Supreme Court Rules: The Exclusion of Arab Towns from ‘Ofeq' Funding for High Unemployment Areas Constitutes Unlawful Discrimination
On 2 June 2004, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled on the petition submitted in July 2002 by Adalah and the Tel Aviv University Law Clinic, against a government decision to exclude Arab towns from the Ofeq program. The Ofeq program aims to improve areas where residents suffer from high levels of unemployment and other poor socio-economic conditions. The ruling of the Supreme Court decision is extremely significant, as it prevents the state from using the Plan for Development of the Arab Sector as a reason or justification for excluding Arab towns from government socio-economic plans and programs.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the State's claim that it is unnecessary to include Arab towns in the Ofeq program, since the Plan for Development of the Arab Sector, also known as the 'NIS 4 Billion Plan' was a sufficient substitute for Ofeq funds. The Supreme Court's decision stated that “the Plan for Development of the Arab Sector aims to reduce the gap between Arab towns, which suffer from a lack of services and basic infrastructure, and Jewish towns, the former of which are considered far poorer. The Ofeq program specifically aims to support and assist individual towns on a needs basis in various fields, including education, employment and welfare. Therefore, the exclusion of Arab towns from designated socio-economic plans whose aims are different from the Plan for Development of the Arab Sector, constitutes unlawful discrimination, as well as hinders the fulfillment of its aim, that is, bridging the gap between Arab and Jewish towns.” The decision further states that Arab towns have the right to be included in future socio-economic plans, according to equitable criteria, as long as the aims of these plans are not similar to those of the Plan for Development of the Arab Sector.
The petition was submitted in July 2002 on behalf of the National Committee for Arab Mayors and the local councils of Kufr Manda, Ein Mahel and Kessife, against the Directors' Committee for Fighting Unemployment in Settlements with High Unemployment Rates, the government of Israel and all Israeli government ministries. The petition demanded that Arab towns be included in the Ofeq program for reducing unemployment, since in a government decision from January 2000, only one Arab town, Tel el-Sebe, located in the Naqab (Negev), was included among the 11 towns and cities chosen for implementation of the Ofeq program. The petition further demanded that the government use clear, objective criteria, based on socio-economic needs and unemployment rates, to determine the beneficiaries of the program.
The petitioners argued that the government's decision on this matter is arbitrary, not based on equitable criteria, and discriminates against Arab citizens of Israel by excluding them, even though they are in the greatest need of such programs, and head the list of areas most stricken by unemployment. Such an allocation violates the Israeli Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992), and infringes on the collective rights of residents of poor Arab towns, including the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to work, and the right to education.