Volume 48, May  2008 www.adalah.org
The Sixtieth Anniversary of the Nakba




The Citizenship Law
Supreme Court orders state to explain why the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law banning family unification should not be struck down as unconstitutional
Socio-Economic Rights
Adalah petitions Supreme Court demanding inclusion of Arab village on the list of communities eligible for egg production and marketing quotas and subsidies

Prisoners' Rights

Adalah to State Attorney: Palestinian families from Gaza must be allowed to visit their prisoner relatives incarcerated in Israeli prisons
Adalah criticizes new bill absolving police from audio and video documentation of investigations of detainees suspected of committing security offenses
October 2000

Wide support from officials, lawyers and human rights activists from South Africa for the October 2000 victims’ families in their struggle for truth, justice and accountability
Reflection: South Africa-Its blackness is lily-white
Jamileh Asleh
UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Philip Alston on the role of commissions of inquiry in fostering impunity

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
Arabic Hebrew Subscribe a Friend
Opening Remarks
The Right of Return and the Democratic Constitution 
The process of drafting a constitution is an intellectual one in which the drafters attempt to imagine the future of their society. Adalah's Democratic Constitution (DC) refers to an imagined democratic, bi-national and multi-cultural state within the Green Line. The right of return is based in international law and does not depend on Israeli domestic law; the DC therefore emphasizes this right in its preamble, on the basis of UN Resolution 194. Is it possible to enumerate the right of return in the constitution of the imagined state? Article 39 of the DC, which deals with restitution of private property, provides that, “Every person whose land has been expropriated or whose right to property has been violated arbitrarily… is entitled to have his or her property restored and to receive compensation for the period during which his or her right to property was denied.” The right here relates not to citizens or residents but to “every person,” in order to include all of the Palestinian refugees and all of the non-Palestinian Arabs (Syrians, Lebanese, Egyptians, etc.) whose land was confiscated by Israel in 1948, and to emphasize the individualistic aspect of the right of return. Do all Palestinian refugees wish to be citizens of the imagined state? Article 15 of the DC, which discusses citizenship, provides that, “The laws of citizenship and immigration will be established on the basis of the principle of anti-discrimination.” This citizenship will be based on the territorial principle for, “Anyone who was born within the territory of the State of Israel and whose parent was also born within the territory of the State of Israel … [anyone] who was born to a parent who is a citizen of the state … and the spouse of a citizen of the state.” In fact, this provision allows every Palestinian refugee to be a citizen since it defines a citizen as a person who was born in the territory defined as such by the constitution within the 1967 borders. Conversely, it cancels the exclusive privilege granted to Jews regarding immigration to the state.  
Articles and Commentaries

Adalah’s new offices
open in Haifa


 94 Yaffa Street
PO Box 8921
Haifa 31090
Main office: 94 Yaffa Street, PO Box 8921, Haifa 31090 Tel: (972)-4-950-1610 Fax: (972)-4-950-3140
Naqab office: 28 Reger Ave # 35 Beer el Sabe, Israel Tel: (972)-8-665-0740 Fax: (972)-8-665-0853
adalah@adalah.org www.adalah.org
© All Rights Reserved to Adalah