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Dear Friends, Colleagues and Supporters,
This
year the United Nations declared “End Discrimination”
the theme for International Human Rights Day. Adalah: The Legal
Center
for Arab Minority Rights in Israel has
been leading the struggle to end
discrimination
against Arab citizens of Israel
for over 13 years. While
we have had
success in overturning discriminatory policies and laws, we face a
near-constant stream of new discriminatory policies
and laws, many of which threaten
the citizenship and basic rights of Arab citizens of Israel.
It
is for this reason that
on the occasion of International Human Rights Day we ask you, our
friends,
colleagues and supporters to continue to support Adalah in our struggle
for
equal human rights in Israel.
We
wish we could report a decrease in inequality between Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel.
However, in reality 2009 witnessed the reverse trend: a disturbing rise
in
discrimination against Arab citizens of the state.
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Numerous
Israeli political parties, including the Likud and
Yisrael Beiteinu (the two largest political parties in Israel
today), ran on virulently
“anti-Arab” platforms in this year’s general elections.
Arab political leaders and parties
found
themselves, as in previous elections, fighting for
the basic right to elect and
be elected. Adalah
intervened in the Central Elections Committee and the Supreme
Court, after
which all the “banned” Arab political parties were able to freely and
fairly
participate in elections. |
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After taking office, members
of Netanyahu’s new ruling
coalition – one of the most right-wing governments in Israeli
history –
launched a flood of anti-democratic,
anti-Arab legislation in the
Knesset. These
bills
threaten to exclude
Palestinian citizens of Israel
from the political life of the country, impose conditions on their
citizenship,
and criminalize their political expression. Adalah
continues to advocate locally and internationally against
the enactment of these discriminatory new bills
and laws. |
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Tens
of thousands of Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev)
spent yet another year under the threat of having their homes
demolished and being
forced off their land. In July 2009, the courts ordered the eviction of
residents from the “unrecognized” Arab Bedouin village
of Umm
al-Hieran, 60 years
after the Israeli military
ordered
them to leave their ancestral lands and relocate to the village.
Adalah learned that the objective behind this latest displacement is to
clear
the land for the establishment of the Jewish town of “Hiran.” Adalah is
appealing
the eviction orders. |
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Over
800 anti-war protestors, Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel, were imprisoned for
protesting against Israel’s brutal military attacks on Gaza. Adalah represented demonstrators and reported on how the police, state
prosecutors, the General Security Services (“Shabak”), the courts and even
academic institutions used arrest and imprisonment as a means to intimidate and
deter them from voicing their opposition. The Goldstone Report relied heavily on Adalah’s work concerning Gaza and its findings in this regard. The
Goldstone Report dedicated an entire chapter to the arrest and harassment of
anti-war protestors, and recommended that Israel investigate whether
demonstrators were discriminated against by the authorities. Adalah has demanded that
the state implement this recommendation
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Please
help Adalah in our struggle to end
discrimination against Arab citizens in Israel:
1.
Subscribe
to Adalah’s electronic monthly newsletter to receive regular updates,
reports,
articles and commentaries in Arabic, Hebrew and English.
Click here to
subscribe to Adalah's Newsletter
2.
Receive
and distribute Adalah’s materials, reports and journals, such as the newly
released Volume 5 of Adalah’s Review:
“On Criminalization”.
Click
here
to order
3. Volunteer/intern with Adalah.
Click
here
for more information on these opportunities
4. Support Adalah’s pioneering work
Click
here
to
learn more about how to make a donation
Sincerely,
Hassan Jabareen,
Advocate
General Director, Adalah
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