Adalah Petitions Supreme Court on Behalf of Business Owners from Akka:
On 16 May 2007, Adalah submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of Israel on behalf of eight shop owners in Akka (Akko), demanding the cancellation of an amendment to municipal regulations introduced by the Akka Municipality in October 2002, which prohibits business owners in mixed neighborhoods with a Jewish majority in Akka from opening their places of trading on Saturdays.
Akka is a mixed Arab-Jewish town in the north of Israel. Approximately 12,000 Arab citizens of Israel live in Akka, who make up around 27% of the town's population. The petitioners are owners of businesses located in mixed neighborhoods in Akka. In the petition, Adalah argued that the majority of their customers are Arabs, as well as some Jewish Israelis who go on shopping trips on Saturdays. The petitioners have continued to open their shops on Saturday despite the change in the municipality's regulations five years ago, and did not receive any warnings or face any criminal charges. In January 2007, however, indictments were filed against the petitioners for opening their businesses on Saturdays, and thereby contravening the municipal regulations.
One of the petitioners, Mr. Elias Daw, a Christian, closes his grocery, which he has been working in since 1998, on Sundays. Mr. Daw states in his affidavit given to Adalah that most of his customers are Arab citizens living on the road in which the shop is located or from adjacent neighborhoods. He adds that a third of the residents of the neighborhood are Arabs, as are half of those living in the adjacent neighborhoods, and that the regulations damage his work and his income.
Ms. Wafiya Abu Dabbous, another petitioner, is a Muslim living in Akka. Since 1986 she has managed a grocery in Akka, which she used to close on Fridays, her day of rest. Ms. Dabbous states in her affidavit that forcing her to close her shop on Saturday will damage her income as most of her customers are Arabs, and will compel her to work on Fridays or risk losing her customers.
In the petition, filed against the Akka Municipality, Adalah Attorney Adel Badir argued that, "The primary legislator (the Knesset) has enacted laws to govern the weekly days of rest and closures of businesses on Saturdays. Israeli law stipulates an obligation that the days of rest for each religious group should be determined separately." Thus, Arab citizens living in mixed cities, such as Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Ramle, Led (Lod) and Haifa are not obliged to close their places of trade on Saturdays, according to Israeli law.
The petitioners stressed that the amendment introduced by the Municipality of Akka is unconstitutional, breaches the principle of equality, and violates the constitutional rights of Arab citizens living in Akka, including the rights to freedom of employment, freedom of religion and conscience, and freedom from religion: "These regulations force Arabs living in Akka to close their places of trade on Saturday, which is not a day of rest for them, and is not a day which they can take advantage of socially."
Adalah further emphasized that these regulations inflict compound damage on Arab citizens because they are directed at the Arab national and religious minority in the state in general, and in Akka in particular: "The Akka Municipality is exploiting the fact that the Arabs are a minority in Akka, and the inability of this minority to influence the decision-making process within the municipality, in order to force them to close their businesses on Saturday."
H.C. 4326/07, Elias Daw, et al. v. The Municipality of Akka, et al. (case pending)
