Supreme Court Orders State to Appoint Members to New Committee Formed to Decide on Criteria for Allocating Budget Balancing Grants to Local Authorities
On 2 April 2008, the Supreme Court of Israel held a hearing on a petition filed by Adalah on behalf of the National Committee of Arab Mayors and the Municipality of Nazareth in July 2001 challenging the government’s discriminatory policy in allocating budget balancing grants to Arab municipalities and local councils. The General Director of Adalah, Attorney Hassan Jabareen, filed the petition and represented the petitioners before the court. Mr. Shawqi Khatib, the Chairman of the National Committee of Arab Mayors and Mr. Ramez Jeraisy, the Mayor of Nazareth, also attended the hearing.
The purpose of “budget balancing grants” is to reduce budget deficits created when the expenditure of municipalities and local councils for essential services exceeds their income. The grant is allocated in order to secure a minimal and reasonable level of service for the communities under their jurisdiction. As Attorney Jabareen argued, the government’s policy regarding these budgets is not based on equitable criteria.
In an interim ruling, the Supreme Court stated that it was apparent that the government’s decision to establish a committee to investigate again the formula used for allocating budget balancing grants, called the “Gadish” formula, and examine the need to amend it, has not yet been implemented since the committee has yet been formed. This is so despite the passing of almost two months since the decision to set up the committee was taken on 6 February 2008, based on the recommendation of a joint Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance internal committee and the Chairman of the National Committee of Arab Mayors. Therefore, the court issued an order obliging the establishment of the committee within 30 days. The Supreme Court further ordered the state to submit the committee’s recommendations within six months.
Attorney Jabareen, Mr. Khatib and Mr. Jeraisy expressed satisfaction with this interim order as the court set a timetable for the formation of the committee and the receipt of the committee’s recommendations. The petitioners stressed, however, that litigation on this matter has been pending before the court for seven years, and that the government has suggested various formulas and criteria changes over the years which have not been implemented. During all of this time, Arab municipalities and local councils have received an inequitable share of state resources as compared with their Jewish counterparts.
H.C. 6223/01, National Committee of Arab Mayors v. The Ministry of Interior, et al. (case pending)
