On 8 April 2009, Adalah sent a letter to the Director of the National Insurance Institute (NII), Esther Domenesy, asking her to expand the applicability of the National Insurance Law – 1995, so as to eliminate discrimination between Jews and "non-Jews" in the granting of disability allowances .
Under the National Insurance Law, every disabled person who has lost the ability to work receives disability allowances, according to the proportion of disability, in order to ensure the possibility of living a dignified life without having to rely on others. These allowances are given to anyone who becomes disabled and who is an Israeli citizen.
A special clause in the law refers to new immigrants who are disabled, and grants them disability allowances immediately; this provision does not apply to disabled "non-Jews" with residency status who are living in Israel. In other words, the law grants disability allocations to those individuals who immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return – 1950 (which is possible only for Jews), or to those who are entitled to the "absorption basket" in Israel. Thus, this clause excludes all persons living in Israel who have been granted residency status through family unification under the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, in particular Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and individuals from Arab states married to Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel.
Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher argued that the law distinguishes between two groups: (i) Jews who immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return or individuals who are entitled to the ‘absorption basket’; and (ii) those "non-Jews" who enter and reside in Israel pursuant to the Citizenship and Entry Law. Thus, there is discrimination in the granting of disability allowances on the basis of nationality and religion.
Such discrimination, Adalah argued, contradicts the law’s stated objective, which is granting insurance allowances to those who have lost the ability to work in order to provide them with an opportunity for a decent life. "There is no logical relationship between the law’s objective and the discrimination between the two groups; the law illegally affects the group of residents who are non-Jews who have lost the ability to work prior to becoming residents of Israel," Adalah argued.
Attorney Zaher also argued that this discrimination is contrary to the NII's policy. The NII is a channel for the redistribution of the national income and its primary objective is to reduce the phenomenon of poverty and economic disparities in the state. This law also runs counter to Supreme Court decisions, which regard the right to economic security as a constitutional right, and therefore depriving disabled individuals - regardless of their nationality or religion - who are unable to work from disability allowances is an infringement of their constitutional right to economic security.