Volume 18, September 2005 www.adalah.org
Adalah to Attorney General: Only Supreme Court (SCt) Can Review Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Unit’s ("Mahash") Report, not State Attorney’s Office
Nine Human Rights Organizations Petition SCt: Law Preventing Palestinians from Claiming Compensation from the State of Israel is Unconstitutional and thus Void
Featured Case
Supreme Court Rejects Petition Demanding Indictment of Police Officers who Killed 17-Year Old Mahmoud Sadi

Ran Shapira, Adalah's Hebrew Publications' Editor
Articles: Education Rights
Civic Education in Israel
Mikhal Barak, Advocate, The Gilo Center, Hebrew University
Literacy as Freedom
Sawsan Zaher, Advocate, Adalah
Women’s Rights
Supreme Court Issues Final Decision Compelling State to Open and Operate Secure Shelter for Young Arab Women at Risk by 1 January 2006
Right to Education
Tel Aviv District Court Orders Led Municipality to Register Arab Child in Jewish School
SCt Orders Immediate Measures to Repair Road and Traffic Junction for Access to Elementary School in Unrecognized Village in the Naqab
Political Participation
SCt Rejects Petition against Knesset's Decision to Punish MK Issam Makhoul: Knesset’s Ethics Committee has Authority to Punish MKs for Political Statements

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
Even though State Attorney (SA) Eran Shendar is directly responsible for the Justice Ministry's Police Investigation Unit’s (“Mahash”) failures in October 2000 and thereafter, Attorney General (AG) Menachem Mazuz decided that the review of Mahash’s report will remain in his office and be handled as if an appeal had been filed. These unprecedented decisions were made, as the AG stated, “after Adalah announced that it would not submit an appeal.” Further, Mahash’s report was approved, pre-publication, by the AG and SA. This process is illegitimate. Such a clear conflict of interest might lead, in keeping with prior Supreme Court judgments, to the results being dismissed. This process also violates the victims’ families’ fundamental right to due process, preventing their being heard on the investigation into their sons’ killings before the Supreme Court. As these decisions were made in bad faith, this process also violates the rule of law. Before asking the SA’s office to review the report, the office itself must be scrutinized and measures taken against those responsible, including Shendar, for Mahash’s failures in October 2000.
Commentaries
Helen Murray, Birzeit University: ‘Education is Freedom’
Follow-Up Committee on Arab Education: A Snapshot of the Arab Education System in Israel
Law Review Article
Zama Coursen-Neff, HRW, on Discrimination in the Israeli Education System
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