Adalah to ILA: Cancel Criteria for Accepting Candidates to Agricultural and Community Towns which Discriminate against Arab Citizens of Israel
On 26 April 2005, Adalah sent a letter to the General Director of the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), Mr. Yaacov Efrati, demanding the cancellation of the ILA's Decision No. 1015 entitled, "recommendation procedures for accepting candidates to purchase leasing rights for lands in agricultural and community settlements."
The decision, made on 1 August 2004, directs the Selection Committees of small community and agricultural settlements to apply a number of criteria in deciding whether or not to recommend that the ILA accept a candidate's request to live in one of these settlements. Among the criteria that the decision sets forth are that the candidate: (i) is suited to social life in a small community or agricultural settlement; and (ii) has "the financial capacity to build a house in the settlement in the period of time stipulated in the development contract with the ILA."
The decision also stipulates the composition of the Selection Committees themselves. According to the decision, a Selection Committee should be formed of the following representatives: "in a community settlement […]: a senior official from the settlement agency (The Jewish Agency or The World Zionist Organization), a senior official from the Ministry of Housing and Construction along with representatives of the cooperative association, the regional council and the settlement body – in the relevant settlements […] in an agricultural settlement: the composition of the Selection Committee will be established by the society's governing bodies."
In the letter sent to the ILA's General Director, Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara argued that these criteria raise serious suspicions, which are de facto supported by the practice of the Selection Committees, that the residency applications of Arab Palestinian applicants and applicants of low socioeconomic status will be rejected on the grounds of their social and/or economic lack of suitability. Selection Committees currently reject applications on these bases and are expected to continue to do so.
Adalah further argued in the letter that under the conditions set out by the ILA, Arab applicants have no chance of purchasing leasing rights in agricultural and community settlements because of the presence of settlement bodies on the Selection Committees on the one hand, and the lack of Arab representation on the Committees on the other. Thus, Adalah argued, the above-mentioned decision will result in the continued exclusion of Arab citizens of Israel from these settlements.
Such exclusion is especially severe as the decision affects approximately 900 settlements defined as "Jewish rural settlements" in Israel, which are organized in regional councils and which jointly control some 80% of territory in Israel. Thus, the decision contravenes the principles of equality and just distribution which were set out by the Supreme Court, and the duty of the ILA as a public body to refrain from engaging in discriminatory practices.
Adalah also argued that the abovementioned admissions criteria are vague and insufficiently detailed. For example, the decision provides no definition of "social suitability", in spite of the requirement that successful applicants comply with this criterion. As a result, the decisions made by both the ILA and the Selection Committees are arbitrary, and open to the influence of personal preferences and prejudices.
