3.2.3. The Isolation of Umm al-Fahm Isolation lies at the core of the Israeli strategy to confine, concentrate and disconnect Umm al-Fahm from its surroundings, completing the broader system of the city’s fragmentation and segregation. Since Israel has a stranglehold on urban planning and transportation decision-making, its policies of isolation are enacted in a subtle and largely inconspicuous way, rather than through explicit targeting of Palestinian communities. “Cities’ structural maps and the permission or prevention of building play a primary role in either creating successful cities or poor and marginalized ones,”318 and Israel has cunningly shaped Umm al-Fahm’s design through its centralized decision-making processes. Trade is what increases a city’s value. Israel follows a strategic annexation policy in some cities as is most suitable for its purposes. For example, Israel connected the area of Wadi ‘Ara with other Israeli-Jewish areas, while it separated and excluded the city of Umm Al-Fahm in order to keep it both isolated and industrially dependent. Engineer #1 Interview: Umm al-Fahm, 7 November 2019 This control enables the manipulation of road planning and transportation decision-making for the purpose of de facto de-development. Structural maps are designed according to Israeli-Jewish priorities and are at odds with Palestinian needs.319 Then, constrained by an ill-suited planning system that leaves them with no leeway to develop, Palestinian cities grow without proper and adapted planning, often in an uneven manner and inevitably manifesting social discord. This, in turn, conveys the unwarranted impression that Palestinian cities are unsuitable for proper planning and are responsible for their own problems. The resulting situation then justifies the further tightening of control over Palestinian communities through intensified policing and constant interference. To achieve this, Israel utilizes a number of isolating practices. Among these are the absence of planning for social public spaces such as parks and recreational centers, residential areas according to housing needs,320 as well as health facilities, particularly hospitals. While this is all intentional, it is legitimized under the guise of preserving an assumedly objective planning system. 318 Traffic and Transportation Engineer, interview conducted by BADIL, Nazareth, 8 November 2019. 319 Jabbarin, supra 281. 320 Engineer, interview conducted by BADIL, Umm al-Fahm, 7 November 2019. 81