The Supreme Court Dismisses Adalah’s Petition Regarding Academic Enrichment Programs

Yesterday, the Supreme Court dismissed Adalah’s petition filed in May 1997, on behalf of the Follow-up Committee on Arab Education (FUCAE) and the Coalition of Parents’ Groups in the Negev, against the Ministry of Education (MOE).  The petition sought to compel the MOE to provide “Shahar” academic enrichment programs equally to Palestinian Arab and Jewish students.  The Supreme Court, in dismissing the petition, claimed that while the State admitted to historical, intentional discrimination, the MOE  had largely remedied the situation, since the filing of the petition.  As such, Supreme Court President Aharon Barak and Justices Yitzchak Zamir and Dorit Beinisch ordered that the State pay NIS 20,000 to Adalah in legal expenses. 

Adalah argued in the 1997 petition that the MOE’s continued discriminatory implementation of the “Shahar” programs, begun in the 1970s, violated the principle of equality of educational opportunities.  Adalah claimed that the MOE, in offering these programs solely to Jewish students from weak socio-economic backgrounds, intentionally discriminated against Arab students.  The MOE admitted to this discrimination, and offered a variety of gradual remedies beginning in 1998.  Adalah rejected these proposed remedies on the grounds that any delay in extending the programs to all students would effectively sanction the historical, intentional discrimination admitted to by the Ministry.

In May 1998, the Court stated that it would issue a written decision on the question of whether a gradual or immediate remedy is required in cases of historical, intentional discrimination.  However, the Court offered no timetable for its decision.  In February 1999, the Court requested further information from the Ministry, but again failed to issue a ruling.  Adalah submitted new evidence to the Court in January 2000, demonstrating the respondents’ failure to implement their previous promise to reach total equality in allocations within five years. 

In response to the petition, the MOE claimed that it decided to allocate 20% of the budget to the Arab community (which represents 20% of the population) within five years.  The Attorney General’s Office informed the Court that the Arab community had reached parity with the Jewish community in the 1999 budget.  Furthermore, the MOE claimed that it allocated a special five-year affirmative action budget of NIS 250 million to the Arab community.

The Supreme Court wrote in its conclusion: “In the framework of the petition discussion, no one disputed the fact that education in the Arab sector did not progress for many years and there was also no disagreement over the fact that steps had to be taken to improve the situation.  Based on the answers we received from the state, we were convinced that significant measures were taken to allocate funds to the Arab sector to achieve the goal of parity in educational welfare programs in accordance with the relative size of the Israeli Arab population.”