Major
Findings of
Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Presented in
Discriminatory Laws: This Report found 20 discriminatory laws - 17 of which are
discriminatory on their face, in that they either relate only to the rights of
Jews in
The Lack of Equal Protection Rights
for the Arab Minority: Although
laws exist which protect the equal rights of disadvantaged groups such as women
and the disabled, no general statute relates to the right to equality for all
citizens. Moreover, there is no statute which specifically protects equal
rights for the Arab minority in
The Basic Law: Human Dignity & Freedom, which is considered a mini-bill
of rights by Israeli legal scholars, does not enumerate the right for equality.
On the contrary, this Basic Law emphasizes the ethnicity of the State as a
Jewish State. Therefore, the Arab minority is afforded no constitutional
protection against discrimination.
Equality Cases Before the
Supreme Court of Israel: The Supreme Court has delivered several
forward-thinking decisions in anti-discrimination cases involving the rights of
women, homosexuals, the disabled and other groups, however, the Supreme Court,
since 1948, has dismissed all cases which deal with equal rights for Arab
citizens of the State.
This Report shows that the
Supreme Court, in cases involving equal rights for Arab citizens, uniformly
considers the differences between Jews and Arabs to be relevant factors in
justifying privileges granted only to Israeli Jews. As a result, the Court
consistently rules that discriminatory State policies are not invalid and
discriminatory because they further legitimate distinctions. The Supreme Court,
therefore, has failed to protect the equal rights of the Arab minority in
Although
Criminal Cases: An examination of
Citizenship: The Israeli government argues that the Law of Return, which
allows every Jew to immigrate to
The Right of Political
Participation:
Israeli law does not allow an Arab political party to run in the Knesset
election if its platform denies that
Land & Housing Rights: The Absentee Property Law declares that anyone who left the
country in 1948, is an absentee, and that his/her property comes under the
control of the State. This Law was used only against Arabs, and even in
reference to people who remained in the country but who were compelled to leave
their land. These individuals are called "present absentees." The
Defence (Emergency) Regulation 125 authorizes the military commander to declare
land to be a "closed area." Once he so declares, no person is allowed
to enter or to leave the area. By this regulation, the population of tens of
Arab villages became uprooted. There is no uprooted Jewish population in the
State.
The National Planning &
Building Law prohibits the provision of basic services such as water and
electricity to tens of unrecognized Arab villages in the State. Although these
villages existed before the State's establishment, the main purpose of the law
is to force the people to leave their villages and move to government-planned
areas. There are no unrecognized Jewish villages in
Governmental planning policies
ignore the needs of Arab citizens and Arab communities. In addition, the
government restricts and limits the jurisdictional boundaries of Arab
localities through its land allocation policy. For example, the government's
1998 plan for land allocation for housing completely excludes the Arab
minority. According to the plan, land will be designated for the building of
23,000 apartments, none of which will be constructed in Arab towns.
Culture & Language Rights: The official institutions, state holidays, symbols, and
heroes are exclusively Zionist-Jewish. Moreover, the Hebrew language is
dominant, although Arabic is also an official language of the State by law.
Several laws establish Jewish cultural institutions but none create similar
centers for Arab citizens of the State. In addition, since the establishment of
Education Rights: The State Education Law codifies the objectives of the
educational system, which serve only to advance Jewish culture and Zionist
ideology. No autonomous educational system, run by Arab educators, was created
for the Arab community to meet their needs as a distinct group. Arab students
are assigned to read Zionist literature and poetry and not Arab Palestinian
classics, which are studied throughout the Arab world. Moreover, Arab students
devote more hours of classroom study to Torah, than to Arab religious studies,
and are examined on Judaism but not their own religions. Thus, the educational
system recognizes only one national group in the State, and as a result, the
Jewish community is afforded the opportunity to preserve and enrich its
culture, art and history whereas the Arab community is deprived of that chance.
Furthermore, due to the discriminatory practices of the government, Arab
students and schools suffer from a lack of basic services provided to Jewish
students and schools. For example, 80% of the students who dropped out of
school are Arabs. Arab schools lack educational enrichment programs, adequate
infrastructure, and other necessary services.
Religious Rights: The budget of the Ministry of Religious Affairs shows the
stark contrast between Jews and non-Jews, and the wide-scale discrimination
against non-Jews. The Knesset Budget Law of 1998 allocates only 1.86% of the
total (US $430 million) for the Muslim, Christian and Druze religious
communities combined, although they comprise close to the fifth of the
population. Thus, more than 98% of the total budget is allocated to support
Jewish religious services and institutions.
Social & Economic Rights: Governmental offices use discriminatory standards and
criteria, which work to exclude Arab individuals and marginalize Arab localities,
such as the requirement of military service or the qualification for
"national priority area" status. Furthermore, although the Equal
Opportunity Law prohibits discrimination based, inter alia, on national origin,
the law is not effective in providing equal employment opportunity for Arab
citizens of the State.
Racism and Hate Speech: Racism occurs at almost every level in Israeli society. A
main reason for the prevalence of racism in
The authorities may limit hate speech or incitement to racism by prior restraint, however, they rarely use this power. In the few cases involving incitement to racism, the Supreme Court discussed these issues as the confrontation between hate speech and the freedom of expression, preferring the latter in most of the cases. In doing so, the Supreme Court has not considered the interest of protecting the minority and even, did not condemn the speech, as it does in cases involving Arab political activists. Of course, freedom of speech is important in building a liberal democratic society, however, the Arab minority does not have access to the majority media or to majority culture to forcefully counter the hate speech against them based on the liberal principle of "words versus words."