Supreme Court Grants Order Nisi in Case Against the Head of the Bedouin Education Authority Regarding His Racist Statements
On 15 January 2002, the Supreme Court issued an order nisi in response to a petition filed on 23 September 2001, by Adalah on behalf of forty-nine petitioners, including the Arab National Parents’ Committee, pupils and other NGOs, against Minister of Education Limor Livnat and the Head of the Bedouin Education Authority (BEA), Moshe Shohat. The respondents have forty-five days from the release of the order nisi to explain why they have failed to meet the following demands of the petition:
§ To dismiss Mr. Shohat from his position in light of his racist statements;
§ To bid for a replacement for Mr. Shohat among the Palestinian community in the Naqab (Negev); and
§ To examine the functioning and the budget of the BEA until a replacement for Mr. Shohat is selected.
Adalah filed the petition in response to racist statements Mr. Shohat made against the Arab Bedouin community in an interview with the New York-based newspaperThe Jewish Week published 20 July 2001. During the interview, Mr. Shohat described the community as “blood-thirsty Bedouins who commit polygamy, have 30 children and continue to expand their illegal settlements, taking over state land.” Mr. Shohat further commented, “In their culture they take care of their needs outdoors … They don’t even know how to flush a toilet.”
Following public protest from Palestinian and Jewish NGOs, Minister Livnat hired Dr. Doron Mor to investigate the situation on behalf of the Ministry of Education (MOE). Dr. Mor recommended that the MOE put Mr. Shohat on mandatory leave in light of his remarks; however, Minister Livnat rejected this recommendation.
Founded in 1981, the BEA is the agency appointed by the MOE to manage the education system in the unrecognized villages in the Naqab. Mr. Shohat has served as the Head of the BEA since 1984, when the MOE appointed him without publicly advertising the position. Mr. Shohat also serves on the committee that appoints teachers and principals in the unrecognized villages of the Naqab.
The petitioners provided evidence to the Court that Mr. Shohat has failed to uphold his responsibilities as Head of the BEA. These failures were also cited in the report of a special committee headed by Dr. Yakov Katz (the “Katz Committee”). In 1998, the Minister of Education of the time appointed the Katz Committee to investigate the Arab Bedouin education system in the south, including that of the unrecognized villages. In January 1998, the Katz Committee published its results in which it disparaged the role of Mr. Shohat and the functioning of the BEA as follows:
“The BEA is under the jurisdiction of the MOE [then known as the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports]; consequently, the members of the BEA are torn between the needs of the schools [of the unrecognized villages] and the interests of the State … The schools in the unrecognized villages receive small budgets and few facilities, their buildings and furnishings are inadequate, and they have very few teaching aids. Sometimes services and materials [visual aids, computers, labs, sports equipment, etc.] are missing. Most of the schools are located in temporary buildings that are not adequately spacious, and there is a severe shortage of rooms and offices.”
Writing on behalf of the petitioners, Adalah Staff Attorney Marwan Dalal argued in the petition that Mr. Shohat is not qualified to serve in any education system, let alone that of the Arab Bedouin population in the unrecognized villages of the Naqab. Mr. Dalal further argued that Mr. Shohat broke the trust imbued in him as Head of the BEA and offended the Arab Bedouin community with his racist statements. Additionally, Mr. Shohat violated his obligation as a public employee to act with decency, equality and rationality without discrimination.
The petition demands that the MOE bid for a qualified educator from the Arab Bedouin community to replace Mr. Shohat on the grounds that the community has a right to representation in the highest official position in an agency with the declared goal of servicing the Arab Bedouin population in the Naqab. The petitioners believe that it is the right of the pupils of the unrecognized villages of the Naqab to study in an education system headed by someone who is not hostile to them and their culture, an educator that aims to serve and promote the community rather than humiliate and suppress it.
