Just a few hours on April 12 after enforcement authorities demolished the home that Tareq Habib built for himself in Kafr Kanna without receiving the proper permits, his friends and neighbors gathered to rebuild it. It took about an hour to lay the foundations and build the ground level. “We won’t abandon our lands here — over our dead bodies. We deserve to live like human beings,” Habib told journalists, who came to Kafr Kanna to cover the demolition of his home and the outrage of the villagers directed at the State of Israel’s harsh policies toward Israeli Arabs over the housing crisis and illegal construction in their settlements.

One day after the demolitions in Kafr Kanna, bulldozers showed up in the village of Dahamesh near Lod, to tear down illegal buildings erected by the Asaf family. Walid Asaf, the owner of one of the homes that was demolished, told the media, “Anyone familiar with Dahamesh knows that we are doing everything we can to obtain recognition, status and permission to build homes. We’ve taken it as far as the Supreme Court. They tore down some homes today, but I am not giving up. This is our land. We were born here, and we will die here.”

Mazen Ghnaim, the mayor of Sakhnin, who also serves as the chairman of the High Follow-up Committee of Arabs Citizens of Israel, warns that the housing crisis and this policy of demolishing homes could ignite the region and cause an enormous rift in the country. “The problem is that young people can’t get married and start a family because they have no way to build a home in the village or settlement where they live,” he said. “We’re talking about a wait of eight to 10 years just to receive building permits, and nothing happens until then. These young people eventually get so desperate that they build houses illegally. They get fed up waiting. Then after they invested all their money in building a house for themselves, the bulldozers come with the police to tear the house down and toss them into the street.”

The housing crisis in Israel is a national problem. But while young Jews are also unable to buy an apartment, the crisis faced by young couples in the Arab sector is to a certain extent even more severe. For them, the issue is not only the skyrocketing prices of apartments, which place them out of reach, but also how the current housing situation undermines the traditional familial and clan structure within the Arab settlements. Young Jews have seemingly the option of buying or renting a home in the periphery, but this option barely exists among Israeli Arabs.