Adalah’s News

During the first half of the year, from January-June 2022, Adalah’ legal actions and international advocacy work resulted in positive outcomes for Palestinians in Israel and in Jerusalem. In this newsletter, we will present some of these key achievements.

The Israeli Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs announced the appointment of a chairperson to the National Food Security Council for the first time since 2019, and later two Arab Council members, the first such appointments of Arab experts since the enactment of the 2011 Food Security Law.  With these appointments, a defunct, yet vital committee for the well-being of all poor citizens of the state, and especially Palestinian citizens of Israel, of whom over 40% are food insecure, will finally begin its work. 

The Ministry of Transport and Road Safety announced that it would not alter a bus route from Nof HaGalil in the Galilee that passes through numerous Arab towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, which would have left Palestinian citizens without public transportation. There is a chronic lack of public transport in Arab towns in Israel, which greatly affects residents’ ability to work and to access health facilities, schools and other public services.

Israel’s national lottery, ‘Mifal HaPais’, changed its policy in order to permit permanent residents of Israel, mainly Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem and Syrians residing in the Occupied Golan Heights (and not only citizens), to apply for higher education scholarships. In 2021, Mifal HaPais awarded 38,000 scholarships of NIS 10,000 (~ US $3,100) each. This case may be used to challenge other educational scholarships programs awarded in a similarly discriminatory manner.

In a precedent-setting decision, the Haifa District Court rejected a 3-month administrative detention order against a 29-year-old teacher, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and instead approved only a two-week order. The evidence showed only that the man tried to organize buses for worshippers to Al Aqsa Mosque for prayer, a legitimate and legal activity, and an exercise of religious freedom, which is a constitutional right. The Court decided that criminal law, rather than an administrative order, was the appropriate route to address any alleged offenses in this case.

International human rights actors issued critical statements regarding Israel’s attempted evacuation of Ras Jrabah, a Bedouin village in the Naqab. Amnesty International, and UN Special Rapporteurs issued a short report and a statement, respectively, calling on Israel to cancel its plans, following advocacy by Adalah. The SRs warned that, “Thousands of Bedouin citizens of Israel living in the Naqab are facing threats of eviction to make way for more Jewish-only towns, military bases, and other major infrastructure projects that exclude [them] and their development interests.”

Read more about Israel's plans to forcibly displace the residents of Ras Jrabah.

The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the OPT and Israel, issued its first report to the UN Human Rights Council, and determined that the continued Israeli occupation, impunity for the Israeli military, and discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) are the root causes of the conflict. The report includes numerous human rights abuses against Palestinians that Adalah presented to the COI. The inclusion of PCI is significant because they have never been part of any mandate of UN COIs.