Volume 50, July 2008 www.adalah.org
Land and Planning Rights

New Legislation in the Name of Security
New Anti-Arab Legislation
By Haneen Naamnih


New amendments passed to the Citizenship Law permit the revocation of citizenship for disloyalty to the state and may result in statelessness of citizens
Extending the validity of the Citizenship Law banning family unification is the latest in a series of Israeli policies of racial separation
Proposed amendments to the Detention of Unlawful Combatants Law which allow for the indefinite administrative detention of 'foreign nationals' amount to hostage-taking  
Prisoners' Rights
Adalah petitions District Court on behalf of political prisoner seeking conjugal rights  
Supreme Court requires Prison Service to explain its policy prohibiting Palestinian political prisoners from embracing their young children during visits
Socio-Economic and Education Rights
Following Adalah's motion for contempt of court, state announces to Supreme Court: We will not implement the National Priority Areas decision in the coming year
Following the petition of Adalah and the Association for the Development of Arab Education in Haifa, Education Ministry and Haifa Municipality decide to establish “educational space” for Arab pupils in Haifa by 2010

Criminal Justice
Supreme Court refuses to order Israeli army to provide a summary of the operational military report to family of Mr. Nebari, killed by the Israeli army in 2003 


Adalah’s Newsletter is a monthly publication issued in Arabic, Hebrew and English. It highlights Adalah’s main activities, provides analysis of human rights issues, and links to new reports. Suggestions, articles and commentaries from our readers are welcome. View previous volumes
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Opening Remarks

Supreme Court and Arab Lands


This month Adalah submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court (SCt.) on behalf of a Palestinian Arab family from Nazareth whose land was confiscated by the state in 1958 for a "public purpose". After many years of not using the land for a public purpose, it was put up for sale on the free market and offered to the highest bidder by Miftavim, Ltd., which received the land from the state after the confiscation. The petition demanded that the SCt. cancel the confiscation and return the land to the original Arab landowners who are citizens of the state. The petition relied on past precedent of the SCt. according to which lands were returned to their Jewish owners if there was no longer any public purpose for the confiscation or if a lengthy time had passed and the lands were not used for this reason. Despite prior precedent, the SCt. denied the Arab family's request to freeze the bid for the sale of the land. As a result, the land was sold for NIS 183 million (US $53 million) which was received by Miftavim, Ltd. This case starkly illustrates how the state deprives Palestinian citizens of Israel of their land. The Israeli legal community treats issues of land confiscation as belonging to the past, to the era of the state's establishment, and one which no longer affects Arab citizens. The SCt.'s decision proves that the land confiscation issue still exists and that the legal system concerning land is divided into two systems: one for Arab citizens and one for Jewish citizens. Undoubtedly, the legal meaning of confiscation for "public purpose" is not to benefit all the public but to deprive Arab owners of their land.
Language Rights
The Arabic Language and the Indigenity of the Arabs in Israel
By Ala Mahajna
Adalah’s Third Annual Law Students’ Conference
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10-12 October 2008, Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam

Adalah's Report to UN 
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