction and the price of housing in certain areas by 20% of the average national price.

The Target Price program offers builders state-owned land at a discount, so long as they pass on the lower cost to the buyers of the homes they build on it.

The MOH published a list of 10 towns that will benefit from this program in 2015, as well as a list of 30 additional towns, including five West Bank settlements that will benefit from this provision for the coming five years. Neither of the lists included any Arab towns. The new Target Price housing program, which will be applied until 2019, will market 66,000 housing units. 80% of these units will be sold for at least 20% less than that of the average price of housing units on the market, according to government estimates.

In the letter, Adalah Attorney Mysanna Morany argued that the selection of the towns under the Target Price program was based on "criteria that only take into consideration the data and market needs of Jewish and mixed towns only, and ignores the different conditions of Arab towns. These criteria prove that the MOH did not look into the needs of the Arab society at all during the ratification procedures of this program." Attorney Morany added that the discrimination against Arab citizens in this program is compounded by the fact that the housing and social-economic crisis among Arab citizens is double that among Jewish Israeli citizens.