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Part Two - The Structure of the Government and its Reduction
The Community Model
Returning authority to communities
Since the establishment of the state, one of the most glorious institutions established by the Jewish people has vanished – the institution of the community. The socialist leaders of the state in its early years believed that the citizens of the country must adopt a common culture and shared values and actually become one big community that works toward a common goal. There was no room in their view for anything that was liable to jeopardize this unity, such as small and diverse communities. This view has led the authorities in the country to try and obscure community identities and to force the adoption of the "Israeli identity" that they created in the name of the melting pot idea.
Zehut believes that the national identity of the people of Israel should grow naturally from the bottom-up – from the individuals that make up the nation – and not be dictated from above by the government. The community, therefore, maintains a central role in the design and expression of identity. Just as individual freedoms are the tool by which a person is able to express his or her personal identity and as the state is the tool of expression of national identity, so too the community is the tool of expression of the immediate surrounding, of those who choose to live side-by-side and share a common public space.
The community model is based on this view. As part of the model, local authorities will be divided into small and homogenous communities, and some of the prerogatives of the state and the local authorities will be decentralized and transferred to these local communities. This is to strengthen national identity by strengthening community identity, while at the same time allowing communities to determine for themselves the nature of their public space.
Mutual respect rather than legislative struggles
The current situation, where use of public space is determined by the state or even by the local authority, creates tension and animosity between different communities and sectors. A community that does not aspire to impose its values on the entire public space through legislation is liable to lose not only the possibility of influencing the character of the entire country, but also the opportunity to shape its immediate environment – a condition that causes all communities to aspire to impose their private beliefs. In this way, determining the nature of public space becomes a zero-sum struggle in which the advancement of one constituency comes at the expense of another. Ironically, a policy meant to unite the people actually causes friction and disunity.
Zehut's solution is to allow each community to determine the nature of public space within its boundaries, and reduce the ability of people outside the community to influence it. Legislative struggles will cease, and their main cause – fear of loss of community identity – will no longer be relevant. Once the battle is over, tensions between communities in Israel will begin to dissipate and give way to mutual cultural cross-fertilization and common ground, rather than focusing on the need for separation and the struggle against what is different.
Beyond the moral benefit derived from Zehut's solution, it is also a just and fair solution. The community model will allow local residents, who are the most affected by the nature of public space, to work out agreements among themselves.
The division into communities
The entire domain of communities, including division into communities will be the responsibility of the Interior Ministry. The responsibility for creating the initial division into communities will belong to local authorities, with the Interior Minister having the authority to reject proposed divisions. Both the instruction to the Interior Ministry and the language of the law will establish that the division create communities that are as homogeneous as possible. A division made with the intent of decentralizing the power of a particular population and preventing it from uniting as an independent community will be vulnerable to nullification by law either by the Interior Minister or by the court.
Every community will choose its own leadership. The manner of selecting the leadership and its authority shall be determined initially by the Interior Ministry. Later, it will be possible to make changes by means of a vote of community members, subject to approval by the Interior Ministry. This will only apply in cases in which the proposed method and the proposed authorities do not exceed the rules of proper administration and do not harm the representation of the will of the majority in the community. Also, communities will have the option of splitting or uniting with other adjacent communities, subject to a vote of community members and the approval of the Interior Ministry.
The budget for funding the activities of the community leadership will be allocated by the local authority from the proceeds of property tax payments by the community members. Community leaders will receive a budget for the lease of office space and a conference room as well as a limited budget for administrative staff salaries, office equipment and administrative expenses. The leaders themselves will not receive a salary, but will be entitled to reimbursement of expenses for their service to the community, the amount of which will be determined by the Interior Ministry.
Powers of the community in the community model
The community model will allow communities to enact community bylaws, in the same manner that local authorities today are able to legislate municipal bylaws, and they will be enforced in the same way. Like municipal bylaws, community bylaws will also take effect only after they are approved by the leadership of the community and by the Interior Minister. It will not be possible to pass a bylaw that contradicts Israeli law.
Municipal bylaws will apply only to areas not associated with a particular community[16]. Upon their formation, the new communities will inherit the bylaws of the local authority they belong to, which will become community bylaws that may be modified by community leaders. National rules on the use of public spaces that are more appropriately decided on the community level will be eliminated, and sufficient preparation time for interested communities to enact community laws to replace them will be allotted.
In addition to the authority to enact bylaws and the informed cancellation of state laws imposed on them, other significant powers will be transferred to communities. One is the power to set limits on construction in their territory, as specified in the chapter on housing in this platform. The second is the ability to appoint the commander of the local police, as described in the chapter on internal security.
Which laws will be adopted at the community level?
The laws that will be eliminated on the national and municipal level to make room for their replacement by community bylaws will be laws governing the nature of public space and its use. We will present examples of a small number of decisions that we believe should be determined on a community level.
Rules relating to the character of Shabbat. The ongoing debate about the character of Shabbat in Israel will be resolved by each community determining appropriate regulations about the character of the Shabbat in its territory. Laws prohibiting the opening of business on Shabbat and holidays or public transportation on Shabbat and holidays will be canceled and each community can choose whether to accept them in its territory and under what conditions. Of course, all the provisions of Shabbat and Jewish holidays can also be applied to other rest days, as determined by the local community.
Noise laws. Rules relating to noise will be made at the local community level, since it is affected by this noise.
Art and esthetics. Activities connected to decorations in public spaces, such as planting trees and flowers, as well as the placement of statues and memorial plaques, will require the consent of the community.
Stalls, fairs and street performers. Communities can approve, prohibit or set conditions, such as permissible times and locations, for setting up of stalls, holding of fairs and having street performers in the public area.
Of course, these laws are only a few examples of how the powers of the community may be exercised. We intend to allow many other issues concerning public space to be decided in the framework of the local community.
[16] Except for certain exceptional by-laws, such as laws dealing with urban infrastructure.
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