Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

Last week, Reut’s regional development team met with the organization Sikkuy to learn more about the project of municipal cooperation between Jewish and Arab local authorities in Wadi Ara.

The challenge of cooperation between authorities in the periphery is largely due to inherent tension between Jewish and Arab authorities. This tension is created, in part, as a result of ongoing distrust of the Arab authorities towards the establishment due to the perception that various planning instruments of the state aim to expand Jewish majority control over Arab lands. In turn, Jewish authorities are unwilling to rush to cooperate with the Arab authorities, which are usually socio-economically weaker.

The Regional Development team suggests promoting regional cooperation, based on the criteria of economic development. The first step is to identify regional assets such as competitive advantages at the global level. Following this, the team suggests creating ‘competitive regions’ based on the boundaries of the region’s unique assets.

Such regional organization, based on geographic and demographic characteristics existing in the area, may contribute to the inclusion of weak authorities, the allocation of more effective services by the government and the improvement of trust between Arab authorities and the Israeli establishment.