Supreme Court Grants an Order Nisi in Adalah's Case Concerning Arabic on Municipality Signs

The Supreme Court today issued an order nisi in Adalah's case against the mixed municipalities of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth Illit, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and Ramle-Lod. Adalah's petition demands that these municipalities add Arabic to all the public road signs within their jurisdictions. The petition, submitted with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), argues that posting signs in only Hebrew discriminates against the Palestinian Arab minority in these municipalities. Moreover, the petition argues that the failure of the municipalities to provide Arabic signs violates Article 82 of the Palestine Order-in-Council (1922), which lists Arabic as an official language of the state. 

The petition was originally submitted in June 1999, and builds on Adalah's successful 1998 petition concerning Arabic signs on national highways. 

The order nisi compels the respondents to reply to the legal arguments raised by Adalah within 90 days.