Adalah Holds 6th Annual Law Students' Conference on "Legal Tools for Achieving Social Justice"

Adalah held its 6th Annual Arab Law Students' Conference at Neve Shalom-Wahat al-Salaam over three days, from 20-22 October 2011. 70 law students from universities and colleges throughout Israel and thirty human rights lawyers, academics and activists participated in the event. During and after the conference, the students spoke of how much they had enjoyed and benefitted from it, and some participants made helpful comments about next year's event.

The conference began with a field tour of the unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages in the Naqab. The tour was led by Fares Abu-Oabeid from Bimkom and Mumtaz Hatib from Dukium. The tour started in the government planned town of Lagiyya at Sidreh, a women's economic empowerment NGO, where director Khadra Elsana spoke to the students. Students also heard from community leaders in the villages of Abu Tulul and Abu Qurinat about issues facing the Arab Bedouin, including the devastating effects of the Prawer Report.

Following the tour, General Director of Adalah Attorney Hassan Jabareen welcomed the students to the conference and gave them a personal introduction to Adalah. Students then watched a screening of the film The Law in These Parts, an award-winning documentary that explores the military legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Director Ra'anan Alexandrowicz spoke about the film and answered questions at the conclusion of the screening.

The next two days of the conference included four panel discussions on "The Law and Social Justice," "The Role of the Arab Minority in the Social Protests," "Social Justice in East Jerusalem," and "The Role of the Media in the Struggle for Social Change." Students also participated in practitioner-led legal workshops on the following practical legal issues: gender and the law, the right to housing, the right to protest, and the right to education. The students divided themselves into groups to attend the workshops, which were headed by Adalah's lawyers.

The conference also included a human rights fair, at which students had the opportunity to speak to representatives from eleven human rights and social change organizations in Israel. The participating NGOs were Kayan – Feminist Organization, Mada al-Carmel, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Organization Israel Cancer Association, Al-Manarah Association, Aswat – Palestinian Gay Women, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), Gisha, Women Against Violence, and Maan – The Forum of Bedouin Women's Organizations, as well as Adalah.

The conference also included a social event. Photos of the conference are available at Adalah's Facebook page, and the conference program is available in English here.