The bill to connect electricity to houses built without a permit was approved last night (Monday) in the first reading in the Knesset plenum, when it passed by a majority of 61 Knesset members against 48 opponents. MK Patin Mula of the Likud abstained from voting because he claims the law harms the Bedouin population.
The law was passed in light of agreements between the chairman of the RAAM faction, Walid Taha, and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, after she demanded that certain amendments be made to the wording of the law that Taha introduced at a moment of inattention on her part. However, the outline is expected to be accompanied by an outline, ie, a position paper in which the course of action of the law will be written, which include, among other things, the same matters that Shaked left out.
The bill is intended to ensure that the connections to electricity, water or telephone made in most cases by residents without a permit, will be made legally and safely, and in accordance with the safety requirements of the IEC.
The bill proposed that the Minister of the Interior be allowed to stipulate in an order that a residential building located in a certain area can be connected to electricity, water or telephone even without the existence of building permits for that building. The conditions for the issuance of the said order are the submission of a plan by one of the parties listed in the bill, the structure for which the essay was requested was established until January 1, 2018 and no additional part was built after that date.
In addition, it was proposed to set a timetable for consultation with the district committee and for the decision of the Minister of the Interior, as well as to determine the conditions required to meet those who apply to connect these structures such as an undertaking to apply for a permit within the time limit in the bill.
The opposition attacked the move: MK Meir Purush (Torah Judaism) said that “there is no such thing as the law being applied only to the Arabs, this law will work with the help of the name in the Jewish population as well.” Only three percent of homes do not have electricity. “
“The law will do justice to the tens of thousands of citizens who were forced to build their homes without permits because it was simply impossible to get permits,” said vote-taker MK Taha. So neither did they plan for them and also punished them for not connecting them to electricity, hence adding sin to crime. Nor do they plan, nor do they connect to electricity, nor do they persecute people with eviction orders, fines and demolition orders. The era of oppressing the citizen for not planning for him is over. “Electricity will no longer be used as a punishment tool for Arab citizens, the authorities are asked to speed up planning procedures in their area.”