In a written response to a petition filed to the Supreme Court of Israel by Adalah to demand clear and equal criteria for determining the list of towns eligible for quotas and subsidies for producing and marketing eggs, the Attorney General (AG) stated that the current situation, in which no Arab farmers receive quotas for the production and marketing of eggs, is “inappropriate and incorrect.”
The state further clarified its position stressing that it would increase the number of quotas awarded for producing and marketing eggs by 5% in 2009, and that the authorities would work on criteria for allocating these quotas to new producers. The state added that the issue of allocating quotas to members of minority groups would be looked at specifically.
Adalah petitioned the Supreme Court on 28 April 2008 demanding the addition of the Arab village of Aramshe in the Upper Galilee to the list of communities eligible for egg production and marketing quotas and subsidies. The petition was filed by Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher on behalf of residents of the village of Aramshe, whose numerous applications for egg quotas were refused on the ground that Aramshe was not included in the list of eligible communities.
In 2006, the national egg production quota in Israel was 671 billion eggs; in 2007, that figure rose to 678 billion eggs. In 2007, the Knesset’s Economics Committee approved an additional NIS 8 million in subsidies for producing and marketing eggs. The egg business is a very profitable industry in Israel.
The Poultry Council Law establishes an individual’s right to produce and market eggs. However, under the law, a person may not produce or market eggs unless he or she has received a personal quota under the terms defined in the law. A subsequently enacted law, the Galilee Law – 1988, stipulates that preference will be given in allocating egg quotas to farm owners who live in the Galilee on a permanent basis. Under the Galilee Law, those who receive quotas are eligible to receive a subsidy for producing eggs at certain percentages of the calculated cost of production. The stated purpose of granting preference in allocating quotas and subsidies to Galilee communities is to develop the Galilee in all fields: communities, education, health, tourism, industry, transportation, and aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel). However, the Galilee Law also excluded Aramshe. Adalah argued that the exclusion of an Arab village from the list of eligible communities constitutes discrimination against Arab citizens of the state as Aramshe is located in the same geographical area in which the rest of the communities that received quotas are situated.
In its response to the petition, which was filed to the court in September 2008, the state indicated that it had held numerous sessions over previous months in the Ministry of Agriculture, in which it set out principles for criteria for allocating quotas for egg production and marketing quotas and subsidies. The state also responded that quotas would be allocated to the non-Jewish sector and that priority would be given to this sector, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling to cancel National Priority Areas, delivered on Adalah’s petition, and as a means of affirmative action. The state requested that the court delay ruling on the petition to allow the state to complete the steps it has initiated, and announced that it would inform the court after taking all of the necessary steps.
H.C. 3815/08, Eyad el-Mugheys, et al. v. The Minister of Agriculture