Amendment 116, signed in 2017, expanded the government's authority concerning the enforcement of the Construction Law in order to curb illegal construction. According to former justice minister MK Ayelet Shaked (New Right), the law was originally meant for Israel's Arab sector."When we made the Kaminitz Law, the goal was to toughen the enforcement over illegal construction mainly in the Arab sector; the authorities enforce the law on Jewish farmers as well," Shaked told Matzav HaRuach magazine. "I spoke to the one who directs the enforcement unit. It is overly onerous toward the farmers," she said. "We did not expect that. That is why we said during the run-up to the election, both me and the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu], that we would look into corrections of the regulation.""I do not want to cancel the law because it led to good results in the Arab sector, but we need to see how we can change the law. After all, it is overly onerous toward residents of moshavim [agricultural communities]."National Union Leader MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) responded to the committee hearing, saying that "cancelling the Kaminitz Law would be a fatal blow to the rule of law and the fight against the illegal Arab criminal construction that has been raging for decades without an effective response [in the form of law] enforcement."It is possible and necessary to make sure that the law is not used for discriminatory over-enforcement in the agricultural sector, without canceling it and letting the construction criminals keep going wild."בדיון בכספים על העוולה של חוק קמיניץ:הליכוד מציע לתקנו רק למושבים. יש רוב מספרי בוועדה להקפאה. יש ללכת על תכנון ולא על דחפור pic.twitter.com/X6TF1ca0UK
— Ahmad Tibi (@Ahmad_tibi) December 30, 2019
Tibi responded to Shaked's interview, saying that it "exposed the actual objectives behind this horrible law," adding that it "crushes families financially.""When there is a law [for some] and another discriminatory law [for others] it is called apartheid," Tibi said. "In the beginning of the last cabinet's term, there was the 100-day plan. An inter-ministerial committee [examined] the problems [arising from the law] – the motives, the background of illegal construction – and said that the reason for that is not the Arab citizen but [that it] has to do with the years-long planning oversight."Despite that, the government, Kaminitz, the Justice Ministry – [all] went for unspeakable sanctions," Tibi said. "Hundreds of thousands of shekels for construction crimes: a thing that did not exist before. It crushes families; crushes them financially without [leaving] a right to appeal the fines.""Hence we wanted, want and will want to cancel this law."אפשר וצריך לוודא שהחוק לא משמש אמצעי לאכיפת יתר מפלה במגזר החקלאי גם מבלי לבטל אותו ולאפשר לעברייני הבניה להמשיך להשתולל.
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) December 30, 2019